Learning New Skills Faster | Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/12/how-to-learn-new-skills-twice-as-fast/

How to level up twice as quickly.

The short version of the research outcome is that when you are learning new skills, just repeating the exact same task is not actually the most efficient. Making subtle changes in the task/routine speeds up the learning process.

Considering our brains work and learn like neural nets (actually neural nets are modelled off our brains, but anyhow), I’m not surprised: repeating exactly the same thing will strengthen the related pathways. But the real world doesn’t keep things absolutely identical, so introducing small changes in the learning process will create a better pattern in our neural net.

Generally, people regard “dumb” repetition as boring, and I don’t blame them. It generally makes very little sense.

The researchers note that too much variation doesn’t work either – which again makes sense, if you think in neural net context: if your range of pathways is too broad, you’re not strengthening pathways very much. Quantity rather than quality.

So, a bit of variety is good for learning!