Organization

Now next, you need to organize and internalize. Which one should come first?

For organization, I remember my friend Kien mentioned how his Part III prof in Cambridge told them to summarize the subject three time. The first version can be as long as they want, second version should be three page long and the last version one page. This is what I usually do- do you see how I have so many writings on the same subject? My first notes on a subject are usually to flush out to details, to turn words into blobs. During that process, I realize a more efficient way to organize the knowledge. Usually books present the knowledge to me as a bunch of disjoint facts (may be they have a logic, but it is not “my” logic). Once I’ve flushed out all the details, turning them into blobs, I can perceive the links and the key ideas. (I should write more about this automatic “gistify” and “narrative-making” operation. Since noticing their power, a lot of my learning and thinking strategy has boil down to strategically exposing myself to the right thing at the right time. A way to solve a problem or to generate idea for example, is by collecting a bunch of “primers”, “triggers”. The juxtaposed exposure of them not only stimulates the brain but also forces it to take intersection, drawing connections and finding out the  gist, generalization or link them into a story. Notice how dreams are just an artificial narratives created to connect blobs, like a necklace for holding beads?).

(Drawing on the right side of the brain- perception and accent)

I then rewrite the theory based on my personal organization. That is a slice: i noticed the key points and relations (i.e. paths between them) in the blobs and thus cut through the blob with a sub variety including only those key points. All other points can be generated from those key points and relations (i.e. I was finding generators for my blob). The paths might not be the shortest distance, not geodesic. So I keep optimizing, reducing the number of points, changing the path and thus reducing the dimension of the “gist variety”- the generator of my variety. Each of this slice corresponds to a version of my summary. Note that the underlying “language” matter. Depending on my choice of language (i.e. ground field), I can perceive different things. So I can create a language in which things become simpler also.