"Learning how to Learn" will be next generation's most needed skill

Learning is a nontrivial skill even though it has historically been treated as such. It requires an embodied understanding of concepts from basic cognitive psychology, expertise theory, behavioral-affective psychology, metacognition, and more. Until people stop with the platitudes of "learning how to learn is important" and start teaching/training the subject directly as a skill that must be acquired, this will not change.

Simply showing a learner a few slides on spaced retrieval will not cut it.

> Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries a lesson.

-- from "The Humanity of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

One issue that is not discussed enough when talking about learning is mental preparation for learning. We have all had days when learning seemed easier than on other days, but we didn't pay too much attention to it, or we thought that the subject we were learning was more favorable to us, or we classified it as one of the many inexplicable or unrepeatable circumstances of life.

While we understand the importance of warming up for physical activity and recognize the need for a certain aptitude for running, weightlifting, or boxing, when it comes to more intellectual activities, we often leave things to chance: sometimes we are more alert and receptive, while at other times we are less so.

Over the years, I have found enormous benefit in practicing autogenic training, a more Western and scientific version of meditative practices that today seem to arouse the interest of those who deal with these things. I am mentally more alert, more receptive, and learning, which is always challenging, is faster.

The importance of "learning how to learn" has been emphasized by all of my teachers since I was in highschool, or maybe even 8th grade, decades ago.

My computer engineering professors also emphasized user centered design. For one of Google's top scientists to bring this up is an admission that they won't, or can't, design a good user experience for their tools.

first off it doesn't seem to be taught at the moment, but also I'm pretty sure that has always been the most important and foundational skill, and it seems like there might be an upper bound for what percentage of people can actually learn it.

This is every generation's .ort needed skill

Terrible article. Did Hassabis really say ”learning how to learn” is itself a skill, like the article paraphrases it? Surely the skill isn’t that you can learn how to learn, the skill is that you know how to learn. Just like ”learning to ride a bike” isn’t a skill; it’s something you do once, leading to a useful skill.

”Learning how to learn” sounds vaguely insightful just because of the repetition, but if you think for a bit about what it actually means it falls apart.

Long has been.

Best bit of career advice I ever got, back in the 90s: "Get really good at the help system".

(At the time, it was MSDN DVDs).

I know we're all good little rational kids here, but even rationalists need to learn about emotions. Strong emotional responses are currently holding back human advancement. If you look closely at history, it has been always thus.

** "in my opinion" is always implied, unless a source is given **

Reading about airline crashes has radically changed how I view blame.

The way I was raised and the choices I made as an adult have given me a relatively rare point of view: people are made of humans, and humans are made of animals, and animals have limited capabilities.

I can explain someone's actions, or I can excuse someone's actions, and the difference is largely in the mind of the beholder.

Social punishment is micro and macro. On the macro it looks like shared morality and it feels like safety. On the micro it looks like emotional invalidation and it feels like danger and isolation.

If you need to learn how to learn then you don't know how to learn. How can you learn to learn if you don't know how to learn?

Jokes aside I'm really into learning science and make youtube videos covering learning and learning papers + an ipad app. I keep a running list of my favorite learn-to-learn resources here:

https://www.ahmni.app/blog/learn-to-learn-resource-list

If I had to recommend only one resource it would be: The ABCs of How We Learn: 26 Scientifically Proven Approaches, How They Work, and When to Use Them by Schwartz

I think all knowlwdge "work" is bust. Selling knowlwdge will be like selling knitted socks.

People who do stuff will make money

"Teach to the test" started this a while ago - memorizing and then forgetting bullet points vs engaging more deeply with a subject.

If we're lucky, LLMs force people to put more effort into assignments and grading and then that would help kids learn to learn as well.