Hard Topics Explained: Intro

One idea, three ways of looking at in.

For learning, no one method works for all people. This is especially true for tough concepts. Things that come to mind are Python decorators, and Python regex.

Basic methods that help learning and/or retention always:

1. Try, take a break, try again. Your brain is working on problems in the background. I have found that taking a break and exercising helps me a lot.
2. Try, sleep on it, try again. When you sleep your brain reinforces pathways that have recently formed.
3. The more senses you engage while learning the better.
4. Learn a topic, then wait a day and review it, then wait a few days and review it, then wait a week and review it, then wait a few weeks and review it. And so on. The repetition ensures the knowledge gets transferred into long term memory.
5. Recall patiently prior to review. When you first try to recall a topic, you might not remember anything. Get out a blank page and try to remember what you can and write or type it out. Resist the temptation to just look over your notes and call it good it good. The act of recalling information you have not thought about in a while strongly reinforces brain pathways.
6. As you are learning take notes sparsely. The goal is to organize the high points of what you are learning but do so in your own words. The process helps you to self identify what parts you don’t understand.