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James_Miller comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (5th thread, March 2013) - Less Wrong
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Figure out how you would explain the main idea of the post to a smart friend.
Thanks! Just curious, how come you chose that over simply taking short 10 second notes allowing me to memorize all the main ideas?
IIRC notetaking is supposed to work less well than explaining something to others. I don't know about imagining how to explain something to others.
I would imagine that actually explaining it out loud to a rubber duck is better than imagining explaining it to a friend, for the same reasons that it is a common debugging practice. Actually putting something into words makes weak spots in understanding obvious in a way that imagination can glide over.
Perhaps note taking works less well for understanding, but explaining it out loud without recording it down or even writing my explanation will do very little for long term recall. What good will it do if I forget everything I read, after spending many hours reading it?
At first, I think I will try explaining ideas out loud as I read to save time, then write ultrashort notes on main ideas for long term memory.
Thanks for everyone's help!
When I imagine speaking to someone, I generally imagine specific words. YMMV.
Actually speaking the words activates different areas of Broca's and Wernicke's regions (and elsewhere) than merely imagining them. Physically vocalizing the words, and hearing yourself vocalize them, allows them to be processed by more areas of your brain.
If that made much of a difference, it would also matter whether I was talking to someone out loud vs in writing. I don't feel that is the case, though it's not like I did any Gwern-level statistics about that. (Also, some people have more vivid auditory imagery than others.)
Both would work but my idea is less obvious so perhaps more helpful.
That's an interesting idea. I suppose it might help with better understanding the concept, but it might not work for long term memorization. Should I write the explanations down?
That would probably help if you have the time.