How We Learn

Learning is how we figure out what we want to do, what we’re good at, how we might make a living when the time comes. That’s survival, too. Yet, especially when we’re young, we have a terrible time trying to sort out what’s important from what’s not. Life is confusing, it moves fast, we’re fielding all sorts of often conflicting messages and demands from parents, teachers, friends, and rivals. There aren’t enough hours in the day to think through what it all means.

Put it this way: I no longer think of naps or knocking off early as evidence of laziness, or a waste of time, or, worst of all, a failure of will. I think of sleep as learning with my eyes closed.

The first principle theory is this: Any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength.