Learning How to Learn

As my career has progressed and I've gained experience through multiple different roles in tech, one thing has remained constant: learning. In the ever-changing world of tech, constant learning is inevitable for success and growth. One of the biggest issues is retaining what you've learned over the years, and that's what this post is targeted toward. Years ago, one of my earliest mentors instilled the importance of understanding the psychology behind retention and effective learning strategies, which is something I have used and will continue to use throughout the rest of my life. A lot of what I'm going to talk about are the findings from a German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who pioneered the experimental study of memory.

This post will be broken down into three sections:

1. What is the Forgetting Curve and How Do We Flatten It?
2. What is Active Recall and Spaced Repetition?
3. How I Practice These Concepts in My Daily Life

What is the Forgetting Curve and How Do We Flatten It?

The forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in relation to time. Ebbinghaus ran studies on himself to test how quickly he would forget something after learning it. He discovered about 50% of all the information would be lost over the next 24 hours. After 24 hours, the forgetting rate became more gradual and about 90% would be lost within a week. During this test, there was no attempt at retaining what was learned. The study was replicated in 2015 at the University of Amsterdam, which produced results similar to Ebbinghaus's findings, which can be found here. When trying to learn something new by reading a book or watching a video, and that's all you do in an attempt to learn and retain, it is almost pointless if you need to recall that information weeks or months later. Many people will choose to reread or rewatch videos as a way to study, but not only does this take twice as much time, it's proven to be a less effective way of studying. The question then becomes how do we flatten this curve, and what's the best way of doing so? Factors like stress and sleep come into play, but the best and most effective way is through active recall and spaced repetition.

What is Active Recall and Spaced Repetition?

Active recall is a learning technique that involves actively engaging in the material you are trying to learn, rather than passively reviewing it. Examples of active recall include testing your memory and actively recalling information you just learned. Let's say you just finished reading the documentation on the Node.js Event Loop. After reading this section, you should stop and actively quiz yourself on what you just learned without the information in front of you. This should be a more difficult experience and a lot of people actively avoid this because it isn't exactly pleasant, but the act of forcing the brain to recall will strengthen the neural connections related to the information, improving long-term retention. Flashcards are another great use of active recall.

Spaced repetition involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time. This approach is grounded in the forgetting curve, as it takes advantage of the natural way we forget information over time. To practice spaced repetition, you should review new information shortly after you learn it, and then gradually increase the time between each review session. For example, you would review new information learned (ideally through active recall) on the day it's learned, then three days later, then a week later, and so on. Each review reinforces the information, helping to move it from short-term to long-term memory.

How I Practice These Concepts in My Daily Life

Combining both these ideas of spaced repetition and active recall provides a very efficient way to study. I use a flashcard app called Anki, which does an excellent job of joining these two ideas. The app is designed to reinforce spaced repetition with how strongly or poorly you feel on a flashcard and is something I practice for 15-20 minutes daily. When reviewing a flashcard, it will give you four choices (again, easy, medium, and hard) to select from in order to turn the card over and view the answer. The more difficult the card was for you, the more frequently Anki will show it. As you continue working through cards and get more confident, the time can increase from weeks to months, to even years. It is a software I strongly encourage anyone learning a new topic to use. Below is an example screenshot of the hundreds of Anki cards in my deck.