How to Learn

The other day, I confessed to my adviser how I learned best. I read and study as much and as intelligently as I can, but at the end of the day, there's no way I can possibly absorb all of what I read and study. What it comes down to is, months or years later, when someone walks up to me assuming that I already know something, it is then that I dig that stuff out from my brain, where it will have been gathering dust, and give myself a crash "refresher" course and then I understand it for real.

He laughed, like that was the funniest thing he'd heard in a while. I was surprised. I thought everyone learned that way! Well, maybe that's just how Sili Valley people learn. I remember my first day in a new position in this to-remain-unnamed blue chip company, I was immediately placed on a dozen or so email distribution lists so I'd be apprised of all of the worldwide crises. My inbox went to a full page within an hour or so. That evening, I was told to sit in on a conference call with the Taiwan account team, ostensibly to meet everyone and learn the current status of projects and problems and such (remember, this was my first day in the company). But nope. I was introduced as the new "expert" on my product line, and I was there to solve everyone's problems, from process to hardware. (This was in no way possible; I was less than a year out of my undergrad studies, and my previous work experience was completely unrelated). So I went scrambling around to read email histories, ask people what they knew, look up BKMs, etc, and then parroted this back to whomever was asking. Pretty much faking the hell out of everyone. I was also constantly nervous that people would soon learn that their new product expert was a total fraud!

Well, it turns out that that's how I learn best, after all. I actually did become somewhat competent at my job, via this bizarre training method, and when I started grad school at SCU, I found the same learning method applicable. A prof would say, "Of course, you remember from your undergrad studies that blahblahblah..." and I'd say to myself, "Huh? Oh, right, I vaguely remember that..." and then I'd go look it up. It was these second encounters with the material, combined with the need to fake having already mastered it, that really cemented the knowledge for me.

And so I sit here, poring through books and articles on ice and snow physics, and wonder when I'll be put to the test...