Einstein on Learning and Pattern Recognition

Two "thinking" posts here.

The Secret to Learning Anything

• This first one (click on the heading above) is from Brain Pickings and includes a snippet from a letter from Einstein to his son. It's a nice short read that can be summarized as follows:

“That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.”

• Be it motor learning, cognitive behavioural therapy, skill acquisition, childhood education or other, perhaps one of the most important variables is true enjoyment. Sure we've heard that deliberate practice may not always be "fun", but in some cases, I choose to defer to Einstein. Some will also argue that there is no such thing as "learning styles", and I'm not the expert so I at this moment I can't argue against it. But for my own learning, I have "The Genius in All of Us" and "Ungifted" on the way to give me a better idea.

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Urban Illusions

• Again click on the heading but in particular, take a look at the subsection "Phantom Shapes" on the first page. Discussing anamorphosis and good continuation, the ultimate premise is regarding pattern recognition. In this article illusions are discussed and surely we have to understand the binding problem our own athletes and patients are faced with, but why exactly can professions - those whom we often look up to - make the complex seem so easy? One explanation, aside from mere experience, in my opinion is pattern recognition. Just think of your first experience with jigsaw puzzles. You saw pieces. But once you got the hang of it, instead of pieces you saw patterns. And experts - or those with experience -  see the sum of the parts. They see patterns and they view the whole, rather than possess a reductionist viewpoint that rookies do. Because to understand...is to perceive patterns. ​