[#04-C] The "Theater" Technique to Break Through Study Plateaus

We know how frustrating it can be when repetitive effort brings no results whatsoever.

It feels like it's all useless, something in vain; that activity starts to discourage you because it doesn't achieve the results you expect, so you abandon it.

But the stage I'm going to discuss is the middle part, meaning you haven't given up yet, but you're still getting unsatisfactory results.

Seeing someone online or in your daily life who seems to do the same thing as you but gets impressive results can bring you down, I know.

But before wanting to solve it, let's better understand the problem.

Cognitive plateau:

• You've already understood the content, but you don't know how to apply it in new ways.

This is the most superficial part of learning; you understood what it meant to say, but you can't transform it into a practical experience.

For example, Socrates' dialogue with Euthyphro, where in one passage, Socrates says:

"Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved?"

In other words, if I read this part of the text without considering a real-world experience where it applies, I couldn't say I understood what he meant.

What he was referring to is: does the act of being appreciated stem from the agent's preference or from its own nature that is, in itself, appreciable?

Your learning declines significantly if you can only remember things through words, and not through facts experienced or created by yourself.

Retention plateau:

• You understand it, but you forget quickly.

You understand it, but you forget quickly.

This situation is very common and should be avoided to prevent it from getting worse.

If you learn something but forget it right away, continuing to learn will only increase your frustration.

That's because it makes no sense to move to level 2 if you completely ignored level 1.

In this case, you need a review on the same day, a few hours later.

If you read 20 pages in the morning or afternoon, at night, write just 3 lines summarizing everything.

Sometimes it'll be tempting to go beyond 3 lines, but don't; make an effort to compress many things into a small text.

It doesn't need to be detailed; that's not the purpose of this exercise.

This will simply serve to double your chances of remembering it, because you'll not only have the memory of when you read the book, but also, at night, when you remember it again.

Below, I'll talk about the last type of plateau + the "Theatre" Technique used not only to memorize, but also to learn concepts with depth.

Expression plateau:

• You know it, but you can't speak, explain, or use it.