The Richest Man in Babylon  Trying to solve a problem before being taught the

by George S. Clason solution leads to better learning, even when errors

are made in the attempt.
CHAPTERS
 People do have multiple forms of intelligence to
I. Learning is Misunderstood 1-4 ring to bear on learning, and you learn better
II. To Learn, Retrieve 1-4
III. Mix Up Your Practice 1-4 when you “go wide,” drawing on all your
IV. Embrace Difficulties 1-4 aptitudes and resourcefulness than when you
V. Avoid Illusions of Knowing 1-4 limit instruction or experience to the style you
VI. Get Beyond Learning Styles 1-4 find most amenable.
VII. Increase Your Abilities 1-4
VIII. Make It Stick 1-4  Interleaving
- hones the skill of extracting underlying
CHAPTER 1: principles or rules that differentiate types of
Learning is Misunderstood problems, thus—
- makes you more successful at picking the right
 Learning – acquiring knowledge and skills and solutions in unfamiliar situations
having them readily available from memory so
you can make sense of future problems and  We’re all susceptible to illusions that can hijack
opportunities our judgement of what we know and can do.
 Immutable Aspects of Learning:  Testing
1. Learning requires memory. So that what - helps calibrate our judgements of what we’ve
we’ve learned is still there later when we learned
need it. - build better mastery by identifying and
2. We need to keep learning and bringing up areas of weakness
remembering all our lives.  All new learning requires a foundation of prior
3. Learning is an acquired skill, and the most knowledge.
effective strategies are often
counterintuitive.  Elaboration
- process of giving new material meaning by
Claims We Make in This Book expressing it in your own words and
 We are poor judges of when we are learning well connecting it with what you already know
and when we’re not.  Extracting key ideas from new material and
 Rereading text and massed practice of a skill or new organizing them into a mental model.
knowledge are by far the preferred study
strategies of learners, but the least productive.
 Massed practice = cramming
 Both give rise to feelings of fluency that are
taken to be signs of mastery, but for true
mastery or durability, these strategies are
largely a waste of time
 Retrieval practice
- recalling facts or concepts or events from
memory
- more effective learning strategy than review
by rereading
o flashcards
o testing

 Spaced Repetition & Interleaving makes retrieval

harder and feel less productive, but the effort
produces longer lasting learning and enables more
versatile application of it in later settings.
1
 I. Chapter 1: Learning is Misunderstood
A. Claims We Make in This Book
B. Empirical Evidence versus Theory, Lore, and V. Chapter 5: Avoid Illusions of Learning
Intuition A. Two Systems of Knowing
C. People Misunderstand Learning B. Illusions and Memory Distortions
D. Early Evidence 1. Motivated Reasoning
E. Illusions of Knowing a. Hunger for Narrative
F. Knowledge: Not Sufficient but Necessary b. Discomfort with Ambiguity
G. Testing: Dipstick versus Learning Tool and Arbitrariness
H. The Takeaway c. Personal Narrative
II. Chapter 2: To Learn, Retrieve 2. Changeable Nature of Memory
A. Reflection is a Form of Practice a. Imagination Inflation
B. The Testing Effect b. Suggestion
C. Studying the Testing Effect in the Lab c. Interference from other
D. Studying the Testing Effect in the Wild events
E. Exploring Nuances d. Hindsight Bias/ Knew-it-all-
F. The Takeaway along effect
III. Chapter 3: Mix Up Your Practice i. Curse-of-Knowledge Effect
A. The Myth of Massed Practice e. Accounts sounding familiar
B. Spaced Practice i. The Big Lie Technique
C. Interleaved Practice f. Social Influence: Memory
D. Varied Practice Conformity/Social Contagion
E. Developing Discrimination Skills of Memory
i. False Consensus Effect
F. Improving Complex Mastery for Medical ii. Flashbulb Memories
Students C. Mental Models
G. These Principles are Broadly Applicable D. Unskilled and Unaware of It
H. The Takeaway E. Tools and Habits for Calibrating Your
IV. Chapter 4: Embrace Difficulties Judgement
A. How Learning Occurs VI. Chapter 6: Get Beyond Learning Styles
1. Encoding A. Active Learning from the Get-Go
2. Consolidation B. Successful Intelligence
3. Retrieval a. Fluid Intelligence
B. Extending Learning: Updating Retrieval b. Crystallized Intelligence
Cues c. Howard Gardner’s 8 Kinds of
C. Easier Isn’t Better Intelligence
D. How Effort Helps d. Robert Sternberg 3 Part Theory of
1. Reconsolidating Memory Intelligence
2. Creating Mental Models i. Analytical
3. Broadening Mastery ii. Creative
4. Fostering Conceptual Learning iii. Practical
5. Improving Versatility C. Dynamic Testing
6. Priming the Mind for Learning D. Structure Building
E. Other Learning Strategies That Incorporate E. Rule versus Example Learning
Desirable Difficulties F. The Takeaway
1. Interference 1. Be the one in charge.
2. Generation 2. Embrace the notion of successful
3. Reflection intelligence.
a. Write to Learn 3. Distill the underlying principles, build
F. Failure and the Myth of Errorless Learning the structure.
G. An Example of Generative Learning
H. Undesirable Difficulties
I. The Takeaway

2
 VII. Chapter 7: Increase Your Abilities
A. Neuroplasticity
B. Is IQ Mutable?
C. Brain Training
D. The Takeaway

3
METHODS: o What went well? What could have gone better?
 Retrieval practice - recalling facts or concepts or What might I need to learn for better mastery?
events from memory What strategies might I use the next time to get
o Flashcards better results?
o Retrieval by recalling a recently learned
o Testing - build better mastery by identifying
knowledge to mind
and bringing up areas of weakness and
o Elaboration by connecting new knowledge to
reconsolidates your memory
- allows restudying of the material what you already know
o Supply an answer NOT a multiple o Generation by rephrasing ideas in your own
choice/recognition test (Generation) words or visualizing and mentally rehearsing
o 🚩 Spaced Out Retrieval Practice – multiple what might you do differently next time
o Write to Learn
sessions are better than a single retrieval
practice  Rule Learning
o Delayed Feedback = not testing immediately
o Use of effective retrieval cues
 Spaced Practice - effective, since embedding new
JUST WANT TO TRY THESE STRATEGIES:
learning in long term memory requires
 Before reading about the topic, GENERATE:
consolidation, which takes time
o search for a real case, go over some
 Interleaved Practice – learn better to assesses questions and try answering them,
context and discriminate between problems think of something that may relate to
 Varied Practice = all Multiple Intelligence Study the topic to be studied.
Strategies?
 While studying,
- improves the ability to transfer o Create mental models.
learning from one situation and o Make learning matter.
apply it successfully to another o Interleave.
- engages different parts of the o Space it out.
brain  After finishing studying, REFLECT.
 Creating Mental Models
 Generation - act of trying to answer a question or 1. Encoding memory traces (short term memory)
attempting to solve a problem rather than being 2. Consolidation – process of strengthening
presented with the information or the solution is mental representation to long-term memory
known  May occur over several hours or longer
o trying to solve a problem before being taught  Involves deep processing of the new
with the solution material by giving it meaning, filling in blank
spots, making connections to past
 Elaboration (teaching)
experiences and to prior knowledge stored
 Making learning matter, making abstract in long term memory
concrete and personal  Sleep
3. Retrieval
 Reflection - retrieving knowledge and earlier
- recode, consolidate and anchor new material
training from memory, connecting these to new
from short term to long term memory
experiences, and visualizing and mentally
- associate the material with a diverse set of
rehearsing what you might do differently next
cues that will make us adept at recalling the
time
material later
- act of taking a few minutes to review what 
has been learned from an experience (or in a 1.
recent class) and asking yourself questions 2.
o What are the key ideas? Examples?How do
these relate to what I already know?

4
MOTIVATION DURING STUDYING: foundation for the higher-level skills of analysis,
synthesis and creative problem solving.
 Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s
o Pitting the learning of basic knowledge
effortful.
o Learning that’s easy is like writing in sand, against the development of creative
thinking is a false choice. Both need to be
here today and gone tomorrow.
cultivated.
o When learning is harder, it’s stronger and
lasts longer.  Mastery requires both the possession of ready
knowledge and the conceptual understanding of
 When learning is hard, you’re doing important
how to use it.
work.
 Stop thinking of testing as a dipstick to measure
 Difficulty is a crucial part of learning, errors are
learning. Think of it as practicing retrieval of
natural and to be expected, thus with practice,
learning from memory rather than “testing,” we
you can be better.
open ourselves to another possibility: the use of
 Effort and learning change the brain, and that testing as a tool for learning.”
their intellectual abilities lie to a large degree
within your own control.
 In medicine, every patient visit is a test. When a
 The elements that shape your intellectual
patient comes in and gives you a story. As you
abilities lie within your own control. listen, you’re consciously thinking through your
o Many people believe that their intellectual mental library to see what fits, while also
ability is hardwired from birth, and that unconsciously polling your past experiences to
failure to meet a learning challenge is an help interpret what the patient is telling you. Then
indictment of their native ability. you’re left with making a judgment call.
o But every time you learn something new, o See Improving Complex Mastery for Medical
you change the brain—the residue of your Students
experiences is stored.
o It’s true that we start life with the gift of our
genes, but it’s also true that we become
capable through the learning and
development of mental models that enable
us to reason, solve, and create.
 See failure as a badge of effort and a source of
useful information—the need to dig deeper or to
try a different strategy.
o Making mistakes and correcting them builds
the bridges to advanced learning.
 Making mistakes is a constructive part of
learning: not a sign of failure but of effort.
 Mastering a lecture or the text is not the same as
mastering the ideas behind them.
 Failure points to the need for redoubled effort,
or liberates us to try different approaches.
 “It’s not the failure that’s desirable, it’s the
dauntless effort despite the risks, the discovery
of what works and what doesn’t that sometimes
only failure can reveal.”
 “Creativity is more important than knowledge,” but
without knowledge you don’t have the