# 2026-09-09 - The Science of Self-Learning by Peter Hollins
I went to the library to check out one book. After skimming through
the table of contents and a few chapters, i decided that book wasn't
for me. So i scanned a few of its neighbors and found this title.
Reading The Science of Self-Learning confirmed that this book was
more to my tastes. It's a how-to for becoming a better autodidact.
My favorite part was on methods to discover one's own blind spots.
What follows are quotes from the book with my comments within
square brackets.
# Chapter 1: Principles of Self-Learning
An autodidact is, most simply put, a self-educator. They own the
entire method of their instruction, from beginning to finish, from
interest to implementation.
## Impediments of traditional education
It's psychologically restrictive. You're expected to always be
attentive and on point. Most if not all of your mental resources
need to be applied toward the topics you're studying, to the extent
that grabbing just a few minutes of free time could make one feel
guilty or irresponsible.
It often uses fear as a motivator. If you don't study hard and
achieve success according to the standards of your school or
university, supposedly you'll have no future.
It limits or even destroys creativity. You do as you're told. Your
course of study is chosen for you. Your texts are assigned. Your
materials, lab experiments, and resources all come from prepared
lists from which you can't deviate.
It makes you closed-minded. [It's about creating a social
hierarchy.]
It actually hinders future learning. After 20 years of force-fed
learning--tens of thousands of hours of lecture, reading, studying,
accumulating facts--you're almost conditioned not to learn in any
other way. You don't even imagine that there even *is* another
way... Many are the students who've experienced so much burn-out from
institutional learning that the last thing they want to do upon
graduation is to learn *anything*.
You're told what to care about and how to think.
## Advantages of self-education
You can dive as deeply into a subject as you want. You can go at
your own pace, and you are only limited by your own motivation and
discipline.
You can set yourself up for lifelong learning.
You can study subjects with a different perspective.
You can develop self-discipline.
You can open up new and unique possibilities. [A friend told me that
her career wasn't listed in the books. She created a new one.]
* * *
We call that reward-or-punishment framework /extrinsic motivation/:
the compensation comes from an external source...
The opposite of this concept is /intrinsic motivation/. A person
experiencing intrinsic motivation does an activity for how it will
enrich them on an intangible level. The rewards one gets in this
framework are self-generated: pride, sense of accomplishment,
enjoyment, rising to a challenge. These kinds of rewards, quite
simply, *feel* better and have a more personal meaning...
[Author Daniel Pink] described three different factors that make up
intrinsic motivation.
* Autonomy
* Mastery
* Purpose
Freedom is a big, driving impulse for everyone. Autonomy motivates
us because we want to believe that... we truly affect our own lives.
There's nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you're doing
something well, that you've worked and practiced hard to achieve your
own standards of excellence. Mastery is a motivating factor because
it gives us a sense of progress...
... there's also merit in the believe that we're doing something for
the "greater good." That's what a sense of purpose delivers. We
believe that what we're doing has a positive effect on more than just
our personal lives...
During the course of self-learning, it will always help to orient
your mind toward the internal rewards and improvements you're
seeking.
# Chapter 2: Interacting With Information
American educator Francis P. Robinson developed a method meant to
help students really get the most comprehension from... the subject
they're studying. Robinson sought a way to make reading more
active, helping readers by creating a dynamic engagement with books
so the information stuck in their mind.
## The SQ3R Method
* Survey
* Question
* Read
* Recite
* Review
## Survey
Get a general overview of what you'll be reading. It's just like
taking a look at the entire map before you set off on a road trip.
Surveying means examining the structure of the work, the title, the
introduction or preface, section titles, chapter titles, headings,
and subheadings. You're setting up expectations for what you're
going to be reading about and giving yourself an initial framework to
structure your goals for the reading material.
Beyond books, you should survey all the important concepts in a
discipline. If you can't find it within a structure like a book's
table of contents, then you need to be able to create it for
yourself.
You want to form a general outline of what you're going to learn.
You'll want to keep an eye out for phrases or concepts that appear in
several different sources, since they repeat elements that come up
often in your chosen field and might be things you have to know.
Then you'll organize these resources. You'll come up with a plan to
study each one.
## Question
Take a slightly closer look at the structure of the book and form
some questions you wanted answered or set up the objectives you want
to achieve.
## Reading
Because you've gotten the layout of the land and formed some
questions and goals for your studies, you're a little more engaged
when you finally sit down to read. You're looking for answers to the
questions you've raised. [You] build /anticipation/ for learning.
Now you're being deliberate and paced about your reading so you can
comprehend better. This means slowing down--a /lot/. Be patient
with the material and with yourself.
## Recite
Recitation is verbal and also in writing. Restate points
/in your own words/.
## Review
Go back over the material that you've studied, re-familiarize
yourself with the most important points, and build your skills at
memorizing the material.
Review tactics:
* Write more questions of important parts you have highlighted.
* Orally answer some of the questions if you can.
* Review your notes.
* Create flashcards for important concepts and terminology.
* Rewrite the table of contents using your own words.
* Build a mind map.
Beyond memorizing the material, this step can help you see
connections and similarities between different aspects that you might
not have picked up at first and put concepts and ideas into greater
context.
* * *
## Self-Explanation
Self-explanation sounds simple, but there is a method to the
simplicity. It's more than thinking out loud. It involves
explaining and articulating information to establish a baseline of
knowledge and blind spots.
Blind spots are when we don't realize what we don't know. But with
self-explanation, you will quickly learn what you don't understand,
and it might be far more than you expected.
/Elaborative interrogation/ is an effort to create explanations for
/why/ stated facts are true [1].
## The Feynman Technique
Known as the "Great Explainer", [Nobel-prize winning physicist
Richard Feynman] was revered for his ability to clearly illustrate
dense topics like quantum physics for virtually anybody.
The Feynman technique is a specific application of elaborative
interrogation. Remember, the goal is not to actually answer the
questions; it's to see what you are /unable/ to answer--that is the
information it provides. It has 4 steps.
* Choose your concept.
* Write down an explanation of the concept in plain English.
* Find your blind spots.
* Use an analogy.
Whenever you are unable to explain [in a simple way], this is a blind
spot you must rectify.
Making analogies between concepts requires an understanding of the
main traits and characteristics of each. This step connects new
information to old information and lets you piggyback off a working
mental model to understand or explain in greater depth.
The Feynman technique is a rapid way to discover what you know versus
what you think you know, and it allows you to solidify your knowledge
base. When you keep explaining and simplifying to yourself and
discover that you can't, you've just discovered that you don't know
as much as you thought you did.
# Chapter 3: Read Faster & Retain More
Frankly, not all information is created equally, and this can be true
even within sentence and paragraphs. There are some things that are
destined to waste our time in reading, so we should learn exactly
what is okay to skip, what to focus on, and how to manage all that.
It's about saving time and being able to see through what's in front
of you.
[I skipped this chapter.]
# Chapter 4: Skills & Habits To Teach Yourself Anything
These days, information is extremely easy to find and accumulate.
Every subject under the sun is well-represented by online resources
and public libraries, and information is going to come to you both
through your self-guided efforts and from out of the blue.
But all this information isn't going to /teach/ you by itself. All
it will do is /present/ itself. The data you get doesn't necessarily
explain its significance, its context, or meaning. When you're
teaching yourself, you won't have a mentor always in place to explain
the implications or value of what your learning, because the
structure is all up to you.
So you'll have to be proactive about figuring out what all this new
data means to your course of study.
Questions are the tools that you'll use to develop open avenues of
perception and full comprehension of your subject--not just the
surface details and dry facts.
This is commonly known as critical thinking, and it's the act of
delaying gratification in lieu of accuracy...
The first few questions should address the structure of the
conclusions, whether it comes from a sound basis in reasoning. A
second set of questions addresses instead the quality of the
conclusions and supporting arguments.
## Researching From Scratch
* Gather information
* Filter your sources
* Look for patterns & overlap
* Seek dissenting opinions
* Put it all together
## Gather Information
At this early stage of researching, don't be too discriminating. Get
as much as you can from wherever you can find it.
## Filter Your Sources
A good source backs up its arguments and ideas with solid data,
confirmable truth, and careful examination. A bad source is
generally more interested in persuasion... and hyperbole and might
rely on misleading or utterly wrong data to do so.
## Look For Patterns & Overlap
As you're viewing and reviewing all your source material, you'll
begin to notice recurring topics, stances, and ideas. Here you'll be
able to identify the major components of your topic and the most
prevalent thoughts and beliefs.
## Seek Dissenting Opinions
Without knowing the full extent of opposing arguments, you won't have
the complete picture you need to understand the issue.
* * *
Researcher Roger Säljö found in 1979 that we tend to view the act
of learning in several ways, but it can generally be boiled down into
two rough categories: /surface/ learning and /deep/ learning.
Surface learning relates to gaining knowledge, facts, and
memorization; deep learning refers to abstracted meaning and
understanding reality.
/Concept learning/ entails pattern recall and integration of new
examples and ideas.
Learning heuristics is very similar to the act of concept learning.
Heuristics describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes
categories of information and the relationships among them.
## Growth Mindset Versus Fixed Mindset
People with the fixed mindset believe that talent and intelligence
are inborn genetic traits.
Those with the growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that
talent, intelligence, and capability can be developed...
[
I've repeatedly read about having a fixed mindset versus a growth
mindset. I have incredible resistance to this idea. For one thing
it seems like an artificial dichotomy, kind of like arguing that
something must be either "nature" or "nurture", when all scientific
evidence points to a mixture of both.
Another objection is the terminology itself: growth is too close for
comfort to the mythology of perpetual, limitless growth. The
disconnect between this idea and our finite planet is causing great
harm to everyone. On an individual level then, the idea that one can
choose to ignore one's proclivities runs the risk of self-harm
through pursuing unrealistic goals that one is ill-suited for.
From a dictionary:
talent (n):
1. natural abilities or qualities
Once i read a distinction between talent and skill. A talent is a
gift, something that comes easy and naturally. Skill is developed,
something you have to work for. The same accomplishment can be
achieved either through talent and/or through skill.
Beyond talent and skill lies the important question of suitability.
College level chemistry came easily to me and i got straight A's,
but i hated it. I felt that chemistry would make a terrible career.
]
tags: book,literacy,self-help
# Footnotes
(TXT) [1] Five whys (wikipedia)
# Tags
(DIR) book
(DIR) literacy
(DIR) self-help