Publisher: People's Posts and Telecommunications Publishing House

Price: 59.80 yuan

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Recommended words: It is like " "Success Learning" does not tell you how to succeed. It is not "Success Learning" but it may lead you on the road to awakening. As the saying goes, "We are always like this. At the beginning we just want to find success." A rope leads to an elephant in the end."

Summary of the notes: This note first explains the types and characteristics of the brain, helping readers to understand the internal reasons for "knowing all the principles, but still not living a good life", and then lists the compound interest curve , learning curve, and edge of comfort zone are three rational tools that help cultivate learning patience and improve learning efficiency. Finally, the methodology of "read early, meditate, write, and run" is briefly described.

01What are the types and characteristics of the brain?

According to the evolutionary process, we can divide the brain into three levels, namely the instinctive brain, the emotional brain and the rational brain. Among them: the instinctive brain originated from the reptilian era and is in charge of instincts (predation, courtship and other instinctive behaviors). ), the emotional brain originated from the age of mammals and is in charge of emotions (joy, anger, sorrow, and joy), and the rational brain originated from the age of primates and is in charge of cognition (inventing language, art, and technology).

The characteristics of the three types of brains are that the instinctive brain and the emotional brain are short-sighted and instant gratification, or they like to seek refuge and are eager for success. The rational brain is rich in wisdom but is the weakest because of the age in which it evolved. The latest, the latest to mature in the human body and the slowest running speed.

Therefore, although the rational brain is more advanced than the other two, it is often suppressed by the instinctive brain and the emotional brain, which makes us more likely to be controlled by the instinctive and emotional brains in our daily lives. .

For example, "We know that the final exam is approaching, but we still can't muster the energy to study; although we know that staying up late is harmful to the body, we still stay up late every day, even if we wake up the next day I regret it so much that I still can’t help but stay up late on the new day.” In fact, this is the result of our rational brain losing the battle with the instinctive brain and emotional brain, which leads us to often fall into the “knowingly knowing” situation. , but just can’t do it; I want something very much, but just can’t get it”.

02How can I make my brain work better for me?

After understanding the types and basic characteristics of the brain, we can also use the following three rational tools to make the brain serve us better.

Tool 1 Compound Interest Curve - Maintain enough patience

The compound interest curve (see Figure 1) shows the general law of value accumulation, that is, the initial growth is very slow, but after reaching an inflection point It will grow rapidly, but in order to gain this power, we need to calmly face the slow growth period in the early stage of the compound interest curve until we reach the turning point where the leap occurs.

Figure 1 Compound interest curve

Tool 2 The edge of the comfort zone - find the appropriate learning area

The edge of the comfort zone reveals the universal law of ability growth: regardless of individual Whether it is a group, its abilities are distributed in the form of "comfort zone-stretch zone-difficulty zone" (see Figure 2). If you want to grow efficiently, you must always keep yourself on the edge of the comfort zone, and rashly cross into the difficult zone. Allowing yourself to be frustrated and remaining in your comfort zone will stagnate you.

The compound interest curve and the edge of the comfort zone are a pair of good friends. Together, they allow us to see the power of patience on a macro scale, and this power applies to every ordinary person.

Figure 2 Difficulty Zone, Stretch Zone and Comfort Zone

Tool 3 Learning Curve - Understand the rules of the plateau period

In fact, the relationship between learning progress and time It is not the linear relationship we imagined (how much you learn), but a wave-like rising curve (see Figure 3). After understanding the appearance of the learning curve, we have to mention the plateau period. An important rule.

The plateau period rule means that when we first start learning, we make rapid progress, and then gradually slow down. This is because we have entered the learning plateau period, so we may have put in a lot of effort, but There seems to be no progress, maybe even regression.

Figure 3 Learning Curve and Plateau

But this is just an illusion, because when we learn, the neuron cells in the brain are still connecting, and this connection is It is constantly consolidated until we reach a certain node, and we will enter the next stage of rapid rise.

Therefore, when we understand the rules of the plateau period, we will not give up easily when we are in the plateau period of learning again, but will be more inclined to continue to persevere in order to get through the plateau period in the learning process. , and usher in the next new period of rapid growth.

After mastering the above three tools, we will understand that people need to learn at the edge of their comfort zone, and should be patient enough before reaching the inflection point in the compound interest curve, because that means We may be at the plateau of the learning curve, and if we persist, we will usher in a new leap.

03How to make the brain serve us better?

In the book, the author also summarizes five ways to make the brain operate efficiently with the words "read, meditate, write and run early".

?Get up "early"

Throw away the alarm clock and learn to use sleep patterns to get up early easily. An experiment at the University of Chicago showed that people's eyeballs move back and forth during sleep. Based on this movement pattern, they discovered the patterns of "rapid eye movement sleep" (REM) and "non-rapid eye movement sleep" (Non-REM).

This rule holds that healthy adults mostly sleep in 1.5 hours of rapid eye movement sleep and 1.5 hours of non-rapid eye movement sleep. The two modes are constantly switching, and within the first two units of time, , that is, in the first 3 hours after falling asleep, you will have high-quality sleep (deep non-rapid eye movement sleep is equal to deep sleep), and then there will be a combination of shallow non-rapid eye movement sleep and rapid eye movement sleep.

According to this rule, when people wake up at these points of 3 hours, 4.5 hours, 6 hours, and 7.5 hours after sleeping, they will feel refreshed and energetic. Therefore, we can try to wake ourselves up at these times to gain better energy.

After we realize the benefits of getting up early, we can also try to work during the peak efficiency period to get twice the result with half the effort.

First of all, we need to know when is the peak efficiency period. Generally speaking, around 7 a.m. is a peak efficiency period, because the human body starts to secrete adrenaline and adrenal corticosteroids around 7 a.m. , which are two hormones that keep people energetic. In addition, the work efficiency of the brain will also improve when we eat, because the energy consumed by the human body will be converted into glucose and transported to the brain after 1 hour. At this time, the person's memory and understanding will be improved accordingly. The brain's operating speed will reach its peak and will not reach the bottom until 4 hours later. Therefore, we can follow the rules of peak efficiency periods and complete the most difficult work of the day during periods of high efficiency, so that we can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Read "Read"

Why do we read? The answer is simple. If you want to quickly become a master in an industry, what is the best way? Some people may say that they should have in-depth exchanges with experts and big names in the industry, but the reality is that most people rarely have such opportunities and resources to contact top people in the industry, so there is a more economical and affordable solution. The solution is to read a lot. Reading is about obtaining the most advanced growth strategies at the lowest cost. This is the best way for everyone to improve themselves.

And when we realize the meaning of reading, how can we fall in love with reading? If you want to fall in love with reading, you must first form a correct concept of reading. Stop treating reading as a competition of reading volume and reading speed. Try treating reading as a dialogue with wise men. Imagine During the reading process, a wise man was answering our questions. When you change your concept of reading, you will find that reading is no longer boring. It is more like a bridge of thought that allows us to cross time and space and reach the side of wise men.

It is worth mentioning that the book also mentions three key points that need to be paid attention to when reading.

Point one, the more important thing than reading is choosing a book.

Sometimes book selection is more important than reading, because if reading has no direction or purpose, then it is very likely that you will gain nothing from reading it, or even read another one before finishing it. This kind of reading is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and I am afraid that after repeated efforts, there will be little interest and enthusiasm left in reading. In response to this problem, the author proposes a solution, which is to try to choose books that are closest to your actual needs when reading.

So how to choose the book that is closest to your actual needs? Ask yourself a question before reading. "What is the most urgent problem that needs to be solved at the moment?"

Asking yourself this question before reading can make the books we choose more relevant to our actual needs, and we can also feel the joy of reading better. Fun and accomplishment. In addition, in addition to meeting the condition of meeting actual needs, you should also choose books that are on the edge of your comfort zone, because if you choose a book that is too easy, you may gain little, and if you choose a book that is too difficult, it will hinder your reading ability. Motivation, so books that are a little difficult to read but can be understood just right are the most suitable books to read. They can not only help us learn new knowledge but also cultivate our interest in reading.

In short, when choosing a book, you must best match your interest, difficulty, and needs.

The second point is not just to read, but also to change.

Please remember that the way to truly read a book is not just to read it. What is more important is what we do after we finish reading a book. You can choose to apply the knowledge you learned from the book to real life, or you can write and write your experience into an article, but please be sure not to put the book on the shelf and secretly rejoice that you have read another book. Because reading is to make yourself progress and change.

Therefore, whether we change ourselves after reading a book can be used as a criterion to test the quality of reading. If we take action and change after reading a book, then this is meaningful. Reading, because it has a practical and positive impact on our lives. After thinking about this clearly, the anxiety about reading can disappear.

Point three, advanced reading methods.

When reading, don’t read in isolation, try to draw inferences from one instance and establish connections between knowledge and knowledge, because if there is a knowledge point that reminds us of other knowledge points during the reading process, then we must pay attention to it. This shows that a new knowledge network is being established, and in this process new knowledge may be formed.

In addition, we must remember that reading and writing are not separated. If after reading a book, you can explain the knowledge learned in your own language, then this knowledge will become It is more stable, so you can try to write after reading the book to form your own reading notes.

"Meditation" thinking

Meditation can increase the surface area of ??the human cerebral cortex and thicken the gray matter of the brain, because these two factors are important factors in determining a person's intelligence, so meditation It can make us smarter to a certain extent.

So how to meditate? It's very simple, train the "7 little balls" in your brain.

The human brain can process about 7 pieces of information. In order to better understand the process of the brain processing information, we can imagine that there are 7 small balls in the brain.

When we do something, there may be only 3 small balls in the brain thinking about it, and the other 4 small balls are thinking about other things, which causes our brain to Some people are unable to concentrate on this matter, but some people can make all 7 small balls in their brain think about and deal with this matter, thereby achieving a high degree of concentration. It is conceivable that this state of high concentration can enable us to better deal with problems encountered in work and study.

So how can you achieve this level of concentration? Yes, the answer is meditation.

Meditation can help us train the 7 little balls in our brain so that they can serve us better. During meditation, we only need to focus all our attention on breathing, that is, let the 7 small balls do one thing at the same time. If one of the small balls "wanders away", gently pull it back. Can.

By insisting on this kind of practice, over time we can develop the habit of concentration and turn concentration into unconscious behavior. When we are not meditating, we can automatically suppress wandering thoughts and control the distracted spirit.

In other words, the "7 little balls" in the brain can be used by us at any time.

ps: Regarding meditation, I also have a little tip that I accidentally heard from the BYM podcast, and I would like to share it with you here. When we are troubled by the complicated thoughts in our minds, we can imagine that there is a conveyor belt in our mind. Trying to pack those messy thoughts into the conveyor belt one by one can calm ourselves down. This method really works, although the first time I tried this method the effect was not obvious, but when I tried this method for several days in a row, it really worked. If you're like me and often troubled by those complicated thoughts in your head, then you might want to try this idea.

"Writing"

Learning that only reads without writing is inefficient. If you want to achieve real growth, you must learn to write. When we write, we can use the Feynman technique, which is to explain something clearly in our own language, preferably in a way that even laypeople can listen to it. Understand.

"Running" steps

Exercise can physically make us smarter because it causes the brain to grow new neurons, so we can develop the habit of exercise. For example, regular aerobic activities such as running and swimming are required, but more important than exercise is the need for intellectual activities after exercise, because performing complex intellectual activities can stimulate the newly grown neurons in our brains, thereby establishing More connections. However, since the maturation period of neurons is about 28 days, the "motor learning" model requires us to persist for a long time.