How I Improved My Learning to Outsmart My Brain

What’s Wrong With My Brain?

A series of recent events have compelled me to completely reorganize the way I learn. 

It started with a call to the Canadian Revenue Authorities about a $724 penalty. After 15 infuriating minutes of telephone menu maze running and eye-twitchingly-enervating hold music, I finally got an agent on the line. 

“For security measures, can you tell me your postal code?” 

“Umm… V6R 2P7.” 

WRONG. Dial tone. 

“F***!”

I blamed the CRA. Then I blamed myself for forgetting something as simple as my postal code. 

What’s wrong with my brain? 

It got worse. Twenty percent into reading “Finding Your Element” by Ken Robinson, I felt an eerie sense of déjà vu. Déjà lu, actually. I looked back through my Kindle library. 

“Oh jeeze.” 

There was a second copy of the book. I’d already read it only nine months ago! 

How could I forget an entire book?

This memory lapse hurt extra because I’d recently honed in on my purpose for learning (and writing here): to use my (not-so-)superpowers to help people systematically tap into their life’s unique potential:

This has motivated me to develop world-class knowledge about related topics. Forgetting entire books? That’s world-class stupidity.

The final push to patch my leaky brain came from the Hidden Brain podcast episode, Remember More, Forget Less. It features psychologist Dan Willingham, author of “Outsmart Your Brain.” He warns of our brain’s tendency to underestimate forgetting and overestimate mastery. Our brains prioritize immediately relevant information that helps us survive, not long-term, big-picture stuff that helps us thrive. 

“Oh my gosh,” I realized while listening. “The Suck.” 

The Suck Rears Its Ugly Heads

If you’re new here—or have a memory like mine—The Suck is my term for the internal force that holds us back from our potential. It has two heads: 

1. Complacency, which lulls us into inaction.
2. Delusion, which distorts our perception of reality. 

Willingham exposed how The Suck’s sabotages my learning:

Delusion whispers: “Chris, of course you know your postal code. You see it all the time. Don’t worry, I gotchu.”

Complacency nods: “Yeah, relax, brah. You’re good.”

But no. I’m not good. And I must worry. My learning process is in shambles. 

As reality sank in, a tiny unsucky part of my brain came up with an idea.

HR Crisis at B.R.A.I.N. Inc.

I started thinking of my brain as a company—B.R.A.I.N. Inc. (Brilliance Repository & Academic Intelligence Network). 

Our mission? To help myself and others systematically tap into our extraordinary potential. 

As CEO, my job is to develop an amazing workforce of concepts and empower them to collaborate towards our mission.

The problem? Catastrophic turnover. 

Concepts are flightier than Gen Z grads with fancy degrees. Without adequate engagement, they quiet quit before I even notice. Worse, my malfeasant HR manager—The Suck—keeps assuring me everything’s fine while secretly telling each concept, “You’re not needed here.”

To stop this brain drain, I needed a system overhaul.

Step 1: Upgraded Onboarding and Engagement System

When I encounter a high-potential concept, I can’t let it twiddle its thumbs in my B.R.A.I.N. until it gets bored and bounces. I need a sophisticated onboarding system that helps it find its role and engage it.

How? A concept from Michael Nielsen’s appearance on the Conversations With Tyler podcast raised its hand with a suggestion: 

Spaced repetition. 

I paid for the Anki app and started making flashcards for every concept worth retaining. This way, The Suck’s no longer in charge of telling me how content and engaged my concepts are. Anki’s unbiased algorithms do that job. Every day I check in with Anki to reinforce concepts and recall any that have slipped away.

So far, I’ve firmly entrenched 79 concepts this way. My postal code is one. But also useful concepts like Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s three-part definition of a life’s work: “A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are.” 

Some of my new concepts are already intermingling intimately. For example, Bob Moesta’s four forces model of progress hooked up with Alex Hormozi’s value equation to create a handy new concept, a formula for driving change (and sales):

[(Desired Outcome - Status Quo) x Likelihood of Success - (Inertia + Anxiety)] / (Perceived Effort x Time to Results)

Rather than leaking, my B.R.A.I.N. is innovating!

Step 2: More Focused M&A

Books are a wonderful recruiting channel. When you read one, you acquire the author’s whole company of concepts. But my integrations have not been well-managed. I’ve been haphazardly bringing ideas into B.R.A.I.N. then neglecting to assign them any work while believing The Suck’s lies: 

“Fantastic! All these new concepts are thriving here. Yep, yep. Super engaged. Not going anywhere. Keep them coming. Faster!” 

But the reality? Within weeks, almost all the ideas I spent hours bringing in have walked out the back door. 

So as much as I enjoy reading and the dopamine hits of identifying new concepts, it’s not the most efficient way to build a potent workforce. 

A better way? 

My B.R.A.I.N.’s newly-incubated AI R&D department brought forward an exciting new solution:

Work closely with the author on the acquisition. 

1. Upload whole books to ChatGPT or Claude.
2. Ask for the author’s org structure (a.k.a. outline). 
3. Prompt: ​​“You’re the author of [book]. I’m Chris. I aspire to develop world-class knowledge around how to systematically tap into individuals’ unique potential. Tell me about the concepts in your book that might be especially useful.”
4. Chat. Go back and for with the author to ensure I understand relevant concepts and how best to integrate them within my existing knowledge.
5. Create Anki cards for retention. 

No doubt I overlook some concepts by not reading cover to cover, but I get highly qualified concepts working for me better and longer. This frees up time for the third step of my learning overhaul.

Step 3: Improved Diversity and Inclusion 

Recent years have seen my B.R.A.I.N. overrun with analytical concepts—the types who work in accounting, engineering, research. The result? A dry, predictable, and uncreative environment. It’s been so bad these past couple of months that I’ve been having troubles not falling asleep while looking for new recruits.

My problem? Too much non-fiction, not enough fiction. 

Concepts from fiction are the artists, storytellers, creatives, shamans. I struggle to define how exactly they contribute to my B.R.A.I.N. They just seem to float around complementing my non-fiction concepts with color, emotion, spirituality, and other je-ne-sais-quoi benefits I can’t rationalize. And they seem to be less susceptible to The Suck’s influence. Concepts from books like “A Short Stay in Hell” continue to make their mark.

My latest source of recruits is “The Count of Monte Cristo.” I’m not sure what concepts it will bring, but I’m enjoying the process. And I’m more confident than ever that it’s working. 

Big Things Ahead for Your B.R.A.I.N, Too?

Not long ago, my B.R.A.I.N. suffered from abysmal retention of the concepts I worked so hard to bring in. But now I’m driving a dramatic turnaround with Suck-resistant systems. Great concepts are coming in, collaborating, and creating. I’m more optimistic than ever about my B.R.A.I.N.’s product pipeline of insights on tapping into life’s potential. 

Learning is a big part of an extraordinary life, so on that note:

• How’s it going within your B.R.A.I.N.? 
• Are you sure The Suck’s not sabotaging your efforts? 
• And what’s your next move to improve recruitment, retention, and diversity?

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