How Do You Go About Internalizing the Most Important Concepts?

If you study so-called gifted education, you will realize that gifted people are people who are more sensitive than the average person. The way they pick up knowledge fast is mainly due to their sensitivity. Because they are sensitive to anything presented, they can internalize the knowledge faster than anyone.

All of us who are not gifted can pretend that we are gifted and implement a method to internalize concepts. This method will enable us to learn as a gifted person learns. We may take longer than the gifted person. But we will nevertheless get there faster than we did before.

The method has to be tailored to the type of learner you are: visual learner, auditory learner, reading/writing learner, or kinesthetic learner.

You can straddle a few different types and be in the middle of the quadrants. For instance, I am a visual learner who has learned to be a reading/writing learner at school. At work, due to my programming profession, I became a kinesthetic learner.

By figuring out which type of learner you are, you can immerse yourself in the type of mediums that will enable you to learn the best. By immersing yourself in the medium, you will heighten your sensitivity to the subject. This way it is much easier to internalize the concepts.

Types of learners (illustration by Jun Wu)

Visual learner

If you are a visual learner, you love visualizing ideas and concepts. You can create mind maps of the concepts. I am a visual learner. I often use a whiteboard to diagram all the components of the concepts in my programming books. I also diagram all of the components of the systems I am building. Once I do it once, it’s easier for me to imprint the image into memory.

Tools for learning: YouTube videos, lists-oriented training, diagrams, mind maps

Exercises for remembering: create mind maps, make modules, create Visio diagrams

Auditory learner

If you are an auditory learner, then you are likely to learn by listening to someone talk about the subject.

Tools for learning: audiobooks, podcasts, TED videos, classroom instruction

Exercises for remembering: teaching the concepts to someone else, coding with a buddy and teaching each other.

Reading/writing learner

If you are a reading/writing learner, then you are likely to learn from reading programming books and taking notes.

Tools for learning: programming books, making list, taking notes

Exercises for remembering: writing a blog about concepts learned, creating question/answer lists

Kinesthetic learner

If you are a Kinesthetic learner, then you learn best by doing. You like to engage in learning that involves physically acting out what you have learned.

Tools for learning: programming projects, study groups, coding competitions

Exercises for remembering: tracing through mind maps, coding with Visio block diagrams, engaging in different coding projects with a buddy