57 Quotes by Barbara Oakley

You want your brain to become used to the idea that just knowing how to use a particular problem-solving technique isn’t enough – you also need to know when to use it.

Gary Noesner notes that we could all learn from the successes and failures of hostage negotiation.7 At the beginning of such situations, emotions run high. Efforts to speed matters along often lead to disaster. Staving off natural desires to react aggressively to emotional provocations allows time for the molecules of emotion to gradually dissipate. The resulting cooler heads save lives.

To be a successful problem solver, focus first. We get stuck in problem solving when we don’t first prepare our brain by focusing on the basics. Don’t just dive into problem solving without studying the explanations first. You need to lay some basic trails on the focused pinball table.

They say experience is the best teacher. Instead, it should be that failure is the best teacher. I’ve found that the best learners are the ones who cope best with failure and use it as a learning tool.

Incidentally, the little book Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus Thompson, has helped generations of students master the subject.

You may want your learning to progress more quickly – to somehow command your diffuse mode to assimilate new ideas faster. But compare it to exercise. Constantly lifting weights won’t make your muscles any bigger – your muscles need time to rest and grow before you use them again.

Internalizing problem-solving techniques enhances the neural activity that allows you to more easily hear the whispers of your growing intuition. When you know – really know – how to solve a problem just by looking at it, you’ve created a commanding chunk that sweeps like a song through your mind.

Just focus on whatever section you are studying. You’ll find that once you put the first problem or concept in your library, whatever it is, then the second concept will go in a bit more easily. And the third more easily still. Not that all of this is a snap, but it does get easier.

Testing is itself an extraordinarily powerful learning experience.