Lesson 2: The Three Questions for Effective Meta-Learning

All learning is composed of a few basic “atoms” of knowledge in three main types:

1. Facts —things which need to be memorized. Words, terms, formulas, dates, jargon.


2. Concepts —things which need to be understood. Principles, ideas, narratives, explanations.


3. Procedures —things which need to be performed. Methods, steps, actions, techniques.

Learning and meta-learning are intertwined, so the less we know about a subject, the less we know about how that subject is organized. This leads to our first principle: before embarking on any new learning project, try to figure out how other people organize efforts to learn it. What do those people see as the major divisions in skill, knowledge a