Learning Speed

This is the most popular course in Coursera's history — over 5 million people enrolled. It is so well-known that it has become a canon in the education community. Created by Barbara Oakley (engineering professor) and Terrence Sejnowski (neuroscientist at the Salk Institute), the course combines learning neurobiology with concrete, testable techniques. What you get in 4 weeks: an explanation of the **spaced repetition** mechanism — why it works neurobiologically and how to apply it; the difference between **active recall** and *passive review* (everyone thinks they're studying, but most are passively reviewing — that doesn't work); how to fight **procrastination** (the course offers concrete techniques, not just a description of the problem); how to construct **interleaved practice** instead of block repetition. Each module ends with a quiz. The material is universal enough to apply to language learning, programming, medicine, law — essentially everywhere you must absorb a lot of information. It's an ideal entry point to the later book 'Make It Stick' (see below) which is more academic but goes deeper into the same mechanisms.

Blinkist provides professionally-written summaries of non-fiction books — each readable in 15-20 minutes or listenable as audio. The library has over 7000 titles: psychology, business, neuroscience, history, philosophy. For people who want to broaden intellectual horizons but lack time to read 5 books a month cover-to-cover, Blinkist is the highest-ROI use of attention. A critical caveat: a summary does not replace a book *if the book is genuinely great*. Books like 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Kahneman or 'The Brain That Changes Itself' by Doidge must be read in full — their value lies in the examples, anecdotes and the way the argument unfolds. Summarising these titles seems like a time saving, but it's a value saving. Blinkist works excellently, however, as a **pre-reading filter**: listen to the summary, decide if the book is for you, then buy the full version. This way in a year you can 'survey' 100 books and pick 10 worth fully consuming. That's a reasonable allocation of attention — one most readers don't practise.

'Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning' was written by Peter C. Brown (writer) with Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel (psychologists at Washington University). Roediger is among the most-cited researchers in memory and learning — with hundreds of peer-reviewed publications. The book distills 10+ years of research into **what actually works** in learning. Its core claims are counter-intuitive: re-reading material right after a lesson *does not* help long-term retention (only short-term); **retrieval practice** (rather than re-reading) builds strong memory traces; **temporal spacing between sessions is key** — shorter intervals mean worse long-term learning; *'I learn by highlighting'* is a myth — highlighting and underlining are among the least effective techniques. The book is dense — it is not 'popsci'. But it's clearly written, with concrete examples: medical students, military pilots, athletes. About 8-12 hours of reading. For anyone learning anything seriously (a student, taking a course, learning a language, trying to change career), it is among the 3-5 most important books you can read.

Readwise solves a specific problem: you read many good books and articles, highlight interesting passages — and then never return to them. After a year you remember maybe 5% of what you read. Readwise syncs highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, web articles and your favourite reading apps, then emails you a few random highlights from your own library each day. This applies **spaced repetition** to passively-collected notes — being reminded of your own observations at irregular intervals builds lasting knowledge that 'I read the book' alone never does. The second part of the product, **Readwise Reader**, is an alternative to Pocket/Instapaper — a reader for web articles, PDFs, newsletter emails and video transcripts, with built-in AI for summaries and highlighting. For intensive learners (students, researchers, people reading 50+ books a year), Readwise is almost indispensable — it converts passive reading into an active knowledge system. For occasional readers, it's perhaps overkill.

Anki is a free spaced-repetition flashcard app used by hundreds of thousands of medical students, linguists and programmers. It is enormously powerful — the SM-2 algorithm (and successors) automatically adapts intervals based on how easily you recall each card. The problem: Anki has a fairly brutal interface and learning curve. Most people install it, try for a week and give up, never discovering the power inside. A good Udemy course (look for 'Anki Mastery' or similar — usually $15-30 in Udemy sales, which are permanent) covers: how to construct effective cards (the most common beginner mistake — cards with 5 facts at once), how to set intervals, how to use community decks (medicine: Anking; languages: pre-made top-5000-words decks), how to debug your workflow. Once mastered, Anki becomes almost magical — retaining 90% of material permanently with 20 minutes a day. For intensive learners (medicine, bar exams, languages) Anki is the number-one choice. For casual learners — overkill and over-complicated. Choose deliberately.