How to Learn Better in the Digital Age

如何在数字时代更好地学习

Before I got into productivity and performance, I used to spend many hours online ingesting vast troves of digital content. My information diet ranged from inspirational TED talks to specialized podcasts, from blog posts found on Hacker News to ebooks shared on Twitter.
在我开始关注效率和绩效提升之前，我常常花大量时间上网浏览海量的数字内容。我的信息来源十分广泛，从励志的 TED 演讲到专业的播客，从 Hacker News 上的博客文章到 Twitter 上分享的电子书，应有尽有。

I’m deeply curious, and I gave in to new content as much as I could. What could be the harm?—I thought. I loved spending my time this way. It felt useful, it was fun, and it nurtured my self-image as a “smart guy” — all at the same time. Truly, a learning hack.
我求知欲很强，尽可能地吸收新知识。我想，这有什么坏处呢？我 喜欢 这样度过时间。它让我感觉很有意义，很有趣，而且还增强了我“聪明人”的自我认知——所有这些好处同时具备。这真是一种学习妙招。

Turns out I wasn’t hacking anything: The learning wasn’t real.
结果证明我并没有进行任何黑客攻击：我所学到的东西并非真实存在。

A few months ago, doubts began to creep into my mind about the effectiveness of my habits.
几个月前，我开始怀疑我的习惯是否有效。

While I’d amped up my information consumption, I wasn’t retaining most of it. My memory was behaving like a leaky bucket. Sure, I was spending tens of hours listening to politics on the radio. But when I tried to use any of those points in a conversation, I found that I didn’t actually know enough to make a coherent argument. I knew the surrounding context, but the moment I needed to get specific my argument would crumble. Same for many other topics: the more technical they were, the less retention I had.
虽然我加大了信息摄入量，但大部分信息却记不住。我的记忆力就像个漏水的桶。没错，我的确花了几十个小时收听广播里的政治节目。但当我试图把这些观点运用到日常对话中时，却发现自己根本没有足够的知识来构建一个连贯的论点。 我了解相关的背景信息，但一旦需要具体阐述，我的论点就土崩瓦解 。其他很多话题也是如此：越是技术性的内容，我就越记不住。

Where did all that information go?
那些信息都到哪里去了？

The problem lied in how I was seeing learning, and therefore how I was approaching it.
问题在于我对学习的看法，以及我学习的方法。

Learning is what turns information consumption into long-lasting knowledge. The two things are different: while information is ephemeral, true knowledge is foundational. If knowledge were a person, information would be its picture.
学习是将信息消费转化为持久知识的过程。两者截然不同：信息转瞬即逝，而真正的知识却是根基性的。如果把知识比作一个人，那么信息就是他的肖像。

It’s easy to think of learning in accretive, cumulative terms: if I stack up enough information, it will eventually turn into knowledge. We tend to judge the world in material terms, and if data were tangible, an indefinitely growing memory might be reasonable to assume. The more information I consume, the more information I store, the information data I can later retrieve. The more business newsletters I’ll read, the more I’ll know business.
人们很容易把学习理解为 一种累积的 过程：如果我积累足够的信息，它最终会转化为知识。我们倾向于用物质的眼光看待世界，如果数据是实实在在的，那么假设记忆可以无限增长或许也合情合理。我摄入的信息越多，存储的信息就越多，以后可以检索的信息也就越多。我阅读的商业新闻简报越多，我对商业的了解也就越多。

However, this line of thinking wasn’t really applicable to my case: I was undoubtedly consuming many business newsletters each week, but that wasn’t translating into long-term business knowledge.
然而，这种思路并不适用于我的情况：我每周无疑会阅读很多商业新闻简报，但这并没有转化为长期的商业知识。

I spent the last eight months trying to find an answer to this riddle. It took me deep into the topic of meta-learning: How do humans learn? And how can we learn better in the digital information age?
过去八个月，我一直在试图找到这个谜题的答案。这让我深入研究了元学习：人类是如何学习的？在数字信息时代，我们如何才能更好地学习？

Learning must be effortful

学习必须付出努力。

Unfortunately for us, human memory does not resemble storage, and “passive accumulation” isn’t how learning happens.
对我们来说不幸的是，人类的记忆并不像存储那样简单，“被动积累”并不是学习发生的方式。

The truth is that we retain information only when we put serious effort into the process of learning. The intrinsic effortfulness of learning is not just a byproduct of the core activity, like shortness of breath during running. On the contrary: it’s what actually enables it. The relationship is causal.
事实是，只有当我们 认真 投入学习过程时，才能真正记住信息。学习本身的内在努力并非仅仅是核心活动的副产品，就像跑步时气喘吁吁一样。恰恰相反，它才是学习的 根本 动力 。二者之间存在因果关系。

I didn’t find a learning hack to avoid effort because there’s no such thing as easy learning: learning must be effortful in order for it to happen.
我没有找到可以避免努力的学习捷径，因为学习没有捷径： 学习 必须 付出努力才能有所收获 。

What surprised me the most is that learning is far more grounded in the physical world than I was comfortable admitting.
最令我惊讶的是，学习其实比我之前愿意承认的更贴近现实世界。

The most literal meaning of effort is physical effort (think of weight lifting at the gym). The same holds true with information retention: it works best when the process of assimilating it is physically effortful. Our memory shines when our learning is physical, visceral, and obvious, like the aching in your hands after a morning spent hand-writing.
努力最直接的含义就是 体力劳动 （想想在健身房举重）。信息记忆也是如此：当吸收信息的过程需要 付出体力劳动 时，记忆效果最佳。当我们的学习是切身的、直观的、显而易见的，就像一上午写字后双手酸痛一样，我们的记忆力就会格外敏锐。

Since they’re passive, easy, and exclusively digital, after this realization all my podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, newsletters, blog posts, videos, live webinars were suddenly deprived of their “ learning status ”. Instead, they assumed their proper place in my schedule as pure entertainment activities.
由于它们是被动的、便捷的，而且完全数字化，意识到这一点后，我的所有播客、电子书、有声读物、新闻简报、博客文章、视频和在线研讨会突然失去了“ 学习属性 ”。相反，它们在我的日程安排中占据了应有的位置，成为纯粹的 娱乐活动 。

The fact of the matter is that digital products make it uniquely easy to trick yourself into thinking that you’re learning when you are actually being entertained.
事实是，数字产品很容易让人误以为自己在学习，而实际上却是在娱乐。

What I still didn’t know was why our mind works like this. Is this just the current state of digital learning and teaching, or there’s actually a margin for easy learning to be found somewhere?
我一直不明白的是，为什么我们的思维方式是这样。这只是目前数字化学习和教学的现状吗？还是说，其实在某个地方还存在着 轻松 学习的空间？

The neurology of learning

学习的神经学

I’m no expert in medicine, let alone neurology, but I did want to roughly understand what happens when we — as humans — create knowledge. Luckily I didn’t need profound medical expertise to get the gist of the matter.
我并非医学专家，更谈不上神经学，但我确实想大致了解一下我们——作为人类——在创造知识的过程中发生了什么。幸运的是，我并不需要深厚的医学专业知识就能理解问题的要点。

Our brain is made of a web of interconnected neurons. The links between these neurons are called axons: long, slender projections of nerve fibers that transmit electrical impulses.
我们的大脑由相互连接的神经元网络构成。这些神经元之间的连接称为轴突：细长的神经纤维突起，负责传递电脉冲。

Around these axons, there’s an insulating membrane called myelin. It covers many neuronal axons and facilitates the propagation of electrical signals along neuronal circuits. The more myelin around an axon, the stronger and more connected the signal transmission will be.
在这些轴突周围，有一层称为髓鞘的绝缘膜。它包裹着许多神经元轴突，并促进电信号沿神经回路的传导。轴突周围的髓鞘越多，信号传递就越强，连接也越紧密。

Myelin is to neural transmissions as oxygen is to fire. It allows rapid information transfer over long distances, and it greatly increases the speed of propagation of electric signals in our brain.
髓鞘之于神经传递，犹如氧气之于电流。它使信息能够远距离快速传递，并 极大地提高了 大脑中电信号的传播速度。

See it as water flowing through a pipe with dynamic, changing capacity. Pipes with greater capacity can move more water, more quickly than a small pipe or a slow drip. The more myelin supporting a neural connection, the easier it is to use that connection — and thus to use the skill or remember the topic associated with that connection
可以把它想象成水流经一根容量动态变化的管道。容量更大的管道可以比小管道或缓慢滴水更快地输送更多的水。髓鞘支撑的神经连接越多，就越容易使用该连接——从而更容易运用与该连接相关的技能或记住相关内容。

A key aspect of myelin is that it’s highly dynamic. It’s an integral component of our brain plasticity. So the question becomes: how is myelin generated, and why?
髓鞘的一个关键特性是其高度动态性。它是我们大脑可塑性的重要组成部分。因此，问题就变成了：髓鞘是如何生成的，以及为什么会生成？

When we come across a new topic, new regions of the brain start activating. The more we use those new regions, the more myelin is synthesized, the easier that topic (or activity) gets.
当我们接触一个新话题时，大脑的新区域就会被激活。我们越频繁地使用这些新区域，髓鞘的合成就越多，这个话题（或活动）也就变得越容易理解和掌握。

We all know the old saying practice makes perfect. The more we use a certain region of our brain, the more our brain “prioritizes” and “hones” it. That is what leads to myelin: activity induces myelination, which leads to increased strength of connectivity and efficiency along those very neurons. It’s a self-reinforcing process.
我们都知道 “熟能生巧” 这句老话。我们越频繁地使用大脑的某个区域，大脑就越会“优先”和“强化”它。这就是髓鞘形成的原因：活动会诱导髓鞘形成，从而增强神经元之间的连接强度和效率。这是一个自我强化的过程。

In other words, it compounds.
换句话说，它会产生复合效应。

See now why it’s so hard to learn? To learn anything we must make active use of unexplored regions of our brain before they’re ready. It’s, quite literally, getting out of the comfort zone. The more we use them, the more they get better. Learning is structurally hard.
现在明白为什么学习这么难了吧？要学习任何东西，我们都必须主动利用大脑中尚未开发的区域， 即使 它们还没有准备好。这说白了就是走出舒适区。我们越是使用这些区域，它们就越能发挥作用。 学习 本身 就很难。

The truly mesmerizing thing about myelination is that it is correlated with active use of motor neurons. It looks like human cognition is fundamentally grounded in sensory-motor processes: we retain information better when we associate some physical activity to it. The general intuition is that movement provides additional cues we can use to retrieve knowledge.
髓鞘形成真正令人着迷之处在于它与 运动神经元 的活跃使用密切相关。人类认知似乎从根本上来说建立在感觉运动过程之上：当我们把信息与某种 身体活动 联系起来时，就能更好地记住信息。 人们普遍认为，运动能提供额外的线索，帮助我们提取知识。

We can see this effect happening when we take notes. A larger corpus of research is suggesting that taking notes physically — that is, by hand-writing them — is far more effective than using a laptop. Keyboarding does not provide tactile feedback to the brain that the contact between pencil and paper does: this contact, this raw feedback, is the key to creating the neurocircuitry in the hand-brain complex, that evidence shows supports memory and retention.
我们做笔记时就能看到这种效应。大量研究表明，手写笔记比使用笔记本电脑 高效得多 。键盘输入无法像纸笔接触那样为大脑提供触觉反馈：这种接触，这种原始的反馈，是建立手脑复合体神经回路的关键，而证据 表明 ，这种神经回路有助于记忆和信息保留。

All of this means we need to radically reassess digital learning. We haven’t evolved to store information by passively watching Masterclass videos: that’s just not how our minds work.
这一切都意味着 我们需要彻底重新评估数字化学习 。我们进化成这样并非为了通过被动观看大师班视频来存储信息：我们的大脑运作方式并非如此。

However, the other side of this coin is that we’re living in times of unprecedented information surplus. This is an opportunity that we should learn to seize.
然而，事情的另一面是，我们生活在一个信息空前过剩的时代。这是一个我们应该学会抓住的机会。

Creative learning in a digital world

数字世界中的创造性学习

The best way to describe my information diet before discovering that effort is instrumental to learning would be edutainment.
在我发现努力对学习至关重要之前，描述我获取信息的方式最好的方式就是 寓教于乐 。

Edutainment mixes education topics with entertainment methodologies. Even if edutainment optimizes for passive attention instead of effortful engagement (the opposite of learning), it’s not just “mere fun.” Deleting Twitter and unsubscribing from newsletters, as suggested by Deep Work advocates like Cal Newport, can actually end up preventing learning.
寓教于乐将教育主题与娱乐方式相结合。即使寓教于乐旨在吸引被动注意力而非积极参与（这与学习背道而驰），它也绝非仅仅是“娱乐”。正如 卡尔·纽波特 等“深度工作”倡导者所建议的那样，删除推特账号和取消订阅新闻邮件实际上可能会 阻碍 学习。

I see edutainment as preparation for learning: it’s a powerful explorative tool that can provide ideas and motivation to learn. And yet, it’s also not learning itself, in the same way as buying running shoes is not running.
我认为寓教于乐是 学习的准备 ：它是一种强大的探索工具，能够激发学习的灵感和动力。然而，它本身并不是学习，就像买跑鞋并不等于跑步一样。

Within this framework, “mindless” browsing online can be transformed into scouting for learning opportunities. It’s yet another searching problem where it’s key to balance the exploration of new opportunities with the commitment to the existing ones — a topic I wrote about at length in another essay. It’s about balancing the time spent “scouting” for interesting topics online with the offline effort needed for long-term retention and integration.
在这个框架下，“漫无目的地”浏览网络可以转化为 寻找学习机会 。这又是一个搜索问题，关键在于平衡探索新机会与坚持现有机会之间的关系——我在 另一篇文章 中对此进行了详细阐述。这涉及到如何平衡花在网上“搜寻”有趣话题的时间与线下长期记忆和整合知识所需的努力。

Pragmatically, I solved this trade-off with a powerful tool: a learning inbox.
务实地说，我用一个强大的工具解决了这个权衡问题：学习收件箱。

A learning inbox is a to-do list for stuff I’d like to actually learn. I picked up the idea from Andy Matuschak — legendary ed-tech expert —, who used a similar concept as a tool for capturing possibly-useful references. The learning inbox is a system that forces me to be mindful about what content is learning, and what is at the end of the day just entertainment.
学习收件箱是我用来记录真正想学习的内容的待办事项清单。这个想法源于教育科技界的传奇人物安迪·马图沙克 (Andy Matuschak)，他 曾用类似的概念 来收集可能用到的参考资料。学习收件箱系统迫使我认真思考哪些内容是 学习 ，哪些内容最终只是 娱乐 。

Everything interesting I find on my way is sent to my learning inbox and from there gets triaged, be it a paper, an online essay, a blog post, a YouTube video, or a podcast. When an item ends up in there, there are three things that can happen: I either decide to actively engage with it, to file for future interest, or just trash it. Active engagement is exactly what it sounds like: I need to take effortful action to consume the content in the list, otherwise I automatically bucket it as entertainment.
所有我一路发现的有趣内容都会发送到我的学习收件箱，然后进行分类，无论是论文、在线文章、博客文章、YouTube 视频还是播客。当一项内容进入收件箱后，可能会发生三种情况：我会主动阅读、存档以备将来参考，或者直接删除。主动阅读顾名思义： 我需要付出努力才能消化列表中的内容 ，否则我会自动将其归类为娱乐消遣。

In other words, I need to do something with it. To create something. Write a blog post about it, use it in a new project, test it on the field, teach it at a meetup. That’s why I speak at many conferences: it’s a learning tool.
换句话说，我需要用它做点什么。 创造 点什么。写篇博客文章，把它用在新项目中，进行实地测试，或者在交流会上讲解。这就是我为什么 经常在会议 上发言的原因：它是一种学习工具。

In GTD fashion, permanence in this list is temporary. It’s a release valve, not a procrastination tool.
按照 GTD 的理念 ，这份清单上的“永久”指的是暂时的。它是一个释放压力的阀门，而不是拖延的工具。

For example, I recently came across a tweet during the last Election day mentioning a video about computational democracy. I’m extremely interested in the intersection between politics and data, so I sent the link to my learning inbox (a task on Things 3) – and then promptly forgot about it.
例如，我最近在上次大选日看到 一条推文 ，提到 一个关于计算民主的视频 。我对政治和数据的交叉领域非常感兴趣，于是把链接发到了我的学习收件箱（Things 3 上的一个任务）——然后就很快把它忘了。

A few days later, during one of my ritual learning sprints, I took out my notepad and watched the whole video while taking handwritten notes. I then reviewed and transcribed what I had jotted down to an evergreen digital note in my personal knowledge base. The whole process took twice as long as watching the video, and it’s not even a done deal: I would still need some kind of experimentation, tinkering, iteration, application in different contexts, and generally something more hands-on than just note-taking to significantly solidify my knowledge on the topic. That’s what learning takes.
几天后，在我例行的学习冲刺阶段，我拿出笔记本，一边看完整个视频一边做笔记。然后，我回顾并整理了笔记内容，将其誊写成一份 永久保存于个人知识库中的电子笔记 。整个过程耗时是观看视频的两倍，而且这还远未结束：我仍然需要进行一些实验、调整、迭代、在不同情境下应用，总之，需要一些比单纯记笔记更实际的实践，才能真正巩固我对这个主题的理解。这就是学习的真谛。

The process takes a lot of time and effort, which means it’s not something I can afford to do with every piece of content I find online. Most of the time I trash the links I find, upon further review. Sometimes they end up in my learning wish list.
这个过程需要花费大量时间和精力，这意味着我无法对在网上找到的每条内容都进行这样的处理。大多数情况下，经过进一步审查后，我会删除找到的链接。有时，它们最终会进入我的 学习愿望清单 。

The core idea is trying my best to not kid myself: when my engagement with a piece of content is active and effortful then it’s learning, when it’s passive it’s entertainment. When I create I learn. When I consume I just relax.
核心理念是努力不自欺欺人：当我积极主动地投入到一段内容中时，那就是学习；当我被动地接受内容时，那就是娱乐。 创作时我 学习 ，消费时我只是 放松 。

Bottom line: we need to engage with what we encounter if we wish to absorb it long term. In a smartphone-driven society, real engagement, beyond the share or like or retweet, got fundamentally difficult – or, put another way, not engaging got fundamentally easier. Passive browsing is addictive: the whole information supply chain is optimized for time spent in-app, not for retention and proactivity.
归根结底：如果我们想长期吸收信息，就必须 积极参与 其中。在智能手机主导的社会里，除了分享、点赞或转发之外的真正互动变得极其困难——或者换句话说，不参与互动变得极其容易。被动浏览令人上瘾：整个信息供应链都以用户在应用内停留的时间为优化目标，而非用户留存和主动参与。

Luckily, the other side of the coin is that finding new topics and new reasons to learn got dramatically easier, with such an abundance of content and stimuli.
幸运的是，另一方面，由于内容和刺激如此丰富，寻找新的学习主题和新的学习 理由 变得容易得多。

We just need to be proactive with how we engage with all of the streams of content available to us. To go out and build, write, talk, teach, explain, create — effortful actions, that lead to meaningful growth.
我们只需要积极主动地参与到所有可获取的内容渠道中。走出去，去建设、写作、交流、教学、解释、创造——这些需要付出努力的行动，才能带来有意义的成长。

That’s for sure what I’m going to do.
我肯定会这么做。

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