What does it mean to learn? What happens in your brain when you learn a new word, play a new instrument, or learn to shoot a basketball through the hoop? If we all have the same three-pound gooey jelly of a brain, why is someone able to learn faster than the rest? Let’s find out.
I’m inching towards the end of a neuroscience course that I’m talking where Prof. Idan Segev, a neuroscientist from Hebrew University, teaches everything from the neurochemistry of an action potential to what it means to have free will. As I’m slowly getting a hold of the fundamentals in this new arena from courses and papers, I realize there is a gaping hole in this domain.
You know how we totally get how an individual computer sends an email and we totally understand the broad concepts of the internet, like how many people are on it and what the biggest sites are and what the major trends are—but all the stuff in the middle—the inner workings of the internet—are pretty confusing? The brain is kind of like those things. We get the little picture—we know all about how a neuron fires. And we get the big picture—we know how many neurons are in the brain and what the major lobes and structures control and how much energy the whole system uses.But the stuff in between—all that middle stuff about how each part of the brain actually does its thing? –Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future
We understand the little things and the big things… but not much of what happens in between. It is not because of lack of trying; our brain is simply incredibly complex. As Moran Cerf pithily quoted – and I cannot get appreciate this line enough – if the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.
This series will be my best attempt at trying to link the behaviors of our neuron to the behaviors that make their way out into the world. To start off, I wanted to pick a topic that lays the foundation for every aspect in our life: Learning.
When you first see this image below, you automatically associate it with a tree since it matches your past experiences of how a tree was classified.
On close observation, you begin to notice that the image also looks like a human face viewed from the side angle. There’s a translucent ear on the left, a protruding nose on the right, and even a small mouth. See it? The next time you view this image, you won’t just think of a tree (at least, I cannot un-see the face anymore). What just happened? You learnt a new piece of information.
We learn new concepts everyday. We also build upon already learnt concepts, and un-learn some as well. I learnt how to properly pronounce unequivocally yesterday (uhn·ee·kwi·vuh·kuh·lee), and in the process substituted my previous memory of it (un·ee·kwi·vo·kah·lee). But what is happening inside my brain?
Every thought we have is powered by movement of chemicals (called neurotransmitters) that originate from the axon of a neuron and flow to the dendrite of another neuron through synapses when the action potential crosses a threshold. Phew. That was definitely a mouthful, so let’s break it down.
Two is better than one 💻🖥️
I have two monitors on my desk in the office. Yet, I rarely used them. I was an idiot. Two is better than one.
I purchased a monitor a few weeks ago since I began working from home (also because my company gave us some $$ for it). It has become glaringly obvious that having two monitors increased my productivity. I thought about the why and came up with the following:
a) It mimics real life. In real life, when you’re sitting in a meeting, you don’t turn around to take notes. But with a single device, I had to constantly keep switching between screens while taking notes during a meeting. I couldn’t decipher the reactions and body language of a person anymore. With two screens, I have the opportunity to mimic real life.
Photo by Vitaly Sacred on Unsplash
b) It reduces context switching. When I’m writing an article, I’m moving between five different pages. But I still want the article in front of me so I can keep looking back at it. Apart from saving a few seconds in having to switch, having two screens helps me decrease context switching which always affects my attention.
But, to not fall into the pits of having two screens, I never open my email or social media account on one while working on the other. That sounds trivial, but you need to be cautious in your use cases: use the two screens to reduce switching, and not for multi-tasking. Use one of the screens just for reading articles/writing documents.
Again, this is a trivial idea. But it really boosted my efficiency :) simplicity wins.
Brain food from the internet 🥐
Economy: Why everyone’s wrong about the toilet paper
We’ve all seen the news enough. Everyone’s mad about the toilet paper. Everyone’s mad at everyone else for hoarding toilet paper. Yet there’s another, entirely logical explanation for why stores have run out of toilet paper — one that has gone oddly overlooked in the vast majority of media coverage. It has nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with supply chains.
Product Management: Thinking fast and slow as a product manager
The range of work we do as product managers is so broad that we inevitably end up finding inspiration from all sorts of sources, whether it’s books on business strategy or essays on design. The author of this article found inspiration from a favorite book of mine, Thinking, Fast and Slow. I loved the way he linked the different tasks of a product manager to thinking fast, and thinking slow.
Profile: A millennial prime minister leading Finland
Marin has smooth, pale skin, round cheeks highlighted with a tiny bit of pink rouge, and alert green-blue eyes. When she speaks, she comes across as measured and a bit remote, quite cautious, but also warm. Here in Finland, where people tend to speak their minds directly or keep their counsel, she has a quiet dynamism, exuding composure and competence. Read how a34-year-old is leading a country with 5 million.
Technology: Covid-19 is proof that AI is only a tool
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help us tackle the pressing issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not the technology itself, though, that will make the difference but rather the knowledge and creativity of the humans who use it. In fact, this crisis has only highlighted something we always knew: AI is only a tool, and the value of its use in any situation is determined by the humans who design it and use it.
A glimpse into my life 👀
I assure you: it did not taste as good as it looked. I do not like cooking. Or, I should say if I had free time, cooking would not be the top ten things that will come to my mind. But of course, now it’s not a choice anymore. I could still order everyday, but my frugal self took over my lazy self. I tried making this curry almost five times; yet every time it did not taste as it should have. I’m starting to think randomly dropping in ingredients without measuring them is not a good idea… what do you think? Let me know in the comments on Substack what you’ve been cooking up!
Hi there! If you’re feeling generous, can you like this post on Substack? It would greatly improve the visibility so more people can enjoy. You can follow me on Instagram for fun life stories and LinkedIn for not-so-fun life stories. Email ask@bsoundarya.com for questions.
Aaand.. you’re awesome. Don’t forget that. :)