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Becoming Obsessed with Learning - Through a Simple Notebook — Transcript

by Charlotte Fraza · 2,613 words · 381 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00So, we're becoming obsessed with
0:01learning through a simple notebook.
0:02Let's get into it. So, one of the things
0:05that most academics share is this deep
0:07love of learning, sometimes to the point
0:09of you seeming almost obsessive. And
0:11someone that for me really comes to mind
0:13is Marie Curie. When you read the
0:15autobiographies of such individuals, it
0:17becomes clear that they are really
0:19dedicated to science and learning in
0:22general. [music] And perhaps obsession
0:23is a little bit too strong of a word,
0:25especially given the negative
0:26connotations. But there is certainly a
0:28powerful sense of dedication that sets
0:31these individuals apart. A singular
0:33focus that allows them to stay fully
0:35committed to a project for a long period
0:38of time. But where does this drive come
0:40from? And what truly sets these
0:41individuals apart to really dedicate
0:44their life to learning? I found it
0:46really interesting to read the
0:47autobiographies of different types of
0:49scientists, intellectuals, and artists.
0:52And for example, some books that come to
0:53mind is Einstein: His Life and the
0:55Universe by Walter Isaacson, Hidden
0:57Figures, and When Breath Becomes Air.
1:00And what I want to reflect on today a
1:02little bit more deeply with you is what
1:03it truly means to love learning and to
1:06dedicate your life in some broader sense
1:08to the concept of learning. So, today I
1:11want to explore some general ideas with,
1:13for example, a notebook on how you can
1:15dedicate your life a little bit more to
1:17learning and enjoy learning a lot more,
1:19and how to move away from this endless
1:22scrollings and media consumptions
1:23[music] and these pastimes that I think
1:26for most of us in 2026 are really hard
1:29to move [music] away from. And one book
1:31that I already want to recommend, if you
1:34want to get a little bit more into this
1:35topic, is What They Forgot to Teach You
1:37at School by The School of Life. And it
1:40really questions this idea of school
1:42itself and what school is actually meant
1:44to teach us. And also poses this idea
1:47that the universe in general doesn't
1:49have a grand plan for us, and we are
1:51free to make our own choices without
1:53needing to wait for approval. And
1:55something further in this regard is that
1:58I also think it's important to keep on
2:00learning even outside of university or
2:02even outside of school cuz school kind
2:04of to some extent gives us a curriculum
2:07and we have to follow that curriculum
2:08and then we are fully fledged adults,
2:11right? But then as you get into
2:13adulthood you kind of realize that
2:14there's still so much to learn and so
2:15many topics that you [music] might be
2:17interested or curious about. So first of
2:19all, I want to talk about the topic of
2:20interest and how to refine this interest
2:23that you might have had as a kid for
2:25certain topics but that you might have
2:27certainly lost a little bit through
2:29university and school. And something
2:31that really helped me was this art of
2:33note taking and writing everything down.
2:35So I already talked about it a little
2:37bit before but I have these kind of
2:38pocket books so curiosity pocket books
2:40you can also call them and that's really
2:43a place where I capture all the ideas
2:45and questions I say come to me and as
2:47they arise. So every time you come
2:49across something you want to explore a
2:51little bit further, write it down
2:52quickly
2:53>> [music]
2:53>> because something that I noticed over
2:55time is that we are often actually
2:58intrinsically quite curious about topics
3:01but through life and through adulthood
3:03we have been taught to kind of push this
3:05curiosity
3:06>> [music]
3:06>> down because there's no time to explore
3:08this curiosity. So something that you
3:12want to have as a daily habit is kind of
3:14noting down whenever you feel
3:16intrinsically curious about something.
3:18And this can be noted down in a physical
3:20notebook but you can of course also note
3:21it down in your phone or a dedicated app
3:24like notion, obsidian, or even just a
3:26little word file. And then whenever you
3:30see something or whenever you have a
3:31little moment that you want to learn a
3:34little bit more about, write that down.
3:35So in general, the structure of this
3:37entire process is a little bit like
3:39this. First what I call capture of
3:41course and that's whenever curiosity
3:43strikes, use a quick tag or abbreviation
3:45like a question mark, a P for paper or
3:47articles, or if you have an idea, just
3:49write down idea and then write down
3:51whatever was sparking your interest. And
3:54this is a little bit similar to bullet
3:55journaling, but focusing in this point
3:57on ideas and not on anything else. So, I
4:01personally use exclamation mark for
4:03important items or something that I
4:04really want to learn about. Then after
4:06there is comes the more important part,
4:09I think, is also these weekly sprints.
4:12So, every week I personally would have a
4:14dedicated time block of about two to six
4:18hours. It depends a lot a week
4:20>> [music]
4:20>> that I set aside to process my notes,
4:22read, scratch, annotate, and also then
4:25decide what I want to learn more about
4:27that day. So, I really see this as a
4:29sprint where I can just spend all this
4:31time learning whatever I'm curious
4:33about. And there's no real motivation or
4:36objective or goal. It's just that I'm
4:39curious about this topic and I want to
4:40learn a little bit more about it. So,
4:43whatever it is, reading something in
4:45depth, writing a note, or developing a
4:47project. For me, I often do this on
4:49Fridays as I feel I have a little bit
4:51more time on this day. And also, of
4:53course, given that most people are very
4:56busy, it also depends a lot on your time
4:58schedule what this would look like. Then
5:00also something that I usually recommend
5:02doing, and that I always recommend doing
5:04on this channel, is that I also try to
5:06turn whatever I learned into something
5:08shareable or at least a dedicated
5:10[music] piece of work that I can in
5:12theory share. You don't have to share
5:14it. And the reason for this is that I
5:16think real learning only occurs when we
5:19truly engage with a subject. So, in
5:21school we're naturally pushed to do this
5:23by writing essays, making exams, etc.
5:26But in life beyond school, we're not
5:29naturally pushed to also create
5:31something from the topics that we learn
5:33about. And I think nowadays, because we
5:35consume so much media, sometimes how we
5:38think we're learning is also actually
5:40just consuming more. So, for example,
5:43watching a lecture without actively
5:45engaging with it to me it's almost more
5:48a form of media consumption than
5:50actually a form of true learning. So,
5:52what I would recommend is to, after
5:55you've learned something or after you've
5:56engaged with something, is to write down
5:59a quick note at least of what you
6:01learned and then maybe even develop that
6:03note into for example an article or if
6:05you're learning programming, you can
6:07make a little project. Of course, I
6:09think in programming it's a lot more
6:10natural to engage with the material. Or
6:13with language learning for example where
6:15you can set up a language class, etc.
6:17So, afterwards you have basically this
6:19notebook full of ideas that you can
6:21learn about. You have your weekly sprint
6:23where you actually dedicate some time.
6:25And then often I also get asked as to
6:28how I engage with the material in the
6:30future. So, you have all these notes and
6:33maybe you've even stored them in Notion.
6:35So, how often do you revisit them, etc.
6:38So, for me what I usually do is I do an
6:41end of the notebook review. So, when I'm
6:43finished with one notebook, I go through
6:45it which ideas I want to keep and which
6:48I kind of want to leave. And then the
6:50ideas that I want to keep I or note down
6:52in my following notebook or I would note
6:54them down into Notion to have them in a
6:57more permanent research bank. For my
6:59Notion, I actually don't go through my
7:01notes there that often. I think some of
7:04us have this tendency to really want to
7:06hold on to, yeah, ideas or notes or keep
7:10them in the forefront of our mind, but I
7:13think the idea behind Notion Word or
7:15these digital spaces is not that we keep
7:17all of the things that we've ever
7:19learned in the top of our mind, but that
7:21we can come back to them whenever we
7:23need to. So, I almost see my Notion more
7:25as a dedicated research bank that
7:27whenever I'm writing an article on a
7:28topic and I know I read something about
7:31that before, I would use the search for
7:33function, find what I noted about this
7:37topic before and kind of use that as
7:39inspiration for an article or a video or
7:42research um piece of work. Um I think
7:45>> [music]
7:45>> this way of working works quite well for
7:47me, but I'm also curious if you
7:49work differently with all the notes you
7:51took, let me know because I'm actually
7:53quite curious if people do it in a
7:54different manner. So, I think this
7:56system is actually really easy, but I
7:58think over time what I noticed is that
8:00it allowed me to enjoy learning a lot
8:02more again because I think over time as
8:06I said with school we usually get a
8:08dedicated curriculum and this curriculum
8:11basically decides what we have to learn.
8:13And afterwards we should be fully
8:15fledged adults and the learning is done.
8:17But what I noticed is that
8:19as people we are intrinsically actually
8:22quite curious towards a lot of topics,
8:23but we often don't give ourselves the
8:25time or the space to explore these
8:27topics. And I think at least for me I
8:30want to get back into the habit of
8:32trying to learn something and actively
8:34engage
8:35with material. And so recently I also
8:38started this new project at King's
8:40College London and this has been the
8:42kind of project that I've actually
8:43wanted to work on for a really long
8:45time. So, it is related to
8:47schizophrenia, psychosis, machine
8:50learning, computational psychiatry,
8:51which was my background during my PhD.
8:53And what I noticed is that even in these
8:56little pocket notebooks or like the
8:57books I gravitated towards in the
8:59library or the type of lectures that I
9:01would like to watch in my free time were
9:03often on this topic. And I think this
9:06has been the case since childhood. I was
9:08always very interested and very curious
9:10about the mind. But what I noticed as
9:12well is that when you have such a strong
9:14intrinsic motivation it actually becomes
9:16quite easy to dedicate time to these
9:19type of projects. So, this is a little
9:21bit the topic of pull versus push
9:23motivation. So, when you genuinely enjoy
9:26what you're working on time management
9:28actually isn't as necessary as before.
9:30So, I noticed that I now tend to work a
9:32lot more in sprints where I actually
9:34deliberately just take as much time as I
9:36want to try to finish a certain topic.
9:39And it is actually quite difficult to
9:41pull myself away from these types of
9:43tasks. And this is also the difference
9:45in some regard to between push and pull
9:49type of motivation where push
9:50motivations are to avoid a certain pain
9:53or discomfort and pull motivations
9:55provide a certain type of reward. And I
9:57think as students we often operate with
10:00these push motivations. So for example,
10:02getting a bad grade or not passing an
10:05exam is a push type of motivation.
10:08Whereas I think in our adult life we can
10:10move a lot more towards pull types of
10:12motivations or also intrinsic motivation
10:15where we actually truly want to learn
10:17something and use that kind of to ride
10:20this wave of
10:21interest. And what I noticed at least is
10:24that learning becomes much more
10:26enjoyable and actually a fundamental
10:28part of um life in that way. And that
10:31also brings me on to the last topic in
10:33some regard is that I think
10:36creation over consumption is something
10:37that I often talk about. I also talked
10:40about that in this video. And why I
10:42truly believe that consuming media is
10:44not always the best form of self-care.
10:47So I think creativity and learning
10:49intrinsically requires a little bit of
10:51space and discomfort. So the interesting
10:54thing about learning that I find is that
10:56it can be very enjoyable but it's
10:57usually not enjoyable during the
10:59process. It's enjoyable when we reflect
11:02back on it. And usually while you are
11:05learning there is maybe some avoidance,
11:06some reluctance, some self-doubt that
11:09arises when you are trying to do it. And
11:11I think that is why we are kind of less
11:15inclined to do this type of learning or
11:17this type of creativity
11:19as supposed to a form of more passive
11:22media consumption. But I actually feel
11:24when you're learning something new, when
11:26you're learning for example an
11:27instrument or a language, that you lose
11:30a little bit this sense of time or the
11:31passage of time and this is also this
11:33concept flow that has been talked about
11:36many times before I think online.
11:37[music]
11:38But I think this state is a really
11:39enjoyable state to be in and something
11:42that
11:43some of us naturally forget a little bit
11:45about as we move through life. And this
11:49is also a topic that I'm currently
11:51thinking a lot about is this form of
11:53childhood creativity versus adult
11:55avoidance. So as children we're
11:57naturally quite creative and we actually
12:00like learning and if you
12:01see children around you you actually see
12:03that they're always trying to discover
12:05new things. Whereas adults we're often
12:07trying to avoid a certain type of
12:09feeling or avoid a certain type of
12:11stress and that's why we move more
12:13towards this kind of passive media
12:15consumption I feel. So I want to end
12:17also on this quote that kind of inspired
12:20part of this video and it's from
12:22minimalism life creation over
12:24consumption. So most people find it
12:26easier to consume rather than create.
12:29Creativity takes time,
12:31patience, and space to be inspired.
12:33Often times creativity necessitates
12:36isolation from our busy lives. None of
12:38these things comes easily as life can
12:41overwhelm us with increased
12:43responsibility. We long to refer to our
12:45childhood, a place of playful creativity
12:48and escape the anxieties of the present.
12:51So I think it's a really beautiful
12:52article. Please read it and let me know
12:54your thoughts. And if you're currently
12:56learning something I would be really
12:58curious as to what you're learning, what
13:00is the reason that you're learning it,
13:02and how do you find the process? Do you
13:04find it easy? Is it intrinsically
13:06motivating? Do you find it hard? Is it
13:08struggling to find time, energy, space?
13:11Um
13:12I'm really curious how your learning
13:14process is. And also if you're
13:16interested in more of these ideas and
13:18topics lately I've been writing a lot
13:20about this in my newsletter.
13:22So [music] because I just moved to
13:24London I found it quite hard to make
13:26videos, but I'm actually enjoying a lot
13:28lately just writing about my thoughts
13:30instead of loading them down in a video.
13:32So, also subscribe there and otherwise I
13:35see you next week. Bye.

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