BOOKS: MIND FOR NUMBERS

Ch. 2 / FOCUSED VS DIFFUSED MODE. EINSTELLUNG / PROCRASTINATION. POMODORO. PAUSE & RECALL.
* Prime your mental pump - helps organize thoughts if take a walk thru the material. Skim first, look at charts and headings, make quick notes.
* Focused mode: rational, sequential, analytical approach. Intense concentration on a specific problem. Only a limited number of things working memory can hold at once. Focused flashlight.
* Diffused mode: happens when relax your attention and just let your mind wander. Can't solve a specific problem but can travel much farther to neurons where the right answer may be. Broad flashlight. Good for learning something new.
* Overachiever problem: doesn't understand / not used to the fact that being confused is normal and necessary. Typical to be stumped by new problems.
* Two typical errors: jumping into water right away or procrastinating. First one leads to Einstellung, second to stress / shaky foundation.
* Einstellung: erroneous initial thoughts in focus mode preventing from learning the right approach. Jumping into water before learning how to swim. Starting doing homework before reading the textbook / checking materials.
* When procrastinate, only leave yourself time to do superficial focused mode learning. Also increasing stress level. Resulting neural patterns - faint and fragmented, will quickly disappear, leaving shaky foundation.
* Focusing intently but briefly for 25 min. Main rule: no distraction. Don't worry about finishing. Reward.
* Advanced version: 1 key task. 3 sprints a day. Cross off. Write few key things for the next day before leaving, to let the diffuse mode start working.
* If after reading, still don't understand what's going on, get help or go online. Sometimes hearing the same thing slightly differently helped synthesize the concept inside our brain.
* Pause and recall. Close the book and look away. What were the main ideas? Don't worry if can't remember much.

Ch. 3 / WORKING AND LT MEMORY. SPACED REPETITION. CONFUSION NECESSARY. SLEEP-PRIMING. ATTN SWITCHING.
* Switch from focus to defuse by simply shifting attention to another problem + adding a bit of relax time.
* Enlisting diffused mode helps learn at a deep and creative lvl.
* Mistakes are inevitable. Start early, and unless really enjoying what you're doing, keep your working sessions short. When take breaks, remember the diffuse mode continues to work in the background.
* Accepting the first idea that comes to mind when working on a problem can prevent you from finding a better solution.
* Look away, blink, look around for a micropause.
* Learning well means allowing time to pass between focused learning sessions, so the neural patterns have time to solidify properly. Trying to learn everything in a few cram sessions doesn’t allow time for neural structures to become consolidated in your long-term memory.
* Good rule of thumb when first learning new concepts is not to let things go untouched for more than a day.
* Working memory - juggling 4 items (RAM). LT memory - storage system (harddrive). To help move from WM to LTM, use spaced repetition (over a number of days). Review important material in timely fashion -- very important.
* Sleep makes remarkable difference in ability to figure out difficult problems. Reading one hour with a well-rested brain is better than reading for three hours with a tired brain.
* Sleep-priming: if have trouble working on a problem, lie down in bed with open notebook and pen and just write out thoughts about the problem as fall asleep / as wake up.
* When frustration arises, it's time to switch attention to allow diffuse mode in.

Ch. 4. FOCUS BY POMODORO, SWITCH BTW FOCUSED AND DIFFUSED MODE TO UNDERSTAND, RECALL TO SOLIDIFY, PRACTICE TO RECOGNIZE CONTEXT AND APPLICATION, UPKEEP MGMT BY REG REPETITIONS.
* Chunking -- automatically connected neural pattern that arises from frequent practice (intimately related to habit).
* When you first begin to learn something, you are making new neural patterns and connecting them with preexisting patterns that are spread through many areas of the brain.
* Your octopus tentacles can’t make connections very well if some of them are off on other thoughts.
* The first step in chunking, then, is to simply focus your attention on the information you want to chunk.
* The second step in chunking is to understand the basic idea you are trying to chunk, by taking focused and diffused mode in turn. Understanding is like a superglue that helps hold the underlying memory traces together.
* The third step is to practice so understanding gains hold and context emerges.
* Attempting to recall the material you are trying to learn—retrieval practice—is far more effective than simply rereading the material.
* Learn the major concepts or points first—these are often the key parts of a good instructor or book chapter’s outline, flow charts, tables, or concept maps. Once you have this done, fill in the details. Even if a few of the puzzle pieces are missing at the end of your studies, you can still see the big picture.
* “Intention to learn is helpful only if it leads to the use of good learning strategies.”
* Once you’ve got something down, you can expand the time between “upkeep” repetitions to weeks or months—and eventually it can become close to permanent.
* Key to the slow hunch is simply having mental access to aspects of an idea. That way, some aspects can tentatively and randomly combine with others until eventually, beautiful novelty can emerge. Bill Gates and other industry leaders, Johnson notes, set aside extended, weeklong reading periods so that they can hold many and varied ideas in mind during one time.
* Solving problems in math and science is like playing a piece on the piano. The more you practice, the firmer, darker, and stronger your mental patterns become.
* strengthening an initial learning pattern within a day after you first begin forming it is important. Without the strengthening, the pattern can quickly fade away.

Ch 5-6 / HABIT: CUE, ZOMBIE, REWARD, BELIEF. CHANGE CUE OR CHANGE ROUTINE.
* Habit an energy saver - allows to free our mind for other activities.
* 4 parts of habit: (1) the Cue (trigger) - e.g. todo list, (2) the Routine - zombie mode, habitual response / reaction (harmless, useful, destructive) - key pressure point, (3) the Reward - dopamine, (4) the Belief - habits have power b/c w believe they work. To change habit, need to change the underlying belief.
* Procrastination cue. Key question: what launches me into the zombie mode? Typical procrastination cues: location, time, how I feel, reaction to other people, or something that just happened. Examples: (1) look something up on the web and find myself web-surfing, (2) messengers, (3) stepping into the conference room, (4) finishing a previous task (esp if connected with focused mode / control task) [me], (5) taking a walk, (6) going to the bathroom (or it itself is a form of procrastination), (7) taking a look at unpleasant e-mail or messy todo list, (8) eating at my desk, (9) getting involved in an e-mail instead of hard work.
* Rewiring a habit requires a plan (e.g. new ritual): (1) Pomodoro technique a good starting point for that - the phone should always be in the silent mode during the Pomodoro mode. For me, also could be stengthened via sitting at the big table in the office; (2) close all windows and brainstorm / write-out thoughts for 5 min in Notepad, (3) cleaning up feathers in todo list, (4) LT idea could be quick exercise (currently conditions not present, but that may change), (5) reading a book during lunch.
* If do something active first, much easier to start work afterwards. Also, the trick is that tiny accomplishments leading to tiny rewards eventually make work easier and I like it more, gradually starting to enjoy it more.
* Goal is to avoid procrastination while minimising use of willpower -- by overwriting destructive parts of old habits via the pressure point -- reaction to the cue. This is the only place where willpower needs to be used.
* "If you protect your routine, eventually it will protect you"

Ch. 7. REPETITION PROVIDES APPRECIATION OF CONTEXT - SPOT SOLUTION AT THE SIGHT. FOCUS ON HARDEST BITS AND BULD ON. NUDGE TO START.
* Example with inventions that get more complex over time, example with the grandmasters being able to spot the solution at each desk configuration through repetition / situational chunking (think about application to strategy), also through working on their weaknesses.
* Focusing on the hardest bits / weak sides, even if some other questions remain. Building on it. Nudging yourself into starting something softly, getting to the emotional plateau, releasing the kick via embracing the pain and going for the challenging / hardest bit.
* Repetition, recall, tests.

Ch. 8. TODO REDUCTIONISM. LEISURE-INDUCED EFFICIENCY. TODOS LURKING IN THE SHADOWS EATING WM. RESULT TRACKING. FEEL BETTER ONCE GET GOING.
* Normal to sit down with negative feelings beginning the work. Important how you handle those feelings. Once you get going, you will feel better about it.
* If you don't write your tasks down in a list, they lurk a t the edge of the four slots of WM, taking up valuable mental real estate.
* Time after time, those who are committed to maintaining half leisure time along with their hard work outperform those who doggedly pursue an endless threadmill.
* Art of transforming distant deadlines into managing daily ones. Attacking bit by bit. Need to translate big tasks into smaller ones that show up on a daily task list.
* Tracking the time results as an important by-step of understanding how / where I fall behind.

Ch. 9. WE DEVELOP A PASSION FOR THINGS WE ARE GOOD AT. STINTS OVER BINGES. MICROTASKING. RELAX WITHOUT GUILT.
* People who make a habit of getting their work done in binges are much less productive overall than those who generally do their work in reasonable, limited stints.
* The difference btw math experts and novices is that experts are slower to being solving a problem. Einstellung.
* We develop a passion for what we are good at. The mistake is thinking that if we aren't good at something, we do not have and can never develop a passion for it.
* When overwhelmed, write out 3 microtasks that you can do within a few minutes.
* Three months required to break procrastination habits.
* For the system to work, it's important to actually relax without feeling of guilt.