7 Myths That HIJACK Your Learning And How To BREAK Them

Ask yourself this question

Why do some people learn faster and others slow?

Stop for a second and think for an answer.

In my opinion, effective learners have the right mindset towards learning and have good habits of learning in the first place.

Ineffective learners don't have the right mindset and have bad or wrong learning habits.

Ineffective learners also have the wrong misconceptions about learning and memorizing.

In this topic, I will jump directly to 7 popular myths many of us have related to reading, memorizing, and learning in general.

So please make an effort and follow them very attentively.

Okay, let's start.

Myth 1

Your reading speed should always be constant in reality, never, ever forced speed reading.

You know, speed is the end goal.

Only while you are practicing because you can artificially increase your speed and understanding will adapt to it.

By forcing yourself to read faster than is comfortable for you, you will stretch your reading ability and growth in real practice.

Your reading ability should be treated like a gearbox.

You want to go slow on a curvy mountain road, but it's more efficient and actually safer to go fast on the highway.

Because if you are reading too slowly, your mind will get bored and stop paying attention, and never speed read a fiction book.

Fiction is actually designed to be heard internally, often in the form of a very specific voice that develops as the book goes on.

I would occasionally put on a burst of speed if I'm getting bored, for example, but we'll still go back to speaking speed very soon.

Myth 2

You should understand 100% of what you read the first time.

In reality, you can never understand 100% of what you read the first time.

If there is a long text while reading, we focus on understanding the text and not remembering it.

You know, understanding comes in layers and it may take multiple reading sessions to reach that position, to reach that level.

We evolve, our mind evolves, our conceptions evolve.

So it's normal that you will have new insights where you will look at certain things from a different perspective than previously.

Myth 3

I have a bad memory.

In reality, there is only trained memory or untrained memory.

To understand the memory process, you have to train your brain to memorize the information.

The entire memory module’s mission is to help you remember large amounts of information, even a full book.

One important aspect here, you know, everyone forgets even memory champions forget information.

It doesn't say that you have a bad memory.

It's not possible to remember all the information the first time.

So therefore we have to make a rational choice of what information we retain and skip the rest.

Myth 4

People who remember large amounts of information have a photographic memory.

In reality, according to science, there is no such thing as a photographic memory.

Individuals who can memorize large amounts of information have trained their brains to retain it.

You can do the same.

It's easier than you think, but of course it does require dedication from your side.

Myth 5 

Brain Training Games Improve Cognitive Performance.

You've probably seen ads for apps promising to push you to read faster or memorize faster in just a few minutes a day, hundreds of so-called brain training programs can be purchased for download.

These simple games are designed to challenge mental abilities with the ultimate goal of improving the performance of important everyday tasks, but can just clicking away at animations of swimming fish flashed street signs on your phone really help you improve the way your brain functions?

Neuroscientists at Western University in Ontario, Canada, delved deeper into this topic in 2018, and the results were astonishing.

From a consumer perspective, if you hear a company or an advertisement saying,

Do brain training,

Do this thing for half an hour and you'll get a higher IQ, that's very, very appealing.

Unfortunately, there's just no evidence to support that claim.

There are, however, other things you can do to stay mentally agile, sleep better, exercise regularly, and eat better.

Education is great.

That's the sort of thing we should be focused on, say the neuroscientists.

This is why I don't recommend buying or using apps to improve your memory and reading speed.

I fully believe in the old-fashioned but highly effective pen and paper, which are going to use any way during this course.

Myth 6

People remember 10% of what they read.

Although the learning pyramid myth was debunked a long time ago, it still lingers and is taken as fact by many teachers and students.

The theory says that people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 40% of what they see, and 50% of what they see and hear.

70% of what they say and write and 90% of what they do or teach others.

But while this pyramid would be a useful tool if it were true, the problem with it is that it's never actually been proven.

And these percentages are pure fiction.

It's unclear where the pyramid and numbers originated.

Researcher Wil Thalheimer points out that if someone uses scientific repetition, we're more likely to believe it, which is probably why the learning pyramid is still widely accepted as fact.

Myth 7

There are shortcuts to better learning.

This is probably the biggest learning math of all time.

Learning is hard work, and we'd all love to take a shortcut if we could.

But despite all the learning facts that have come and gone from mindfulness to brain training games and exercises, learning is and will always be a process.

It requires time and effort and is bound to feel difficult and uncomfortable at times.

So while an understanding of how the brain works can help us study and learn more effectively, the bottom line is that there are no shortcuts.

So the next time someone tells you about an app or some fancy learning method, that sounds too good to be true.

Take it with a pinch of salt and remember to review claims critically and look for the evidence behind them.

Now the introspection time.

What do you think about the myths I have listed?

What myth or myth about learning do you think you have?

Thank you very much!!