Here is the complete transcript of the talk

Barbara Oakley on Learning How to Learn @ Talks

the Google conference.

Introductory speaker: Today we have a very, very special guest.

especially with us. I remember having read Charlie
Munger saying that he didn't know a smart man.
that he wouldn't read all the time. And has categorized Warren
Buffett as a learning machine.

The inspiration from there is how one becomes a

very effective learner? What is the science of
learning? And reading Barb's book, that's it.
exactly what the book seems to be teaching us. And
I loved reading your book. Not only did I love reading your
book, I was able to identify that the voice in that book is the voice of
a teacher, and that resonated a lot with me
personally. So I am very happy that Barb
be here with us today.
So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen,
please join me in welcoming Barb
Oakley.
Barbara Oakley: It's a pleasure to be here. And I would like to
to start by telling you a little story, another one. And this
the story is about... well, I think we all love it
seeing other people, right? To a greater or lesser extent
measure. And I love to see people.
And then I have to tell you about this guy who was
one of the most interesting people. I have ever
I saw. And this was when I was working in Antarctica.
at the McMurdo station, and the name of this guy was
Neil. And Neil was a skinny and slender guy with a kind of
with a high-pitched voice. And he had a big head, so
it looked like a sort of upside-down exclamation mark. And
what Neil liked to do was to pick up the phone and
responding with a perfect imitation of the 6'8" gorilla
of a station manager, Art Brown.
So one day the phone rings. Neil picks it up, as
Always... 'Hello. This is Art Brown.' And it was Art Brown who.
other side of the line.
Then Art says, who the hell is this? Or more words
no printables in that regard. It happened to me at the beginning.
I fell off the math train. I just said, I can't do it.
I hate this. I really don't want to have anything to do with it.
with that. Science is the same way. And then
I basically flunked my way through math.
and primary, secondary, and high school sciences. And it is
It's really funny to think about it now, because I am
engineering professor.
And I publish well in some of the main journals, so
I am doing very well as an engineer. But one day, one of
my students found out about my sordid past as a
a lackey of mathematics, and he asked me, he said,
How did you do it? How did you change your brain? And I thought,
You know, how did I do it? I mean, looking towards
back then, I was just a little boy, and I loved the
animals, and I liked furry and fluffy things,
and I liked to knit, and I loved language and the study of
language.
And at that moment, there were no student loans that
were relatively easy to obtain. That's why I had
a strong desire to learn a language. And I couldn't
allow me to go to school, then, how could I
study languages in that kind of situation? And there was a
the way I could do it.
In fact, I could go learn a language and get paid for it.
while he was doing it. And that was to join the Army. And that
That's what I did. I joined the army. And there you see me, looking
incredibly nervous, about to throw a grenade
by hand.
And I learned a language. I learned Russian. And I ended up working
on Russian trawlers, Soviet trawlers, in the sea of
Bering. And that's me standing on a pile of fish
there. I can still swear quite well in Russian, although the
the rest of the Russian is a little rusty.
But I loved having adventures and acquiring new ones.
perspectives. And so I also ended up at the station of
South Pole in Antarctica. And that's where I met my
husband. That's why I always say I had to go to the end of the
Land to meet that man, and I did. Without
embargo, the issue is that I started to realize that
Well, you know, I've always been interested in these new ones.
perspectives, but they were always a kind of
perspectives with which I felt comfortable in some way
way.
You know, having adventures is something comfortable. But in reality
I wasn't trying hard to have a perspective.
totally new, I thought of the engineers with whom
had worked, the engineers of West Point, who
they were in the army. And I realized that their
problem-solving skills were, in many
senses, exceptional. They could think in a way
that I couldn't think. And I thought, you know, what if I could
read this type of equations as they can read
equations? What would happen if I could, in a sense,
to learn the language that they could speak?
Could my brain really change to learn from
that way? To know what these people knew? And
so, when I started trying to answer the question of
that student, how did his brain change? I started to
to work on a book to describe some of these ideas
key. And while I was working on this book, I did things like
go to ratemyprofessors.com. Probably some of
you who have been in schools realize that
it's a pretty good website. And I looked to see who
they were the best teachers in the world, teaching
subjects such as engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
economics, many subjects that are really difficult.
And also many very relevant topics, such as
psychology, even English. How they taught for it to
people could learn and how they learned
same? And I also approached the best psychologists
cognitive and neuroscientific. And my background as well
they informed this. I have taught for several decades
as an engineering professor, I have conducted a
active investigation in active learning. And so, all
these things came together.
And what I found that I thought was very interesting was
when I approached all these teachers, many of
those who are in STEM disciplines in particular
(science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), used
these approaches that could involve things like
metaphors or analogy. But they were very embarrassed by
say that, because other teachers would say, oh, you are
messing things up. But in reality it was something that everyone
these outstanding teachers used to communicate more
easily the ideas. It was like this handshake
. Everyone knew how to do it, but they didn't.
they realized that these other outstanding teachers
they were using the same approaches.
So, what I'm going to tell you now is that I am going to
give an idea. These, these are the key ideas
related to the learning that all these people
they have discovered. So, first of all, we know that
the brain is really complicated. So, what
Let's simplify it. And you can simplify the
functioning of the brain in two modes
fundamentally different.
The first is what I will call focused mode, and the second
this is what I will call diffuse mode. And this is actually, it
connects to the network by default and others
related, there are about 24 or 25 so far, states of
neuronal rest that has been detected. So, everyone
these states together, I will just call the diffuse mode. And
what can happen, I mean, our best way
to really understand these two different modes is
use a metaphor. And the metaphor that we are going to use is
that of a pinball machine.
And a pinball machine, everyone knows how
It works. Just take the pinball and pull the plunger,
and a ball was bouncing off the bumpers of
gum, and that's how you earn points. And what we are going to
make is to take that pinball machine and we are going to
superimpose on the brain. And you see the brain here
Same. Here are the little ears and there is the nose.
And what we are going to do, we are going to take that machine of
pinball and we are going to put it directly in the brain. And
there you have it. The pinball machine is in the brain. And
you can see how you can pull back the plunger there, and
there are all these little pinballs there, or the bumpers
made of rubber, and they are all very close together. So, what
what happens is in focused mode thinking,
like what I am showing here, you have these
bumpers very close together and, often, you have patterns
that they are already here.
For example, if you have already learned to multiply and you are
trying to solve a multiplication problem, one
will sit in focused mode and will have these patterns that already
they are there. And you think a thought, and it takes off, and it
moves abruptly around the bumpers of
rubber along the paths it has already been on
before, which has developed as a result of a
prior learning.
But what if the pattern you are trying to think of
Is it something new? What if you already know about the
multiplication, but it has never been encountered with the
division? So you are trying to understand this
Idea. Or the concept of limits in calculus. How do we
faces a completely new idea that never
Had you found it before? Well, that's where the other one is.
the way the brain functions, in mode of
Diffuse thinking can actually be a benefit.
Now, take a look. Here is the representative of
diffuse mode. And it's just an analogy, but it is a very
Good that helps us understand. Look how far apart
those rubber bumpers are there. When you think of a
thought in diffuse mode, thoughts can
vary much more.
Now he/she cannot think strictly to solve
actually the details of a problem, but at least
can lead to a new way of thinking about
the things I could not have obtained if I were just
in focused mode. In fact, sometimes when you try to
solve a really difficult problem, the worst that you can
to do is to remain seated there and focus and
focus on it. Because you can be in that part of the
brain, so to speak, and yet you need to be in
a completely different place.
So, the best thing you can do when you are
really stuck and frustrated with a problem is not
continue to focus on him. In fact, it is necessary to have
a very different way of thinking. And that is what
represents here. So, what this means
basically for you it's that you're sitting there, you're
working... hey, go out. Go out for a run. Go down and have a
Shower, if necessary. Or do something that really you
completely distracts.
Because when you are in this mode, while your attention
is focused on that problem, you are still in this
way and you cannot reach this way of solving the
things. So, how can this work for the
People? If you look at this guy here, it was Salvador Dalí.
one of the brightest surrealist painters of the century
XX. Here he is with his pet ocelot, Babou. And he
What Dalí used to do is this. He would sit in a chair
when he had a difficult problem to solve with his
paintings.
He sat down and relaxed, and relaxed. And just as he...
had relaxed so much, you know, like letting his
mind will function freely, had a key in the
my hand. And just as he relaxed so much that he stayed
asleep, the key fell from his hand, the noise
He woke up and left with this new idea of the way.
fuzzy, bringing it back to focus mode, where
I could refine them and actually use them. So you could
to think, well, you know, that's great for artists.
But what if you are an engineer? If you look at this guy here,
It was Thomas Edison. And what Edison used to do, at least
According to the legend, it was to sit in a chair with cushions.
with balls in hand. And he relaxed and relaxed, and
finally, when he fell asleep, the cushions of
balls would fall from his hand. And whatever it was that he, in his
In a very relaxed way, I have been thinking, I could take
some of those ideas in that way and bring them back
in a focused manner, where I could refine them, analyze them and
invent some of those brilliant inventions. So, the
the lesson for us, from all this, is that I am
providing some innovative examples in various fields.
But whenever I am solving a problem, even if
it is a problem that thousands or even millions of people
they have solved it before, for you, it is the first time that it
solve. And you must use some of these same ones.
creative approaches that these others have used
brilliant thinkers. And what you want to do, keep in mind
the thing is, you can be in focused mode or you can
to be in diffuse mode, but you really can't, until
where we know, unless you are a monk
exceptionally well trained. - to be in both
modes at the same time. So focused or diffuse. And you want
develop both modes.
Diffuse thinking is often not conscious, but
it is also learning. And that's why that process of
relaxation can also be very important. Now just
I wanted to give you a quick image here. This shows something
from the brilliant network connectivity in mode
predetermined. Do you see all these connections here between
various aspects of the brain? This is a website for a
working mode, but the focused mode has a website
very different.
So, if you are only focusing, you are not accessing.
nor gaining access to many of the different
connections that are available for you. That is why
that going back and forth between modes can be so
important. Now, it takes time to do this. It is
that is why he/she cannot sit down and solve a problem
difficult immediately. Often you have to go back and forth between
the modes.
And, in a certain sense, one could almost think that it is about
a weightlifter. And a weightlifter, no
I fill up the night before a big competition and
develop muscles like this. It takes time to
develop those muscles. In the same way, it
needs time to develop the neuronal scaffold that
is involved in learning and in the new
thought processes. But I know what you are thinking
really.
You might be thinking, I am a procrastinator,
I hope. Sometimes I don't have time to do things,
Right? So, let's talk a little about the
procrastination. And sometimes you can be a human being.
really effective but still postpone some things. And in
In that sense, there are things to learn to help
improve your productivity and effectiveness in what you do.
So, procrastination arises in a very
interesting. Studies have shown that if you look
something you don't like, the pain centers of your brain
they are activated. So, if you look at a book in search of a
topic that you don't like, you can actually feel a
sting and we can see it in the brain, if you are being
imagined. So, what do you do when you feel
pain? I mean, it's the same pain as when you
You hit your thumb with a hammer. Well, you have two.
different ways to handle it.

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expression and political correctness (Full transcript)

The first way is that you can work with him, like 20.
minutes more or less, and the pain will disappear
gradually. But if you are like most of the
people, what you will do is divert your attention to something
more pleasant, and guess what? You will feel better from
immediate, right? And so, in a sense, the
procrastination can actually be a bit like a
addiction. You do it once, you do it twice, it is not
great thing. However, you do it many times and, of
fact, it can be very, very harmful for your
life. So I am an engineer.
I believe in useful and totally practical things. So, the
what I'm going to do is get straight to the point and say that this is
the most effective way to help him deal with the
procrastination. And it is simply using the Technique
Pomodoro. And this is a technique that was developed
by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. It involved -
he called it the Pomodoro Technique because it had a
timer in the shape of a tomato, and pomodoro is Italian
for tomato.
And what he would do is that he would do it: he recommends that
set a timer for 25 minutes. In fact,
you can have different schedules. Different periods of
time is useful for different people. But it
configure, in general, for 25 minutes, and then turn off
everything else. So there are no alarms, nor messages
instantaneous, anything that can disturb your
concentration, turn it off.
And then you work with focused attention as much as possible.
as careful as possible during those 25 minutes. Now, to
Sometimes, I will be working and I will think, am I really
focusing as hard as I can? And then I think,
Well, obviously not, because I got distracted and I wonder
if I am focusing instead of working
really. But I let that thought pass and then
I'm going back to my job, right? And that's what you are
doing with this technique. He just wants to focus on his
work. And what happens is because you are only
focusing on the task and the time, and not on the pain of
"I have to complete this task," somehow makes it
it is much easier to do.
I mean, anyone, practically anyone, can
sit for 25 minutes and work. And then, when
you finish, you are rewarded. And that reward is
really very important. Because what you are doing
it is to focus during the focused mode, but then
you want to train to relax, enjoy and do something
different. Just browse the web, go out for...
Whatever makes your boat float, go out and do it.
And this, in fact, is important. Because we know that
some aspects of learning take place during
this relaxed process. So your tendency is to think,
I am not working when I am not focusing. But
In reality, you are. So it gives you a little feeling.
of relief and achievement that is good for relaxing.
So a couple of small tips. First, don't you
you feel like doing a Pomodoro and say, you know, I'm going to
finish my work. Don't focus on the
task. Focus only on time. And that's the trick of
this technique.
Because it helps you overcome that pain in the brain and you
allows you to simply relax comfortably and enter into
the flow of the task. The other thing is that you don't say, OK, I'm going.
to do 20 Pomodoros today, and think that you are going to win
more productivity that way. Do you want to start to
gradually get used to this technique and you will see that
works very, very well.
Now, another aspect that is really important,
related to learning, is that they have also
said, hey, sleeping is really important before a
great test or something like that. In reality, the dream is
important in many different ways. And I am going to talk
with you, I will only briefly mention one of the main points
Important reasons why sleep is important
to learn. We have discovered that if you look at the
cells, these small circles here represent cells,
neurons, in the brain. And what happens when you go to
to sleep is this. Well, when I am awake, first,
when I am awake, these metabolites will come out and
they will be interposed between the unions. And they stay out there, and
they are essentially toxins in your brain.
So, when you are awake, these toxins
they gradually accumulate in your brain. And they affect your
trial. That's why, when you stay awake more and more
time, it is increasingly difficult to think with
clarity. So, when you go to sleep, this is what
It happens. Now pay close attention to what I tell you.
what happens to those cells.
You're going to sleep, they shrink. I'll do it again, because
I have a lot of fun doing this. See? They shrink.
when you go to sleep. And because they shrink, it
What it does is allow fluids to pass through the
cells and eliminate these metabolites. So, one part
very important of sleep is only the cleanliness, the cleanliness
that takes place, that allows your brain to function
in a much more effective way.
Now, another very important aspect of sleep is
relates to neuronal synaptic growth. In this
wonderful article by Guang Yang - she is out of
Langone - if you look at the image above, you can see here what
What's happening. This is the same neuron in the part
superior and inferior. The upper neuron is before
learn and before sleeping. The lower neuron is
after learning and after sleeping.
All these little triangles or new connections
synaptic. So, when you learn something and you go to
sleeping is when new connections are formed
synaptic. And this is what happens when you are
learning. That's why it's very important, when you're
learning something new, again, you don't want
stuff you at the last minute. You want to have a lot of
short periods of learning, sleep, learn, sleep,
and that helps you build that neuronal scaffold that you
helps to learn much better.
So, there is another aspect of learning, and people to
What a shame thinks this is so completely
disconnected from real learning that it is even
taking away recess from the children. Because they say, oh, that doesn't work.
helps them to learn. Only when they are sitting in front
to us, learning from us, is when
they really learn. But that is not true in
absolute. Now we are discovering how incredibly
how important exercise is for the process of
learning.
Now, if you look here, this study was about a mouse, and
they were training this mouse to differentiate between
two different symbols. And if you look in the background, what is
what is happening is that all these blue spots are
old neurons. We used to think that you are born with
all the neurons you have, and that's what you have for
the rest of your life. Well, of course, now we know
that is not true. But it was wisdom, wisdom
received, for many decades.
So, what they found was: do you see these red lines
Here? Those are actually the new neurons that
new beginnings are born every day in all of us, just like in this
mouse, in the hippocampus. And that's how: they are
absolutely essential for our capacity to
to learn and remember new information. There are two ways
to allow these new neurons to grow and
survive. One is that you expose yourself to new
environments. That's why traveling can be so good. There is
where their learning can be effective. And this type of
things can help those new neurons
survive.
But the other way to help these neurons to
survival that is as powerful as learning is
simply to exercise. That's why exercise is
extremely important. And I'm not talking, hey, I have
to be an Olympic weightlifter or to be a runner
of marathon. Even a simple walk can be very,
very effective. And I am sure that you all have had
the experience. You have a dull brain, and then you go out
to walk, and that clarifies your way of thinking. But even
a few days of an exercise program are
doing much more than that. In reality, it is
improving the capacity of your neurons to grow and
survive.
Now, if you look, there is a name here, Terrence
Sejnowski. It was in one of the original articles
doing this original research. He is the professor
Francis Crick at the Salk Institute, and she is also my
colleague in the Massive Open Online course that is based on the
book. And Terry is ... he's an extraordinary guy. And he was
really very fun to take the open online course
massive with him.
And so we went and did some filming.
together. So I asked him, I said, well, Terry, you know,
you are talking about all these things regarding the importance
about exercise. Do you exercise? What do you do? And he
He says, do I exercise? And what he does is that he goes and all the
days, or every few days, goes down, it's like a goat
Montesa. The guy is 65 years old and he's going down. You know, I am
running after him.
And he runs to the beach, as you see here. And so it is
how to exercise. I love how it ends here. Look
this ... Look at that.
So it is a legend in neuroscience. And I am
convinced that it is partly due to the fact that it uses some of
these ideas that you have found in your research for
help him maintain his intellectual advantage. Now,
let's talk a little about something called memory of
work. Working memory is the way in which we
it takes into account a brief thought. It was once thought
which had seven spaces in working memory, and for
it could have a seven-digit phone number.
But now we are realizing that it is more
as if there were four slots in the memory of
work. So, maybe for me, it’s like two slots
in working memory. But anyway, you have
four slots, and it is in your prefrontal, you can think about
Hello, like your working memory, you are holding things.
in your prefrontal cortex. So I have it symbolized there
same as its four memory slots of
work. So, when you are remembering something, you are
thinking of something with working memory, you can think
symbolically in it, at least, like something like a
octopus, the attention octopus, which arrives through those
spaces of working memory and makes connections
between different ideas.
And that is why you can't have too many ideas at the
look in your brain before getting confused. But, what happens if
Do you perform multiple tasks at once? What happens if you have a
a little eye here in some, you know, I am receiving
an instant message? In a sense, that's like
remove one of those tentacles from his memory of
work. And you don't have many tentacles. So
is really gaining any intellectual weight that
you have, you are losing something of him. You are becoming a
a little more stupid when you do several things at once.
That's why it's incredibly important to pay attention to a
careful and focused attention, especially when
you are working on something that is quite difficult.
Now, I just like to contrast this with the way
diffuse. The diffuse mode has many connections, but they are
much more random in the way they are carried out
cable. So, how do you take something from memory?
work on long-term memory, which is more
distributed in your brain? Well, the best way is to
through practice. Practice makes, in a certain sense,
permanent.
The more you practice, the broader that little one becomes.
neuronal pathway and more deeply rooted it
come back. So, if you are learning something and practicing,
those patterns become deeper and deeper. And so
it's like you can learn something and extract it from memory
Here is the complete transcript of the talk
Barbara Oakley on Learning How to Learn @ Talks
the Google conference.

Introductory speaker: Today we have a very, very special guest.

Barbara Oakley: It's a pleasure to be here. And I would like to

work. But here is the trick. How are the
things in a single slot? It turns out that it creates a
fragment, a fragment of the material, it is easy to introduce it
in the working memory. So this is what I want
say with that.
If you look here, there is a pattern of information here
bruto, right? It's a riddle. It's hard to
understand. It looks like a crazy fight. And look what is
passing in your working memory. It's like becoming a
a little crazy, trying to solve things.
In fact, a recent study at Stanford has
demonstrated that children who are trying to learn
mathematical operations, their small cortex
prefrontals go crazy trying to assimilate and
master the material. But once they learn those
mathematical operations, this relaxes. What
This is really happening. They have the idea.
essential, and that essential idea is a single soft ribbon that
they can easily be placed in working memory
when they need it, to understand and make connections
with other problems they are trying to
solver. . Now, if you simply memorize and do not
you understand what you are memorizing, it's like creating that
small circle there.

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Krishna Sudhir (Transcription)

And you can see it. You have it. It really is a piece. But
you can't fit it very well with other pieces. So,
there is another important idea about fragmentation, and that is
the following.
Once you have compressed an idea, one of the
brilliant mathematicians mentioned that one of the
The great aspects of mathematics is simply that
the idea that you can compress it. You struggle, you struggle, you struggle, and,

suddenly, you click and you have it compressed. Once you

you have it compressed in a piece, really... you can
enlarge that piece, right? Like learning a
little song? In fact, you can learn another piece
and join them, and you have a larger part. Or also
you can learn similar parts from other disciplines, and it is
very, very useful. That is a transfer idea.
But what he is really doing when he is
learning and mastering a subject is, in a sense,
creating a library of snippets. And you can
take advantage of that library and make connections between the
things. And this is how great creativity arises, it is to make
connections with those pieces. So, the true
experts often have huge libraries of
fragments that have been developed.
Now, when you are learning, there is a kind of...
you can think of it as if there were an approach to
upwards downwards. So, if you are learning a
new topic, you can almost think of it as if there were a
piece there, that is that tire, and here is a piece, that
it's the face of the man and another tire. So you are
learning all these fragments, and when they
you learn everything, the general picture is formed of
material. Even if it is missing some pieces here and there,
you still have that overall picture. But if you don't practice,
you repeat and really master your parts, that's how it is. It's like
if you were trying to put together the big picture with
fragments that are weak.
And it is much more difficult to piece together the overall picture with
that in mind. So again, as I was saying,
you have a thought tape. That's a piece. Here
there is another fragment in another field, but it has a shape
similar. And that is the idea of the transfer.
So, if you are a physicist, you might be able to learn
economy more easily, because some of the pieces
they are really similar in their form. If you are a
language student and you are learning mathematics and
sciences, there are meta-fragments available. For example,
that idea of practice and repetition for language as well
it applies to the learning of mathematics and sciences. Thus
let's go to another aspect that I think is related
with the learning. Some of you may say that
They can have wonderful memories here.
But some of you may wish to have better
memories. Well, let me give you a little bit of
consciousness. What one believes can be an attribute
negative can actually be a very, very attribute
Positive. It turns out that when you have a bad memory of
work, what that really means is that you can't
to have things very well in mind, right? So
you are looking at your colleague who can remember all these
different things. They can store it in their memory of
work, do somersaults with it and propose new ones
ideas very quickly.
And you are lucky to remember what they were about
talking. But this is the issue. The investigations
they have shown that if you have little working memory and
your four spaces are quite weak, you always ...
other things slip away. That's why you can't hold on.
the ideas very well in your mind. But because of the
Other things are slipping away, you are actually more.
creative.
And research has shown that if you have a disorder
due to attention deficit or their attention gets distracted, oh,
brilliant! So what that means is that you have
much more potential to be creative. Do you have to
work harder than other people to compensate
Yes? You do. But that comes with the compensation of
you are very creative. Therefore, you can be very, very
valuable in your work, even though sometimes you have to
strive harder to achieve that goal. Now, you can
well, that's very good, but in reality I am a
slow thinker.
I see these other people, and they have the brain of a
super racing car. They can capture these ideas very
fast, and I move more slowly. Well, one of my
heroes in the history of science is the Nobel Prize
Santiago Ramón y Cajal, known as the father of the
modern neuroscience. Ramón y Cajal was not a genius, and
he himself said it. Part of what he did was work hard and
persevere.
But he said, these with racing car brains, that he
it was not, they often run and reach conclusions that he
did not go unnoticed. I would see them and was more flexible in their
thought. When he saw a mistake, he would leave,
I waited a minute. While the race car driver
he is so used to being right and quick that he is
much less able to be persistent and change from
flexible manner in light of data
contradictory. So, if you have a slow brain,
Think of it this way.

There is the person with the brains of the cars from

career. Great. But you are the hiker and your
the experience is completely different. You walk to the
long. You can see the small rabbit trails that
they have been lost.
You can reach out and touch the pine needles.
the pine forest smells. The race driver misses everything
this. Therefore, your way of thinking can also be
exceptionally valuable. In fact, Maryam Mirzakhani,
won the Fields Medal, which is the highest award in
mathematics, the equivalent in mathematics of the Prize
Nobel.
And they told him when he was young, you think too slowly.
to be a mathematician. Well guess what? It's one of the
most creative mathematics in the world. So, if
you think slowly, more power to you. You are doing it
good. Now, I also want to mention another aspect, and
this is what imposter syndrome looks like.
This is so important and so common. And what it is, is the
feeling that you are the fake in the room,
Right? Am I working here? Maybe I am.
working at Google and I'm really not that good at
they say that I am, and I am a kind of impostor here. And the
people feel this all around the world, no matter what
What are you doing? Are you a teacher? Oh, wait a
minute. You know, they are going to discover what the real truth is.
I took a test and I did well. But next time,
I will fail, because I know they will discover what the truth is. It is
a very, very common feeling. And the best way to
addressing the impostor syndrome is simply being
aware of how common it is. So the next time
may you have a thought like, I'm really not that
well as they say I am, remember, that is the syndrome
of the impostor speaking.
And probably one of the most important things that
I could mention, and that's why I'm doing it towards him.
finally, it is this idea of illusions of competence in the
learning. Now, let's say that suddenly, for some reason,
reason, a bear shot out of this screen and devastated it
room. Would you feel a wave of adrenaline and energy
nervous? I mean, suddenly your body reacted
physiologically to this feeling of intense fear
when you realized that the bear was in front of you
But the question is, when you think about situations
of learning, we often say that students
they approach and say, you know, I have anxiety about the
exams. That's why I didn't do well on this test.
But for many students, unfortunately,
sitting and looking at an exam is like there being a bear
there. They simply realized, at that moment, that
that they really did not know the material, although they thought
yes. Therefore, students and people can
deceiving themselves into thinking they are learning
something when in reality they are not learning something. Thus
that I will give you some of the best ways to learn
some truth. First of all, the tests are the
better.
Challenge yourself in everything, all the time. The same hour
what is dedicated to tests instead of the time dedicated to
studying, you will learn much more by taking a test. And
use flashcards. Flashcards are not just
for language students. Why let them be
Are they fun? The flashcards are for ordinary use,
for example, to learn mathematics and sciences.
If you talk to great poets, what the great ones will tell you
ports is memorizing the poem, because you will feel the passion
and the power of the poem much more deeply, why
that mathematicians should not be able to share this
fun? What about the engineers? When do we have
equations, if you memorize the equation and really look
what it means while you do it, can actually
highlight the richness of what you are learning. And the thing
it's when you have homework. Homework: many times people
makes the mistake of thinking, hey, you know, I did my
homework problem. And it's like saying, I'm learning to
play the piano and I played this piece of piano once, like this
that I have it.
Well, nobody does that when they're learning to play.
a musical instrument. And in the same way, when
you are studying, you don't want to do a homework problem
only once. You don't have time to do them all and
repeat them, but choose some of the keys and see if you can
do it again. How to practice it, and maybe do it in your
mind. Can you follow all the steps? If you can
reproduce it almost like a song in your mind,
you really have it.
He has it written as a piece and that may help him.
develop your knowledge of the material. Now then,
probably the most valuable technique when you try
truly understanding something difficult is simply
remember. When you are reading material on a page,
you read it and your tendency is... well, I'm going to underline it,
Right? Because when his hand moves on the page,
do you think that in some way it is moving her towards her
brain. But in reality it is not. So resist the
impulse.
You can underline a little. But it's better to write it.
Why are you helping to encode these neuronally?
ideas. And then, when I read the page, just look
look the other way and see what you can remember. It turns out that
that is very powerful for developing your understanding of
material in a way that other techniques, including the
mind maps and re-reading are not as good as
Remember. So, another very important aspect is
simply study diligently with other people or
talk about what you are trying to understand with others
people.
Now, this must be done with caution. Evidently,
not all learning takes place in a way
cooperative. Sometimes you have to leave. But when
you learn something in focused mode, there is an integral part
in that focused way, and that is a feeling that it
What you just learned is correct, right? This type
of feeling of righteousness. And the only way that
You can really disillusion yourself, sometimes, it's about going.
and sharing your ideas with other people.
And they can almost serve as a broader type of mode.
diffuse, to help disillusion him when he makes mistakes
errors. Therefore, study critically with friends and
talking with colleagues can be incredibly
useful. Also, explain it in a way that a 10-year-old can understand.
years can understand. We often explain the
electricity, the flow of electricity, like water, the flow
of water. It's an analogy.
It breaks. All analogies break. But Richard
Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, used to
challenge the best mathematicians in the world to
they will explain in a simple way, in a way that their
grandmothers could understand what they were doing. And
You know what? They could. So, this means that not.
it doesn't matter how difficult the problem is that I am in
working, if you find a way to explain it
in a simple way, you will be able to understand it much more
deeply.
One thing you must do is immerse yourself in the problem.
so be it. Like, here I am in a copper matrix,
Right? Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize-winning geneticist
Nobel Prize, she used to imagine herself at a level
genetic, in order to understand and see how they could
to be really functioning the genes. So that is a
a trick that some of the biggest ones usually use
thinkers. Try to find a way to get involved
in almost a play, whatever it may be
trying to understand. If you want more information
About what I have talked about here, there is much more in the book
A Mind For Numbers. And there is much more, and everything is
free, in the Massive Open online course for Coursera, to
through UC San Diego, Learning How to Learn. And that is
the key, except for one thing I would like to leave you
with this final thought.
We are often told, follow your passion. That is the key to
Everything. Just follow your passion and your life really.
it will be a better place for her. They have told us that. But
some things: your passion develops around what in
you are really good. And some things take a long time.
More in doing well. So don't follow your passions.
Expand your passions. And your lives will be greatly enriched.
enriched. Thank you very much.
Question and Answer session
MALE SPEAKER: Thank you, Barb, for the fantastic
talk. Now we will open it up for some questions for
Barb. Please raise your hand if you have any questions.
and I will bring him the microphone.
AUDIENCE: So, one of the questions I had was
that, you know, every time you learn things and address them
difficult problems, people always say, well, break it down
in smaller parts that you know how to do it. And
then I wondered how that fits into the way
focused and diffuse. Because that seems like dividing a
diffuse problem in a bunch of focused problems.
BARBARA OAKLEY: In reality, that which we really
it relates to the idea of pieces. So remember
that has four slots in the memory of
work. The more you can understand a simple part and
convert it into a fragment, and then into another small one
aspect, and turn it into a fragment, and then into another,
so you will focus on doing that. And then, in mode
diffuse, you reach up and make the connection at random,
when you are sleeping, when you go out for a walk, you
showers, all this kind of things. Everyone is
related, but actually, that is great advice. If
you try to learn it all at once, it's so overwhelming that
it's as if your little prefrontal cortex was being
stirring madly, but is overwhelmed.
READ ALSO: Myths about energy: climate, poverty, and a
reason for hope by Rachel Pritzker @ TEDxBeaconStreet
(Transcription)

So, you just want to get a part, in order to

draw it like a ribbon. Very good question.
AUDIENCE: A piece requires understanding. So,
when there is a fragment, does that mean there was a
experience of understanding that led to that?
BARBARA OAKLEY: Not necessarily. You can learn
a word in a language and you can't know what it means
that word. And you can learn many words in a
language, but you don’t know what that means. But yes, it does know what it means.
what they mean, it can really make it easier
remember that word and easier to divide it. And easier to
use those pieces to form sentences. So, in your
for the most part, we always want to fragment as well
It implies understanding. But technically, no.
You don't have to have understanding. It's just that the
understanding helps to connect things so that you can
to remember them more easily. For example, if I am
trying to learn the word duck as "duck" in
Spanish, if I only say 'duck', I am trying to remember
that word, I don't understand what it means. it's a little
harder to remember. But I do know that "duck" means
duck, can I say, what happens if I am trying to
remember it by taking a little "pot-o" where my duck
it is floating, and that can help, that understanding,
help to serve? like a bridge to get it into me
mind. So that is a very good question, because
people often think, oh, you build a piece, it is
automatic that you understand it. Not necessarily. But it is
something very good to have, for the most part.
AUDIENCE: I wanted to ask: we have mentioned that
people who excel in an area can find more
It's easy to learn another area because they are related parts.
BARBARA OAKLEY: Depending on how close it is
area. If you learn Icelandic, you will probably be able to learn
German more easily. But it can help a little with
some of the metacognitive skills, regarding
when you are learning Chinese, but they are so different
that only those metacognitive things can help you with
learning. And there is still a small aspect
fundamental of 'how a language is structured' that I believe
What is common to all languages. So it depends on what
look for where the things are. But what seems to me
fascinating that you never know. That's why it is so
it's important for people to come from one field to another very
different, right? You are a deep water diver
and you work in nursing.
And you can really bring some really good ideas.
Hello. And the best ideas are often developed by two.
different types of people. One is someone who is very
young, so he has not been indoctrinated in 'this is what it is'
what do you think”. But the other one is the outsiders, people
that are formed in a different discipline, that
they come and take an initial look and have a gaze
fresh to what they are seeing. So, good
questions.
AUDIENCE: Perhaps something more practical. I am curious.
to know your opinion, if you are familiar with the plan of
daily Mathematics studies that many schools
they are teaching now, that, for example, they take my
children. And, for example, when they teach mathematics,
they emphasize obtaining a feeling almost similar to the
number theory. As if they learn, like, four
different ways to multiply instead of one, already
You know, the way we learned.
And so, for example, my children are incredibly
confused by this. I wonder if you are familiar with it
with him. If he has done it, how it fits into this, and if he believes that
It is so, have opinions.
BARBARA OAKLEY: It's different in different parts of the
country. And then I am out of Michigan. We have
different techniques. It depends, I think it depends on the
children. For some children, it's great to learn all these
different techniques. For other children, you know, just
learn a method very well, and then you can scale
from there.
My own personal opinion is that one of the best
mathematical supplements programs is simply
Kumon Mathematics. And I am not a paid spokesperson for
Kumon Mathematics. But what they do is have methods
simple practice and repetition exercises to help develop
the mastery in your learning of mathematics. And do not you
and a bunch of different methods. They only make sure
that I know how to multiply. You know how to divide. And really
you know how to do these things. So I guess my
instinct, and I really haven’t come across that
ask first, I prefer to see someone who
really learn it well using a technique. When
you'll be able to see other shapes. But if you have that
really good path, you have it and you can ascend.
But if he is learning too many, it can become
pretty confusing. I suppose it would be the equivalent to
growing by learning eight languages at the same time. You know, some
children can handle it. But for many children, it can
it can be a bit confusing to have too many things
same time, especially about one thing.
AUDIENCE: I have a question about the reading, and not
like math or something, but yes, I am reading,
let's say, a philosophy book by Nietzsche or Heidegger,
for example, it has 400 pages. And I am a reader.
slow. And I suppose I am a very focused reader,
because I capture and retain quite well what I have
read. But I am incredibly slow. So, do I have
some method to discover how to be a fast reader,
but at the same time, to be able to retain and understand
deeply what I am reading?
BARBARA OAKLEY: The short answer is no.
research has recently shown that the
techniques for rapid reading are actually ... they are a
a little, apparently, somewhat false. Read something difficult with more
Depth simply requires time. Always.
I think, in the back of my mind, that STEM disciplines
(science, technology, engineering, mathematics) are
really difficult for many people. But then there is the
philosophy. I believe that is one of the most difficult things to
understand in general for the people. It is incredibly
important, but it is difficult.
And I believe that just having a little understanding and
compassion for yourself, you are addressing one of the
the most difficult themes of humanity. And if it is slow, well,
you're doing fantastic. Because I would be from the
same way. And I think many people are really from
the same way. There are probably some
super fast. Brain thinkers from Maserati who
they could buzz through those things. But they would get lost
the things you would see.
AUDIENCE: I have been wondering how they are applied.
your techniques in a more general way to the children. And you touched
briefly, actually, a previous question, practice
and repetition, practice and repetition. But more
specifically, how is it achieved that children
What interests you in mathematics so that you continue practicing?
BARBARA OAKLEY: The way we have been
teaching children is, it's like, let's give them a
introduction to fun things. We will have them in
the hands and we're going to leave them laying eggs and
doing all these exciting things. And then they arrive
to the university, and they arrive at calculus, and it's like the march
from death, right? They start to fall like
flies. Because they are not used to that. Everything
it's always been fun, hasn't it? So we don't do
that is when we teach things like music. We do not do
that's when we teach foreign languages. But the
students fall in love with those topics because they can
to gain experience, in part through a little bit of
hard work through practice and repetition.
So I think part of the reason why we have
so many children in this country who fall off the train is that
we try to make everything really exciting and
fun. And we forgot the lessons that the
language students and musicians, sports, the
people in sports, the dance instructors, everyone
They know that practice and repetition are part of acquiring
experience. And when we incorporate it back into the plan
of studies, it is there, but it is not as solid as in
many other countries. That is why I believe we see
so many people come to this country with love and mastery
of learning about science and mathematics that do not
it is growing organically, because we are not
introducing children in the United States to some
from these ideas as well, the supplementary importance
from practice and repetition. So these are my
thoughts.
We do a little of that, but in reality we don't.
sufficient. Because for a long time,
unfortunately, there has been the feeling that
too much practice and repetition in mathematics will kill
your creativity. Instead of reality, which is that everything
a great expert must practice and repeat what is
learning. So those are my thoughts on
regarding.
AUDIENCE: Hello. So understanding is important.
and the context is important. And speaking of that, I could
have a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach
bottom up. So, what do you think it is
Better? Is it better to understand the big picture and
then try to study the topic? Or is it better to study the
small pieces and build this understanding from
or maybe we have to mix it?
BARBARA OAKLEY: You understood it exactly. No
you will want to be doing small things all the time. And
you wouldn't want to be perched high up all the
time. You want to be ... it's hard to understand what the
general overview when you are ... you learn a little
fragment and you learn another small fragment. But
You should start integrating that into the bigger picture.
as much as you can. And then you want to be going and
coming. One of the techniques I didn't mention, which is
very important, it is the one of interlacing.
And many times, when you are learning, for example,
any new technique in calculus, you will do 10 more problems
or less the same when learning that technique in
calculation. But you don't want to do that. You want to solve one or
two problems using that technique. Move to another section
from the book. Solve that problem.
A sort of comparison: wait a minute, why
I am using this technique here and that technique here? Why
What are different? Turn back. Do another one of the
first techniques. Then I changed to another, we are not
empowering people, we don't even have our
books set up to alternate. And we have to
start doing that, because that is what it really is:
it is the practice of repetition, but mixed with the
intertwined, which generates flexibility. So those are
my thoughts on the matter.
AUDIENCE: Like when I was in school
high school and university and studied mathematics,
I was perfectly fine. As I did well and I did it.
well in the tests. But my problem has always been trying
to apply it outside of that environment, like trying to use it
in a practical way or in everyday life, or whatever
that certain mathematical skills were needed,
I just could never do it.
And I was wondering if you had any type of technique or
strategy or ideas on how there is a way to extract
school mathematics and the ability to apply them in life
normal, or simply out of school.
BARBARA OAKLEY: That's a very good question. A
One of the things that people do is that they look at the ...
mathematics and they say, "how am I going to use this?" In fact,
I remember when they called me to the principal's office in
eighth grade, because I wasn't doing my
mathematics. In fact, I was reading a book. So
I protested with the director, saying that it had no use.
real.
I would never use it. And they gave up on me, in that
moment. But it's something like this. When you are at the gym
and you are lifting a specific type of weight, any
You're going to go out into the world and raise that type of
weight? Of course not. But in reality, you are using
muscles that you could use related muscles when
you lift your luggage to enter and put it in the
airplane compartment.
So, what you are doing when you are
learning something in mathematics and sciences is that you are
developing a kind of neural pathways. It may be that
don't use that exactly, but in ways
surprising, they can shape your way of thinking about
the things. So an example is this. They made a
they studied and discovered, you know, that there are some children
who complete their university studies. And you can take
courses that hardly have math, really,
involved.
You know, mathematics for poets or this kind of
courses. And you follow the whole way. But the people who
they have this type of experience, where they have had very
little exposure, when you control all aspects of
what is happening that you can control
reasonably, those who do not have real training in
mathematics has many more chances of
default on the mortgages of their homes. So already
you know, think about that. But really, you can think of
smarter way.
Now, what happens? You are really worried about the
environment. Then someone approaches and says,
Well, we need to have electric cars. It sounds very
good, right? But if you are qualified, you have some kind of
of experience, you could go, yes, but wait for a
minute. What happens with the effect of the batteries on the
environment, right? Do they really produce more
pollution? In fact, does that energy transfer
creates more damage to the environment than an engine of
normal gasoline? If we teach them to think a little more
rationally and carefully about things, in reality,
is using those intellectual muscles in ways that
he hasn't really done it, he really doesn't realize that
how important it really is. So, from one
way, however, just reflecting, just a little bit of
a different way, because your question is very
profound.
When you are learning a language, one of the things
What are you doing? Are you learning, are you practicing? And
It can really be difficult to go meet someone and talk.
with him, who speaks that language. But that experience of the
real life is what gives life to the language and what feeds it
desire to learn it. So I think about finding ways
when you are walking and you are thinking about something that
you just learned mathematically, look at your
around and try to take it into the environment in which you
you find. And try to think about it that way.
That is a great question. Because it helps us to be
aware of the wealth of life that gives us
around. So, I think trying to bring some of
these ideas that you are learning about life that we
Rodea is something bright and a great attitude. So, they
I am very grateful to be here.