How to not forget anything

While studying I often heard my peers say: “Well, there’s no way that I’ll ever remember that!” or, when we were further along in our studies it was a common utterance that we said, “We used to know how to do this, we’ll have to do some research on the details”. There were some that were never on this particular boat, but the majority of us were, whether uttered or ruminated.

After I graduated I found myself longing to go back to my studies, do it better a second time around. Know better how to process the information that I was given and make it possible to reference the information in such a way that it could actually be useful and not just a personal improvement excercise, costing hundreds of thousands. I don’t know whether I am alone in this feeling - it has never gone away.

The antidote to this feeling has finally arrived, in the form of this newsletter, and the endeavours that are to be announced, but I would very much like to share with you the epiphanies that underly the endeavour and the intent.

Let’s journey the available landscape for tips and tricks for studying - our pseudo-mentor and study guide: YouTube. It has answers to “how to study effectively”, including memory techniques, ways to improve memorisation, understanding and recall. Things like doing multitudes of practice problems, filling your available study time with structured spaced repitition, reviewing notes, mnemonic devices: all tricks to improve performance on test taking.

Don’t get me wrong, I had these down to a science. But, when I finished my studies and started working, there was no time for spaced repitition on the new and wonderful specialised theories that I had come across and had to implement at the drop of a hat. I was not prepared for anything practical, I was only made efficient in the theoretical. This is a problem, and I don’t see it being addressed in this space. It’s worrisome.

In complex engineering problem solving, the single most critical item on the agenda is always to state the problem clearly. “How to study effectively” is a problem and requires a solution, but the problem of “not remembering” is not solved by “studying effectively”. To understand why we don’t remember, let’s look at what the remembering organ is for: generating ideas, synthesizing: putting together, analysing, designing, yada yada buzzwords for engineering - all creative in nature. In actuality the memory of a person is so unreliable that even in the most perfectly primed scenario for recall, memory can still be altered through imagination. We are biased to create.

Therefore, to remember all your studied subject matter is not supposed to be a part of your daily tasks. You are supposed to remember only for short periods, and use aids to remember for long periods. The problem is not “how to study more efficienctly”. The problem is “how can I formulate the information I am given, at any moment, into a framework biased toward retrieval, scalable to all the input of varying projects, tasks, ideas, quotes, references, diagrams, etc. and robust enough to adjust with my life, career, focus and interest?”

When solving a complex engineering problem, it is useful to look at previous projects, problems of similar or parallel magnitude and definition. In our case, professions without structured study programs, in a dynamic and fast paced environment, or professions where the dynamic and fast paced environment make the structured study program obsolete once the student finishes the degree: software engineering.

I’ve done some in depth studying on the workflows that software engineers claiming to be authorities in their field use, to gain an edge. Without fail, the ones that were able to really gain an edge, in understanding, creating, synthesizing value, all had one single thing in common: they did not rely on memory and spaced repitition. They relied on a personal knowledge management system. Personal, as in, it grows with them, with their lives, their interests, the intricacy of their systems. Knowledge: theory, rules, arguments, methods. Management: folders, rules, structures, decisions. System: to be interacted with daily, hourly, every minute.

These systems ranged from basic notes, with little numbers for referencing adjacent thoughts, to full blown life management systems with a sub-category for knowledge in a specific field. The more intricate the thought process of the individual, the more intricate the PKM, scaled personally.

It stands to reason, if in a fast paced work environment a mechanical engineer might require high efficiency referencing, high turn over complex problem solving and high impact project deliverance, the personal knowledge management system should contain in itself the base of the mechanical engineer’s degree, and expand as the knowledge landscape of the engineer expands.

I propose therefore that mechanical engineers should definitely try to pass their tests, but they should, in addition, formulate their personal knowledge management systems. Save your notes, not according to lecture date, but according to topic. Save your assignments, not according to submission dates, but according to problem characteristics.

When we focus on only passing, we follow Bloom’s taxonomy only to the bottom edge of the required outcome determined by others. We want to complete the assignment, applying the governing equation, because that will be a mark. Then simplify the equation by making assumptions. Each with a certain weighting in marks. Then suggest a solution, hoping to have applied all the right tricks and colours to please the powers that be. (Bloom’s taxonomy has Remember, Understand, and Apply as the three lowest levels of cognitive engagement).

Notice, that never once in this discussion, was there any critical thought as to variations on the theme of the base governing equation, and finding and noting patterns in the systems that are described, noting of the strategies followed for analysis, or generating solutions based on calculated risks and benefits. (Bloom’s Analyse, Evaluate, Create).

As mentioned before, we want to get to the “Create” stage. We want to be able, in a consulting scenario, to “Evaluate”. We want to be able to “Analyse” a root cause of failure.

Now, we get to the point where my little epiphany comes to its peak: students need to be taught how to start, grow, maintain a personal knowledge management system while they are still studying. New mechanical engineers need to be inspired to spend time early to reduce time later and get ahead more deliberately, by the implementation of a personal knowledge management system. Businesses would thrive, and all the other fluff regarding generational incompetence and percieved “imposter syndrome” would fall away becuase the direction is clear and the steps are easy.

When you come across new information in your day, take two seconds to decide: is this information a part of some part of me? Maybe it’s a music hobby, maybe it’s your Thermodynamics lecture, maybe it’s a personal improvement tidbit. Make a folder, call it that, and save the little bit of information there. Get a notebook. Write a title on the page. Put the quote in there.

When we become meta with the information we’re trying to understand, instead of seeing it as mountain to climb, see it as an entity to file, then the data is safe. The data has context. Information has become knowledge, and further expansion is possible at some later stage.

If this overwhelms you, good. Your discomfort with the notes lying around in your head is showing. It will help to organise them.