Jorge Romero

Mar 15, 2022

Hi Gabriel Eduardo I’m glad to see another newcomer into tech from a different field!!!

Thanks for sharing this. I’m sure many will find it very useful. And it is always nice to see writing informed by real science. I can whole heartedly second your recommendation of Dr Oakley’s work. Specially “A mind for numbers”.

From cognitive science, a better way to frame learning may be not as “remembering” but as “being able to perform”. This difference is subtle but important and comes from the philosophy of action.

Here’s an extremely simple heuristic I use to work in that way. When I read or learn something I ask my self. Can I write a blog post about it? And actually try to do that. Doing so automatically forces active recall. How would I write about it otherwise? It’s particularly useful if you wait a few days before writing.

Sorry for the long rambling. I get very excited about anything cognitive science! I’m sure I can learn a lot from your experience! And I’m looking forward to it.

Gabriel

Fullstack Dev

Mar 15, 2022

That's great advice! Changing the perspective of the self from a viewer to an active agent in the world is an empowering way of analyzing things even if we just start by modifying our internal monologue.

I'll definitely recall this as I write more... Words are powerful tools.

And elaborate as much as you like! For me it's always nice to see people speak (write?) passionately about the things they love.

Thank for taking the time to share such an insightful comment.

Gabriel Eduardo Wow thank you so much for the encouragement. I really like talking about that stuff! And if I get going I won't stop XD

So. Let me share with you something else. Which I hope you find valuable.

Perhaps you already know about this given your background. But there's a way of thinking about cognition without ever needing to introduce the idea of representational memory, like a hard drive. Or any "mind-is-a-computer" analogy at all!!!

Instead you shift the focus towards the kind of processes the brain needs to do in order to perform effectively given its body's environment. Cognition, thus, emerges from the interaction between environment, brain and body. Remove any one, and you have no cognition.

And memory may be thought of as the collection of effective actions, acquired through experience, for dealing with the environment. Hence what I mentioned about "being able to perform".

This approach to cognitive science is know broadly as "4e cognition" which stands for Embodied, Extended, Embedded and Enactive <- this last one is another rabbit hole of its own. Here's a friendly introduction from Scientific American

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