When I want to learn something new – really learn it – I use a process of Zooming Out – seeing the big picture and identifying all the connections to that topic – and then Zooming In – focusing down into investigating the details. Here are the key components of the process:
Zooming Out
Zooming Out is a form of Systems Thinking.
SI Expert Daniel Kim defines it this way:
In the most basic sense, a system is any group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent parts that form a complex and unified whole that has a specific purpose. The key thing to remember is that all the parts are interrelated and interdependent in some way. Without such interdependencies, we have just a collection of parts, not a system.
Not every thing you want to learn about lends itself to a Systems Approach, but in a highly complex world, any big issue that we are trying to tackle usually does. Poverty, Education, Inequality, Health Care, etc., are all topics that one can only understand by looking at the entire eco-system these issues operate within. And, in this case, it just happens that each one of the four examples I just stated, interact with each other – so we can have complete systems interacting with other systems. For example, trying to tackle the issue of poverty without looking at education or rising inequality is pointless. In general though, any topic you are interested in understanding at a deeper level will benefit from a Systems Thinking approach.
Zooming Out is about Visualization
Seeing data and information visually makes it easier to spot connections and gives understanding of what’s most important in a large subject area. A good tool to use when Zooming Out is a Mind-Map. It helps to capture all the different aspects of your subject and arrange them with some level of organization. Below is a very good mind-map example from povertyinfo.org which breaks down their assessment of the major drivers of global poverty (you can click on the image to see it more clearly in a separate window).
By mind-mapping in this way, you can take any topic and first identify the major components or drivers of that issue. You can then go down another level to identify the sub-drivers within each of the major issues. By doing this you are consciously identifying the components of a topic which will then lead you to visualizing how they are related. Your Mind Map will then identify for you where you need to drill down further to identify root causes (zooming in phase). You can go much further with the data you gather, and there are many Systems Thinking tools that you can use to identify how various components are influencing and affecting each other. To get a good concise overview – see Daniel Kim’s excellent primer on Systems Thinking. In terms of Mind Mapping apps, I am on a MAC platform and use MyThoughts HD. It works beautifully and intuitively. There are however many chooses for both OS X and Windows that you will find on the web – both free and paid.
More is Better in this Phase
You don’t want to limit yourself also to just one domain area. Look at multiple domains of knowledge – for example, if you are investigating a scientific subject – venture out to find the connections in artistic and philosophical areas. This brings different perspectives to the topic and is a holistic approach to learning. You want to conduct a complete “360 degree” look in this phase. Much of what happens in society today is people limiting their “view point” to a small slice of available data. When doing this, they miss the connections and ultimately come away with misleading and incomplete understanding of a subject or issue.
Ask a lot of Questions
A key tool for identifying all the components of a system as you mind map, is to ask a lot of questions. Good questions will guide you into finding the best answers. This also helps when you go to research things on Google. In fact, when a typical Google search query will yield 95,000,000 hits, your ability to narrow down your results to the best ones is incumbent on specifying your question with more rigor. I like the five major questions of Who, What, When, Where and Why supported by the four D’s to identify high quality sources of information -Doubt, Detect, Discern, and Demand:
- Doubt — a healthy skepticism that questions everything.
- Detect — a “nose for news” and relentless pursuit of the truth.
- Discern — a priority for fairness, balance and objectivity in reporting.
- Demand — a focus on free access to information and freedom of speech.
Zooming In
When we are ready to enter the Zooming In phase, then Researching, Learning, and Retention become most important. A lot of what I learn comes from books, but also in-depth articles, journals, webinars, video tutorials, and podcasts. Being an effective note taker is essential to capture key information, but so is post-processing the information in way that your brain categorizes and remembers effectively. There are some very good resources to help synthesize information more effectively that I have found very useful:
- How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, by Mortimer Adler
- Shane Parish at the Farnam Street Blog has written an excellent article on the subject – Reading Better: Retaining and Applying What You Read
- And if you are reluctant to mark up and take notes in a physical book (as I have been in the past), then Damian Farnworth makes a compelling case for why it’s absolutely necessary in order to master the contents of the book – How to Absorb a Book into Your Bloodstream
Another resource I would recommend in terms of note taking and increasing the effectiveness of you learning process is learning how to “SketchNote”. Illustrator and Graphic Designer Mike Rohde is the leading proponent of SketchNoting – a concept he defines as:
Rich visual notes created from a mix of handwriting, drawings, hand-drawn typography, shapes, and visual elements like arrows, boxes, and lines.
Rohde explains that SketchNoting’s effectiveness is based on the Dual Coding Theory:
The Dual Coding Theory proposed in the 1970’s by Allan Paivio, suggest that the brain processes information using two primary channels: verbal (concepts as words) and visual (concepts as images). When both modes are active, your brain creates and associative library of words and images with mental cross-references between them. SketchNoting therefore engages your whole mind and it helps you remember more detail. Sketch noting activates verbal and visual modes to capture concepts. Your whole brain is absorbed in hearing, synthesizing, and seizing ideas.
Here is an example of a Mike Rohde SketchNote. As you can see it is a combination of different styles of text, basic graphics, different font sizes, and some other visual elements.
There are many people doing SketchNoting now and a google search will give you plenty of interesting examples – from basic sketchnotes to very complex ones with professional drawings. The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert drawer to do sketchnoting. In fact, in Mike Rodhe’s book – The SketchNote Handbook – he shows how you can do most illustrations with just five shapes.
Isolating and Going Deep
In photography, when we really want to understand a subject, we pull out the macro lens and try to isolate and capture a unique essence of what we are photographing. Zooming in on information is similar. This is where breakthrough insights come from. It also helps to look at the same thing but from many different view points. Read a book on the same subject by different authors – each will explain a concept differently. Some ways will be more effective in conveying the information to you.
Repetition Matters
The conscious brain doesn’t fully absorb and make sense of all the information the first time. It’s organizing and making patterns of what it’s seeing. You are bound to miss things the first time through. When you read a book the 2nd time around, you routinely notice things that you didn’t the first time or a concept hits you that didn’t on the first pass. The same goes for movies. We’ve also learned new things since the first read, so knowledge builds upon knowledge. Now that we know more, we will look at the material with a new set of “eyes” – or more accurately – awareness level. This pattern will occur over your life time. Information and knowledge grows internally and externally to you. If you think you’ve totally figured something out and no longer need to learn anything else in that area, think again. I’m sure you know people who comment on subjects that is based on information they learned 30 or 40 years ago, and have continued to stay in that level of awareness. There are definitely eternal “truths and wisdom” that do no need any updating, but items of knowledge and information, should always be refreshed and brought up to present day levels.
Finding Insight and Answers – Zoom back out and Make Connections
When you’ve been doing lots of research and study, it often feels that you are awash in a sea of information. Seeing a coherent whole among the vastness of the data can obscure insight. The problem here is that conscious brain can only do so much. However, your subconscious has vastly more storage and processing power. If you can “hand over” this information to the subconscious along with some direction (a question you need resolved, some missing piece of the puzzle), and then leave it alone to do its thing, you’ll be amazed at the results. Cal Newport author of the Study Hacks blog and Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University writes about this phenomenon in his article – Deep Habits: Work With Your Whole Brain:
Not long ago, when researching a yet to be announced new writing project, I stumbled into a large research literature on what is sometimes called Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT). At the core of UTT is the following idea: the parts of our brain supporting conscious thought represent only a small fraction of our neuronal horsepower. When it comes to complex tasks, therefore, our conscious attention can help intake and understand only a limited amount of information at a time. Other parts of our brain, however, that operate below the level of conscious attention, are able to dedicate a lot more resources to processing these tasks: even though we don’t always realize this is going on.
Great minds of the past and present have spoken about how they enlist the aid of their subconscious to consolidate information and access greater levels of understanding. Things that seem to work well include taking a nap, or sleeping overnight on a problem, or meditating. Meditating has been known to clear and strengthen the communication channel between the conscious and subconscious, so it’s probably a good thing to do both approaches.
Cal Newport in his experience actually found another method – to consciously try to remember and write out what he had learned. When doing this he found he was accessing greater levels learning from his subconscious than what he consciously felt he understood. It’s as he was accessing a larger hard drive in the brain real time:
Process then Summarize. Regardless of the exact source of the phenomenon I encountered, I suspect the strategy that generated it provides a useful deep habit for many cases where you must make sense of a large amount of complicated information. Spend time to process the information, piece by piece, with full concentration. Once you’re done, step back and try to summarize what you learned. Though the process of digesting the information might feel frustratingly scattered, you’ll likely be surprised by how much work the other parts of your mind accomplished on your behalf. By writing down what you know, you cement this effort.
In a way what Cal was doing was a modified Feynman Technique on learning – summarizing and teaching yourself the information in order to increase comprehension and retention. In his case he found his subconscious brain to contain what he needed to do the job effectively.
Happy Zooming,
~Jay Kshatri
www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
