How do you learn?

[mattbee]

Perhaps an overthinker's question here; I tend to write lots of notes whenever watching Taxi TV, or during lessons with mentors, but sometimes put that info away and forget about it, and I feel like I'm maybe only harnessing some of the information I've once learned, when I'm writing. Whether that be good rules of thumb for form, compressor settings, or tips for certain genres etc... I'm curious as to whether anybody else has a 'system', whether that be a book, folder, sticky notes, posters etc or anything else they find handy to assist with recalling this info?

Many thanks for any insights here on what people find works for them!

[cosmicdolphin]

No particular system here. I learn by doing / experimenting rather than written stuff.

I remember getting into trouble at school with the teachers because I never took any written notes. My argument was if I took notes I wouldn't read them anyway so what was the point. Their argument was they were the teacher and I had to do as they said so I just did it really badly to make a point

When I entered the world of work I had to fake writing notes during meetings ( which I also never read ) just to look like I was paying attention. I wasn't 'not' paying attention but if you sat there without a pen and pad that's the vibe it gives off. Unlike school you get paid so I try to fit in more.

With music production much of the info is out there anyway, and immediately available on demand 24-7 like when you need to know a compressor setting or how to mic up a certain instrument. It's easier to find it as you need it IMHO than to note stuff down and have to go through it. If do I note anything down it's always on a Google sheet, i.e. I have a giant one Production Music Libraries and any time I stumble across an interesting tidbit of info I record it on there so I can cross reference it later ( sometimes years later ) if I need to.

I'm sure there are many different approaches but that's mine.

[AlanHall]

Everybody learns differently...

Because I'm a visual learner, I too have lots of stuff written down and am trying to stay on top of the piles of random ideas on loose sheets of paper, in notebooks, written in the margins of books, on a note app on my phone, on word docs,... you get the idea. I spend all my time looking rather than doing. I've started a process to consolidate the stuff that I think is important to my workflow into spreadsheets and docs in one computer folder location. That way I at least know where to look

If while you're reviewing notes you read something that you think should be remembered and acted upon, it might work for you to make that a practical exercise - homework, if you will - and use that tip/technique in the studio deliberately in order to ingrain the knowledge. Mark's "learning by doing" philosophy?

I have a bunch of books; Dean Krippaehne, Steven Pressfield, et. al., and I treat my Taxi TV / Road Rally / etc. notes like any other reference book. I figure if I read it all enough times, some of it will stick! And there are times that the brain needs to just go with the flow of sitting and absorbing the knowledge contained in whatever I happen to read. But Mark makes a point aboiut reference material: If you know what you're looking for, a web browser is the prime cross reference / search engine for anything you need to get an answer to.

[cosmicdolphin]

But Mark makes a point about reference material: If you know what you're looking for, a web browser is the prime cross reference / search engine for anything you need to get an answer to.

Actually you could argue Ai large language models like Chat GPT are fast becoming a better way to find answers so instead of browsing 100's of search results you get a more concise reply and can ask follow up questions

[mattbee]

Good food for thought! Thanks so much guys!

[SubRivers]

I'm a strict no notes taker as well, though I doodle incessantly which is the only reason I have a pad and pen at work.

Music related, I have tried organising knowledge but nothing I have done works better than google.
Bookmark/Copy links to a folder or docs is about as far as I go these days and still mostly forget about them

[DesireInspires]

I learn by copying A.I.

[cosmicdolphin]

I learn by copying A.I.

AI learns by copying us ( Pond 5 , AudioSparx have both licensed their catalogue for training AI )

[DesireInspires]

AI learns by copying us ( Pond 5 , AudioSparx have both licensed their catalogue for training AI )

Cool!

[RPaul]

Guess I'm seeing this thread way late, but in case inputs are still of interest...

Back in college (and probably high school), I took extensive notes in paper notebooks. I rarely referred to those notes (my handwriting is sufficiently bad that I might not have been able to read them anyway), but I think there was something about the physical act of taking them down, and probably the intellectual act of deciding what to write down, that somehow made the information stick. (Side note on the college experience was that I found studying was counter-productive and would make me do worse on exams, maybe due to getting more nervous or something, like the pressure of trying to remember stuff that I might otherwise dredge up without that pressure? I did, though, do any required reading and homework, so that was reinforcing whatever I might have learned in class.)

Nowadays, if I watch live broadcasts I'm trying to learn from, I'll often take notes in OneNote (I have dual monitors, so I can have a full screen video on one monitor and OneNote full screen on the other) -- I know I did that with the virtual Road Rally a few years back, for example. While it is relatively rare for me to look back at those notes, as well, one advantage is that I can actually search in OneNote (and I'll actually be able to read my notes since they're typed!!!). But I still think it is partly the act of taking the notes that helps me gain from them. The other part is just "osmosis". That is, I think the act of listening, whether taking notes or not, especially to related subject material from different sources over time, starts to help things sink in after a while. Even if I don't remember precise details, those vague memories may give me the ideas that help me find solutions when I need them, be it knowing there is a technique to do something and being able to search more intelligently, just remembering the name of some term that might help me search, or even just giving me a direction for experimentation. But, if there is something that feels timely, and like I want to follow up on it, I'm likely to send myself an email so I can attach a reminder to that in Outlook (or just leave it unread in my inbox until I have time to go back to it).

While I always did (very) well in school, I've found that I ultimately learn best by either doing or by trying to help others in solving a problem where I have some vague idea but now need to put it in words to help someone else solve a specific problem. I suppose the former is why always doing my homework helped, and the latter is something I came to grips with when doing train the trainer stuff in a corporate environment where I initially had no clue about areas where I'd need to be helping others, but then had to become expert enough to put together a technical or product-specific course, which led to my wrestling with the subject area, trying out pieces along the way, and figuring out how to share the knowledge.

The bottom line is everyone learns differently, so any system I might have might not work for you at all.