Notes

*“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing.” Forgetting allows you to focus by filtering out competing memories and routines.
*The second way forgetting helps is by forcing your brain to work harder to retrieve memories. When a memory is harder to remember, it forces your brain to work harder, thereby strengthening the neural pathways of that memory.
*To make your brain work hard, you need to use active learning techniques. An active learning technique requires you to produce something. Active learning techniques include the following: writing, speaking, discussing, teaching, memorizing, summarizing, questioning, debating, sharing, planning, presenting, collaborating, adapting, and group work.
*An illusion of learning happens when your brain isn’t working hard enough to learn. Imagine if you went to the gym to get bigger muscles but when you sat down on the bench press you decided not to put any weights on the bar. Your muscles would not grow because they aren’t being challenged. Your brain is much the same. When it is not being challenged, it tends to “check out”—meaning it is not really paying attention. Passive learning techniques encourage your brain to check out because what you are studying seems familiar.