Focusing Your Unconscious Mind: Learn Hard Concepts Intuitively (And Forever)

hi I'll get straight to the point I'm

one of the world's best competitive

programmers and what that means is I'm

great at learning a bunch of random

garbage that nobody ever actually uses

but even though I never use it I'm still

good at that stuff so if I ever

encountered something like this in the

wild I can bust it out and apply these

Concepts like they're second nature and

what this means is two things I'm

learning these Concepts very intuitively

so that they're obvious and second

nature to me and also I'm learning them

to be able to remember them for a long

time even years on end and this video is

going to show you how I do that now

let's start with what it means to

understand some concept intuitively

basically it means that you're able to

accept that concept as a fundamental

truth without needing to justify it so

basically your brain is hardwired to

process that concept as a fact it's like

second nature for example let me test

your intuitive understanding of addition

try adding two plus two bam didn't even

have to think about it right the answer

is obviously five so your intuition

probably carried you there the answer

was so obvious that you didn't even have

to question it it's just embedded in

your thinking and that's very nice nice

because you don't have to second guess

yourself your brain understands it

completely and is capable of reasoning

with it and for something like more

complicated Edition it's still pretty

intuitive how to get to the answer you

may not be able to compute it instantly

but the steps are clear and make sense

to you because it's also embedded in

your thinking but if something is

unintuitive that means your brain

disagrees with it or goes against what

you've learned previously and you need

to fix that so what if you don't have

that hard wiring then you need to rewire

your brain to accept the concept as an

absolute truth and that's the learning

process and it's worth noting that

there's no actual magic here ultimately

it's up to your brain to do this

rewiring the best you can do is set your

brain up for success by optimizing the

information it receives and works with

so let's get into how you do that so

first we'll briefly touch on some core

principles these are overarching ideas

that can help to understand the

reasoning behind certain things in this

method so first you want to generate as

many insights as possible and insights

are random thoughts to help you

understand it more like knowledge of the

purpose of a particular step or a

particular example that helps illustrate

the concept and mostly you only gain

into aside from experience so this

method will give you a lot of experience

with the concept in different ways

ultimately you want to put your brain to

work generating insights like an inside

machine another thing you want to treat

learning like problem solving and I'll

get more into this later but your brain

has an insane problem solving capacity

both in thinking and remembering and you

want to be able to take full advantage

of that another thing of course you want

to care about what you're doing because

caring helps for a lot of reasons

overall it'll just make your life easier

if you don't know how to I'll talk more

about that later too another thing

understand small pieces at a time

because if you try and take on too much

at once you'll overwhelm yourself so

break the concept down into small pieces

if possible and then tackle those pieces

one by one also if possible final thing

forget memorization and I feel like this

is important to mention this method is

not memorization far from it this is

rewiring your brain to accept this

concept as an absolute truth

memorization is short term but this is

forever so if you're used to just

memorizing get ready for a whole new

level of understanding now let's start

with the actual method and I'm going to

use the method to explain the method so

you can see it in practice with a live

example the first step is you need to

understand the big picture and what's

going on with the concept because

otherwise it just won't be important to

you you'll just be like what is this why

does any of this even matter and you

won't really be able to try as hard the

big picture puts everything else into

context so start with everything

abstracted out meaning you know what

purpose it serves but not necessarily

the details or how it works and just

understand the big picture as little

information as possible to understand

what the concept's all about we'll call

the stuff to the right the magic box or

a black box if you prefer but you have

no idea what's going on inside all you

know is that it works somehow now I'm

setting up a pun here and I'm going to

see if you can figure it out before I

say it but but notice what I've written

here it's a simple sentence in plain

English explaining what the method does

that's what you're looking for simple

explanation is a big picture ideas and

as you learn and understand more expand

on the details of certain things to

learn a specific detail there are three

steps understand the detail in context

understand it by itself and reinforce it

so the first step is understanding the

detail in context as you expand on

detail make sure you understand at every

step how the pieces fit together

so ready for that pun here it is you

have to think

outside the box

let me explain what I mean so like

ignoring whatever you have abstracted

you should understand everything outside

the box if we just assume that

everything inside the Box magically

worked out the stuff outside the box

should independently make sense even if

you don't know the details of how each

part works like you should understand

why we do each step and what each step

accomplishes and just in general the

point of everything and if it's not

obvious maybe you have to break the

abstraction a bit to understand the

point of each thing but you shouldn't

try to learn all the details yet since

that's jumping too far ahead you can

help this understanding by figuring out

how the parts work together and how you

can use the conclusion of one part to

get the next part Etc and doing it this

way we break the whole process down into

a bunch of small steps you just pull one

piece out of abstraction understanding

context then break it down further and

sometimes it's not enough to learn a

single concept at a time and you may

have to pull multiple pieces out at once

and that's fine but you want to do this

as little as possible because it'll just

make it unnecessarily harder and you can

do this whole thing until each

individual piece is so simple that they

can't be broken down further so now

let's talk about how to understand a

single piece of the puzzle since you

have to do that lot of times and she

probably did this process for every

piece because even simple looking pieces

can be complex and nuanced so you should

put in the effort for each one and the

first thing you have to do makes use of

a very ancient brain technique from the

early 1400s and it's called giving a

damn yes you have to convince your brain

to care then you should try to invent

the piece that may sound crazy but it's

one of the best ways to engage with the

concept and I'll talk more about it

later and finally if you can't invent it

you can read and process the details of

the piece so let's start by talking

about caring because caring is very nice

it means you remember for longer it

means your brain be able to come up with

more insights and it means they're just

generally have an easier time learning

so how do you care and the easiest way

is just to be passionate about the

subject and if you aren't passionate

about the subject you can be motivated

by the end result like a job or Prestige

but if you don't even have that there

are other ways too for example if not

being able to understand this concept

doesn't bother you well why not it

should because you don't understand it

how can you allow this tiny little speck

of information to make a fool out of you

it should bother you that you don't get

it nothing is really beyond your reach

as long as they're on like huge

prerequisites but in that case you

should learn those things first anyway I

think stuff like School creates a

culture of certain things being Out Of

Reach because the hierarchy of classes

but things from later classes are often

simple it's just the prerequisites side

of the issue so nothing is beyond your

reach in terms of learning it and that

means you're capable of learning this

but for whatever reason you can't and

that should bother you so take that

annoyance personally take it as a hit to

Your Ego nobody wants to hit their ego

so you should defend yourself by beating

the concept it helps to have an inflated

ego like I do but even if you don't you

should still take the defeat personally

and now that you care you can put your

brain to work so the first thing to do

is to understand the point of the piece

of the concept you're trying to learn

let's call the point the problem since

that works for a lot of fields but

really it's just like what is this piece

about what does it accomplish or what

does it describe and what does it do so

what problem does this piece try to

solve and before you even start with how

the piece solves that problem you should

really understand the problem because if

you sear the problem into your head then

the solution will be much more natural

so you ultimately want a deep insightful

understanding of the problem and how do

you do that I propose that you should

try and solve the problem for yourself

try to invent the piece before you even

try to understand how it works

if it's less like a problem more like a

general rule of something you can't

really solve it you can still do stuff

like looking at examples and trying to

reverse engineer the rule in general

there's usually something you can do to

try and invent the piece from scratch

and you should try

and the point of doing all this is just

to let your brain explore the possible

Avenues and deeply internalize the

problem because whenever you've been

stuck on a hard problem you've likely

remembered it for a hard time because

you convince your brain that it's

important and you should give yourself

time working out with both your

conscious and unconscious brain the

unconscious brain plays a huge part in

developing intuition so you have to give

it some exercise too and the way to do

that is just to care about the problem

enough to have it be the main focus of

your brain you know how you can get in a

heated argument and like 10 hours later

you come by the perfect comeback when

it's way too late to even be remotely

useful that's your unconscious brain it

was silently going to work processing

the argument and crafting response

without even you thinking about it and

it did that because you cared about that

argument so you have to do the same

thing for this concept force your brain

to care and it'll put in the work for

you and trying to solve the problem and

putting in the effort is how you

convince your brain to care and once

you've tried for a while and you're

completely tired of the problem and you

don't think you'll get any possible

benefit from trying anymore then you can

look at the solution or the the overall

piece but of course don't just look at

the solution you should learn in the

same way but break it into pieces and

slowly absorb each of those pieces you

may also consider having someone give

you hints because that can further help

the problem solving process especially

for those very hard Concepts require a

new way of thinking hints may be the

perfect way to guide you through it but

either way because you put so much time

into the problem you left a gap in your

brain for that solution to fill since

your brain spends so much time

processing it and once you read the

solution it'll naturally fit into the

Gap and you'll be able to retain the

knowledge for much longer since you

essentially rewired your brain to be

mentally capable of processing the

problem and its solution whenever you

spend a long time on a problem you

convince your Primal brain that it's

important to survival so you'll remember

both the problem and the solution very

well since your brain is convinced it's

absolutely necessary and this should

align with your experience too because

if you spent a long time trying to

figure something out you just remember

it better so another thing how do you

actually process a solution because

maybe it can be complicated too and

ultimately this strategy is the same you

want to think actively about how it

solves the problem and put both your

conscious and unconscious brain toward

breaking it down you can also do the

same abstraction barrier strategies

starting with the big picture of the

solution and gradually getting more

detailed but also you can think about

other things like how it fits into the

big picture what insights the solution

offers for the rest of the concept and

also how someone managed to think of

that solution because usually the

solution is the solution for a reason

and there's something that inspires that

solution understanding that inspiration

can help you understand the solution

itself so you don't even have to solve

the problem you just have to try it and

with the harder Concepts it's unlikely

that you will but you should still try

and don't like fake try because you

won't get anything out of that you're

capable of making an honest effort

because the thing is people invented

this these hard Concepts were invented

by people and you're a people so you're

capable of inventing them too don't beat

yourself up if you can't do in a short

time but at the same time you should

have the motivation to try because it's

fairly possible that you could do it or

at least make some amount of progress

that's really all it takes you just have

to try but you're not done yet there's

more you have to do to internalize the

solution you have to reinforce it and

confirm that it stays in your brain or

you won't be able to remember for long

and there's a process you can do to

reinforce the whole concept but it also

works with reinforcing each piece of it

so you can do it for both so let's get

into how you can do that there are

roughly four steps and I'll explain each

step using my method as well there's no

strict order to these but I've picked

what I think is the best order for

myself at least the general idea is you

should try to invent the piece or

concept then once you're done with that

practice it and afterwards understand it

to the point of being able to explain it

after during that you should explore

ideas related to the concept and all of

this is to try and look at the concept

from a bunch of different angles and get

as many insights as possible all about

it so let's get more specific about each

step and the first step is to try and

invent the concept for yourself and if

you just did that great move on to the

next step and if not I did already

explain that in the previous section and

the next thing you should do is gain

more insights around the concept and

that means applying it and that means

practicing with it so try to find other

relevant problems and apply this concept

wherever you can try to expand on the

concept rather than just mechanically

applying it think about why the concepts

fits the problems you encounter think

about why it might not fit and that way

the context of the problems would make

more sense practicing can give you more

insights that you couldn't have thought

of from just Theory and this is probably

the most important step since it forces

you to view the concept from a bunch of

different angles so do a lot of practice

apply the concept to hard problems force

yourself to think and allow your brain

to get used to applying the concept and

try to embed the concept into your

reasoning another useful thing you can

try to do is explain the concept it's

been said that you don't really

understand something until you can

explain it to someone who doesn't

understand it for themselves and you

need to be able to explain this stuff in

your own words since that proves that

your understanding is your own rather

than someone else's so confirm your

understanding by explaining it to

someone else

start from scratch and work your way

through the details if you get confused

by some detail then it means you don't

understand it well enough if they get

confused about some detail and you can't

explain it then it means you don't

understand it well enough and that's

good it reflects a gap in your

understanding and that's something you

can improve on and it's better to catch

that Gap now than during a test or

contest or interview or whatever so

relearn that part and come back to the

whole thing ultimately explaining it not

only proves your understanding but it

forces you to look for a simpler way of

representing the concept which can

simplify your whole understanding as

well and once you can get through a full

explanation then you can go to the final

step and that final step is exploring

and what does exploring mean I mean you

should mentally explore random

variations of the concept as the legend

Terrence Tao puts it ask yourself dumb

questions change one part of the concept

and see if it still works if not figure

out why it doesn't change one part of

the problem and see if the concept still

applies see if some other solution

applies to the same scenario and figure

out why it does or doesn't see some past

knowledge you had applies to this

concept question any intuitive

assumptions you're making about the

concept harder about them subscribe to

my channel try to break the concept come

up with weird examples or counter

examples and prove that it still works

to see how it applies try to look at the

concept from different angles try random

stuff and see if it leads anywhere talk

to others and explore the concept with

them ask them about their experience

with Concept and the insights they've

come up with and just ask why why do we

do this step why is this set up this way

you want to challenge every part of the

concept in general just engage with the

concept as much as you can think about

stuff that's already intuitive to you

and apply as much of it as possible your

goal again is to have as many insights

as possible to have a chance of getting

a deeper understanding of the concept so

do as much of this as possible and you

should do this whole reinforcement

process often there's no set time period

I can recommend but if you feel like

you're starting to forget the concept or

some pieces of it go through this

reinforcement process again most

importantly try to invent it from

scratch again and again if you

accidentally remember some parts of it

fine and if your memory is good enough

you can always remember in a way that

makes sense to you fine that means you

succeeded but if you can invent it that

means you've succeeded in rewiring your

brain to accept this concept as a truth

your intuition for that problem is the

concept it's the thing you think of it's

embedded into your thinking so if you

invent it you win and if you can't

invent it learn it again because over

time you're burning a mental Association

in your head when you encounter the

problem the solution will be the first

thing you think of and over time your

brain will rewire itself to accept the

association and don't just invent do

everything else of the reinforcement

process too you trap the concept in your

mind now you need to keep it there and

as you reinforce more and more you'll

have to do a less and less frequently

and eventually you won't have to do it

at all it'll just be permanently seared

into your brain but until then keep

thinking about the concept keep engaging

with it and keep reinforcing your

understanding and even if you completely

Master the concept it could be worth it

to play with the concept every once in a

while do a bit of practice with it Etc

to keep it fresh in your mind so going

back to the big picture here's what the

method looks like first you learn the

big picture then you gradually look

deeper into certain ideas and get more

and more specific with details to learn

a certain idea you should convince your

brain to care try to invent the concept

for yourself then internalize the

solution with the hole that you've made

in your brain finally reinforce it to

make sure it stays in your brain to get

as many other random insights as

possible then learn the next thing so

here's another thing I've been thinking

of I'm dubbing at the ecosystem of

learning if you're going to try to

explain stuff in an intuitive way which

you should you might as well post that

explanation to the public regardless of

how good you are if you've had any

experience thinking about the topic

you've likely had some insights about it

and that means others in the future can

benefit from your thinking so you can

contribute to an ecosystem of learning

where people learn things explain those

things to test their knowledge and

contribute those explanations to the

Future public literally just scribble

some notes while you're thinking about

something collect them in a PDF and just

dump it on the internet and you'll help

some people out it doesn't matter how

chaotic or disorganized it is or how bad

your handwriting is it'll probably still

help someone and that idea is just cool

it's unlikely to happen but it's cool

the world is fairly lacking in intuitive

explanation so it would be nice if more

people tried it and there's not much

insight-based learning out there it's

just like here's how this concept works

and done but there's so much more than

that everything has its nuances and

their little details are exceptions it

just requires in deep thought to be able

to contemplate sharing that now

knowledge and that thought for others

can help them get a much deeper

understanding of the concept

but yeah that's just an idea I don't

plan to put in the effort to make it

happen but it also doesn't take that

much effort for someone to contribute to

so it's somewhat feasible at least okay

and let's finish it off by talking about

IQ is there some innate ability that

makes certain people better off at

learning than others and I'm a

subscriber of the belief that it's

completely useless to believe that like

I don't know of any tangible benefit to

believing that IQ is a significant

factor if you're going to learn

something just learn it don't worry

about how others do and don't worry

about this native ability garbage you're

gonna do it anyway so just do it and

having confidence is good because it

helps with motivation The Confident

brain is more willing to try out random

things and generate insights so honestly

I think IQ is just a form of copium in

most cases someone who's not learning

well is doing something wrong but IQ

offers another more convenient answer

the issue is not you or what you're

doing but something out of your control

and that's comforting in a weird way to

know you can't do something about it

it's just how it's meant to be but you

can you can fix yourself if you're

having issues you can introspect or have

someone else look at what you're doing

and see if anything's going wrong

because chances are they are like

everyone is human to be human is to be

capable of thinking and to be capable of

thinking is to be capable of learning

you can learn anything it may take a

while but you can do it I firmly believe

there's nothing that you or anyone isn't

capable of learning because everything

just boils down to neurons in your head

and you have those neurons you just have

to try put in the time if it takes a

while fine but you'll get there

eventually as many others have in the

past and basically the only reason you

want to compare yourself to others is to

see if you're doing anything wrong if

there's any way you can benefit from

that learning style but you've watched

this video now so you have a pretty good

method of learning so it doesn't really

matter you'll do fine now

okay how do we finish this video off

I've covered basically everything

practice with a method make sure you're

engaging with the concept as much as

possible and let me know how it goes

because I know this works it's what I do

myself and I'm pretty good at learning

but you know there's a chance it doesn't

work on everyone and it's also

definitely not the only learning method

there are likely many others out there

but this one works pretty well and it

probably works better on some Concepts

than others for example I'm rooted in

competitive programming which is rooted

in theoretical computer science which is

very problem solving oriented so every

concept naturally solves a certain

problem which is why my method is

focused on that stuff like math is good

for it too but sometimes it doesn't

necessarily make sense to flat out try

to invent the stuff you're learning but

even if your concept isn't laid out in a

way that can make the method easy to use

the method could still benefit you you

can still do some of the things for

example the stuff about reinforcing and

engaging with the concept is universally

useful so it's the idea of breaking it

down to easier pieces and abstracting

what you don't yet no so it's good it's

also worth mentioning this is a slow

paced method you likely want to say this

for the hard stuff and take a more quick

approach to the simpler less important

things so this is slow but it works and

it works really well and I'll leave it

at that so that's all goodbye