On: Wide or Deep?

Episode: 133

Date: May 2019

Background; Journalist, author of “The Sports Gene” and “Range“.

Key Subjects:

• Learning/education:
  • Making connections (conceptual) versus using procedures.
  • Abstract ability to match “solving strategy” and “problems”.
  • For information to stick and be flexible, helps to apply knowledge to new situations.
• Learning hacks – making information maximally “sticky” – making learning hard (not easy):
  • Testing: before you are ready.
  • Spacing: deliberate not-practicing, leave time between practices.
  • Interleaving: mixing up the things you want to learn (match solving strategy and problem).
  • When learning feels too easy, make it harder.
• Issues with grit (combined score of personal resilience and consistency of interest).
  • Weak impact: typically fairly low predictive value (1-5%).
  • Contained: usually researched inside a tight type range (high similarity of subjects).
  • Short-term: grit not necessarily stable over time.
  • “Failure” of grit may indicate lack of match; if there is a fit, people display grit.
  • If-then descriptions are better signatures of someone’s personality.
• Innovation and creativity:
  • Discovery versus replication.
  • Many more ways to recombine existing knowledge.

Key Takeaways: 

• See other podcast (EconTalk).

Worth Listening:

Highlights more limited set of subjects than EconTalk podcast, but interesting discussion on learning and grit.

7/10.