After 4 years of attending Stuyvesant H.S. in NYC and 4 years at MIT in Cambridge I managed to stay oblivious to some obvious truths in the world regarding how to learn. I believe I would be justified in being mad at my teachers, how could there not have been multiple - if not all of them - making sure that i was not reinforcing bad habits?
But the world needs people looking in the mirror instead of pointing fingers; I have only myself to blame. And I am lucky to have learned some of the secrets of learning while I still have time to gain the benefits.
witout furder abdu:
Caps are used to STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS MESSAGE
THE HUMAN BRAIN IS A SELF PROGRAMMING MACHINE WITH A CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS COMPONENT. THIS MESSAGE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO BETTER CONTROL THE CONSCIOUS COMPONENT.
THE CONSCIOUS COMPONENT MAPS THOUGHT -> ACTION. IF YOU HAVE A COMMAND THOUGHT, SUCH AS "RAISE MY RIGHT ARM" YOU WILL SEND AN ELECTRICAL SIGNAL TO YOUR MUSCLES THAT WILL PERFORM THE ACTION OF RAISING YOUR RIGHT ARM.
YOU WILL THEN RECEIVE A SUCCESS OR FAILURE SIGNAL FROM YOUR SENSORY INPUT, I.E. YOU WILL VISUALLY SEE YOUR HAND RAISE AND THEN YOUR BRAIN WILL REGISTER A "SUCCESS" AND STRENGTHEN THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE THOUGHT YOU JUST HAD AND THE NEURAL TISSUE THAT CONNECTS TO YOUR MUSCLES IN YOUR RIGHT ARM.
THE PROCESS OF HAVING AN INPUT SIGNAL PERCEIVED AND JUDGING WHETHER OR NOT IT WAS THE CORRECT ACTION IS REFERRED TO AS "BIOFEEDBACK". ISSUES WITH YOUR BIOFEEDBACK, WHICH OCCUR ALL THE TIME, WILL GREATLY IMPAIR YOUR ABILITY TO PROPERLY MAP THOUGHT -> DESIRED ACTION. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD A DEAF PERSON SPEAK? THEY CANNOT SPEAK NORMALLY BECAUSE THEIR BIOFEEDBACK LOOP IS SEVERELY IMPAIRED BY THEIR NON-FUNCTIONING EARS.
WHEN YOU HAVE A THOUGHT AND PERFORM AN ACTION, NO MATTER WHETHER OR NOT YOU JUDGE IT AS A SUCCESS, YOU ARE STRENGTHENING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THAT THOUGHT AND THAT ACTION. THUS YOU MUST:
STOP IGNORING YOUR "NEGATIVE BIOFEEDBACK" SIGNAL. IF YOU DO SOMETHING WRONG - A BAD TENNIS SWING, A POOR PLACEMENT OF A FINGER ON THE GUITAR FRETBOARD, A BAD TURN WHILE SKIING - WHATEVER - YOU MUST FIGURE OUT A WAY TO LEARN THAT IT WAS WRONG FROM YOUR BIOFEEDBACK SYSTEM AND CORRECT YOURSELF AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
YOU WILL NOT GET ANYTHING FROM DOING SOMETHING "OVER AND OVER" AGAIN UNLESS YOU ARE REFLECTING ON EVERY ACTION YOU DO AND FIXING ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. YOU WILL ACTUALLY USUALLY JUST BECOME WORSE AT THE ACTIVITY YOU ARE TRYING TO DO, AS YOU WILL BUILD A BROKEN THOUGHT->ACTION MAPPING.
P.S. THE FASTER YOUR BIOFEEDBACK THE BETTER, PRACTICING IN FRONT OF A MIRROR BEATS TAKING A VIDEO AND WATCHING IT 30 MINUTES LATER.
P.P.S. SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE A BIOFEEDBACK LOOP THAT IS OTHERWISE IMPOSSIBLE. TECHNOLOGICALLY INCLINED YOGI'S HAVE ALLEGEDLY BEEN ABLE TO CONTROL THEIR HEART RATE BY CONNECTING WIRES TO THEIR PULSE AND LEARNING TO BREATH WHILE WATCHING THEIR PULSE ON A MONITOR.
[...] is important to remember that when training, mindlessly repeating an action does not help you towards your goal. Only when you are self analytic, by doing an action like recording yourself with a camera and [...]