2

      LEARNING

       Why We Are Bad at Rote Learning, but Better at Understanding the World

      KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, everyone says, and so it follows that the most powerful people must also have the most knowledge. But, it turns out they usually have the least. Knowledge doesn’t simply rain down from the sky. Our brain has to work to attain it; it has to learn. And this isn’t a very easy task. Try it out right now by memorizing the following list:

      Ginger

      Raisin

      Bicycle

      Strawberry

      Night

      Hedgehog

      Salad

      Grapes

      Noodles

      Clock

      Rest

      Dream

      Zebra

      Lollipop

      Labyrinth

      Chameleon

      Raspberry

      Allow yourself to read the list multiple times so that you can really get it. Feel free to use tricks, imagery, mnemonic devices, storytelling. Then continue reading. But don’t forget: don’t forget! Even though the previous chapter showed us just how hard it is to remember things and also that the brain loves to toss things out of its memory.

       Learning isn’t everything

      THE IDEA OF learning doesn’t conjure the rosiest image for us. This is apparent in the words that we use around the idea of learning: cram, bone up on, wade through, bury oneself in, burn the midnight oil, or even put our noses to the grindstone. A lot of people associate learning with an unpleasant period spent at school or attending a training course accompanied by exertion, frustration, battles over grades, and annoying exams. Life is divided into the time in which one is required to learn, finish homework or seminar materials, and spare time, in which we can finally do something fun. Learning is tedious, exhausting, and undesirable. Spare time, free from learning is, by contrast, fun, relaxing, and enjoyable. It almost seems that we need to create a special environment for learning if it is ever to happen at all. Anyone who wants to continue their education has to take a course or a workshop, and when it’s finally over, they have “learned enough.” The exam is passed; the certificate is in hand—it’s curtains on learning.

      Unfortunately, learning doesn’t simply let go quite so easily. We are continuously required to educate ourselves and there is never an end to it. I recently read in my autograph book a reflection written by a then seven-year-old pal who had already figured out, over twenty years ago, that he was never going to stop learning: “Learning is like paddling against the stream. As soon as you stop, you float backwards.” The buzzword nowadays is “lifelong learning.” And of course, we do have to learn everywhere and all the time—at school, at university, in our careers. We are thus fortunate to have a brain that learns with us.

      Or, does it? At the end of the day, it is not very easy to acquire and save information. In fact, it turns out the brain has three weaknesses when it comes to learning. The first is that it doesn’t learn very well under pressure. Anyone who has ever studied for an important exam knows how complicated that can be. Secondly, we are extremely bad at learning data, facts, and information. The brain tires quickly of this kind of stuff. Or are you perhaps able to recall the names of the first five Presidents of the United States, the second binomial formula, or the difference between a predicative and adverbial clause? No? You have probably learned all of these things at some point but then forgot them again. Which leads us to the third of the brain’s weaknesses: anyone who is able to learn something is also able to unlearn it. Learning is not a one-way street of knowledge in the brain.

      Although at first glance learning appears to be a tedious business, linguistically disparaging, and an altogether arduous undertaking, the brain happens to be a grand master in this particular discipline. After all, learning is our evolutionary specialty, our ecological niche—the thing that we are able to perform with exceptional agility and which sets us apart from other species. Birds fly. Fish swim. Humans learn. Albeit differently than we might suppose. There’s no doubt we have certain weaknesses when it comes to learning (i.e., the stress of learning causes us to cramp up, we are bad at memorizing facts, etc.) but on closer inspection, it becomes apparent that these deficiencies are merely the price we pay for being the best learners in the world. Or, even more than that: not only do we learn, we also understand the world. This is the great strength of human thought and why it is worth swallowing the few weaknesses that go along with it. Anyone who is able to appreciate this should also be able to understand the best methods for taking in new information (how best to “learn”) and why we, as a species, will always remain superior to computers.

       The neuron orchestra

      BEFORE WE START talking about the weaknesses (and strengths) of how we learn, we’d better take a peek behind the scenes of a learning brain. What is it that happens, in fact, when we learn something new? Or, we can ask an even more basic question: What is a piece of information—is it a thought inside of our head that needs to “get learned”?

      When it comes to computers, the answer is relatively clear. If I want to save something on a computer, I first need something to save. We call this data, electronically processed characters. The computer has to put these bits of data somewhere so that it may obtain them later. It organizes a data packet, or a location where it can selectively access the material. Once it has both (data and location), the computer is ready to process this combination as information. This is not unlike what goes on in a library. The books contain (written) characters that are placed on the shelves in a system that helps you to locate them again. If you want to