As I write this, my brain is being electrocuted. Don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe. I think. I’m testing out the Thync device, a little gadget that adheres to my forehead and sends electric current through the brain. It’s a process called Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation (tDCS). Ostensibly, it’s based upon science. And it’s supposed to help […]
Read more »Way back in high school, I was busy with both academics and sports, so I developed a personal strategy for staying motivated and productive. Fast forward many years, and I’ve refined this strategy based upon the research and personal experience. It works for me, and I hope you’ll find it useful, too. What makes this […]
Read more »CBT is a powerful tool in psychology for changing behavior. Best of all, it was designed to be something you can do on your own. Sometimes it is possible to take research from one field of science and apply it to another. In the Great Courses Series on “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,” the lecturer encourages us […]
Read more »If you could study for just minutes at a time and remember more, would you do it? Athletes might hold the answer to this challenge. A concept called “high intensity interval training” (HIIT) has taken the exercise community by storm over recent years. Researchers noticed that it took less time to get better results if you push yourself […]
Read more »What should you do when you get stuck learning something new? I’ve been waiting to write this post for a while now. Something finally happened. I knew it would. I had been fearing this day… I didn’t want to get frustrated or bored playing the guitar, but I could feel these things creeping in. Today I […]
Read more »Many people who write in to this blog are struggling with overcoming some obstacle in their learning. From a lack of motivation to getting stuck on a plateau, it might be tempting to think that you’re failing to learn. However, there are two types of failure: one bad, and one good. I’ll show you why […]
Read more »What does solving a puzzle have to do with effective learning? In this post, I will argue: everything. A “puzzle” is something new to you which has a mysterious answer. The very act of solving a puzzle requires an act of learning, as we will see, which is what makes them so compelling. The simple truth is: puzzles […]
Read more »To “know things” is one reason many of us read books, and necessary if you want to pass tests. So how can you retain more information when you read books? This is particularly useful with books which are scientific in nature. I make an effort to read 100+ books per year, most of them serving as research […]
Read more »If you want to get the most out of any practice session, there is a secret tool called “pretesting” which has been proven to increase the effectiveness of studying. The idea is simple: you take a test before you start studying. If it sounds frustrating, you’re right. And that’s exactly the point. It’s a […]
Read more »These days, sleep is thought of as a “weakness” at best, and an affliction at worst. The attentive skillhacker has proof of how important rest is, though. When I graph my progress, for example, I regularly notice the largest jumps after taking a very specific kind of break. Rest, when used properly, is a tool for […]
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