Focusing Your Unconscious Mind: Learn Hard Concepts Intuitively (And Forever)

A general learning method for learning and understanding hard concepts intuitively/deeply/obviously, and for long periods - up to years at a time.

I’ve put in some easter eggs this time - enjoy finding them.

Sources (probably not exhaustive):

Music (not in order, I'm still lazy)

Local Forecast - Slower by Kevin MacLeod
License: [yt dislikes this link, removed]

Dreams by Bensound

Sthlm Sunset by Ehrling
(not exactly sure how to credit, the link is dead)

Sunset On Terra by HYBRID V (Creative Commons License)

This Is For You (Prod. by Lukrembo)

Timestamps
00:00 Intro (and about me)
00:31 What does “intuitively” mean?
01:41 Core principles
02:58 Abstraction barrier
05:10 How to understand a single piece?
05:41 Single piece - caring
06:51 Single piece - unleashing your brain
09:26 Single piece - reading the solution
10:01 Single piece - no need to solve it
10:33 How to reinforce?
11:16 Reinforcing - invent
11:27 Reinforcing - practice
12:05 Reinforcing - explain
12:56 Reinforcing - explore
13:58 Reinforcing - over time
15:09 Tying it all together
15:31 An ecosystem of learning
16:42 IQ
18:14 Final remarks

[ronaldluo]

10:10 "These problems were invented by people, and you're a people, so you're capable of inventing them too" hit me hard

[KoshakiDev]

Great video! Please continue!

Here is a video compiled into a written note for people who revisit the video

**Core Principles**

Generate as many insights (thoughts that help you understand more) as possible. Insight is gained from experience.

Example of an Insight:
- Knowing the purpose of a particular step for a concept
- An example to illustrate a concept

Treat learning like problem-solving

Be sure to care.

Break concepts down to small pieces. Understand some small pieces at a time

Forget memorization!

**How to Understand a Concept**

1. Start with the big picture (knowing what purpose it serves, but not the details or how it works). We assume that everything "inside the box" magically works out. The stuff "outside the box" should independently make sense (even if you don't know the details of how each part works)

2. Expand on details from the big picture. Once you understand a detail (see step below), continue to break down details until it is so fundamental it can't be broken down further.

**How to Understand a Detail:**

0. Pick a detail to learn
1. Understand detail in context. Make sure you understand at every step how the pieces fits together. Why we do each step? What each step accomplishes?
2. Understand a single piece by itself (See step below)
3. Reinforce it (See step below)
4. Repeat

**How to Understand a Single Piece By Itself**
You are exploring possible avenues and ideas/hypotheses. **Put in the time and effort!**

1. You must care. What you learn reinforces one of your values or helps you achieve something you value.
2. Try to solve the problem by yourself (Inventing the piece). Understand the problem. What is it about? What does it accomplish/describe? What does it do?
3. If you can't invent, read and process the "solution". Think how the solution solves the problem. How does it fit in the big picture? What insight it offers to the rest of the concept? What inspired the solution?


**How to Reinforce: Looking at the Concept from Different Angles**

1. Invent - invent/solve the concept by yourself
2. Practice - try to apply the concept to various things. Embed the concept into your reasoning
3. Explain - Understanding the concept well enough to explain it to someone else
4. Explore - think about various ideas related to the concept. Change some variables around.

[vijaykumarjha]

I love how one of the world's best competitive programmer is giving us useful information through video for free!

[ashtonrendon]

This stuff 100% works. I’m in a lazy streak, but for years, this is how I thought about things. Basically, I would just have eureka moments throughout the day while doing completely unrelated tasks to what I was learning, because my brain was always working on the subject in the background without me having to actively think about it. Connections were being made between the information I was trying to learn and seemingly unrelated tasks, or sometimes it would just hit me for no apparent reason. Things just seem to click. This guy explains it perfectly, and I’m going to reapply these things to my life to get back into mental shape. Seriously, if you want to learn faster than you ever have, you have to do this.

Edit: And it works for all subjects. Forgot to mention that. When I’m in full nerd mode, I just want to learn everything, and this is exactly how it’s done. And it can absolutely be learned. I wasn’t always like that. Hence why I’m in a lazy streak right now lol my own nature got the better of me after a while. But it was a LONG while. I think maintaining emotional and mental health are the most effective way of avoiding burnout or just relapsing into old habits. Especially because it greatly affects “caring”, which if you watched the video, you know how important that is.

[codex]

I love how this applies to a ton of things and not just competitive programming. Thanks for making this!

[Camp-Rock-Groupie]

I nearly cried at the end. I wish more smart people would be kind enough to encourage learning like this. I’ve always wanted an education but could never afford it traditionally but I want to learn for myself in any way possible even if I don’t get a degree out of it

[Sonaurea]

This is how I survived everything, college, professional career, etc. I always tried to use my intuition for solutions. I learned this from playing a lot of video games of many genres. I always try to learn and improve. I also like hard puzzle games. Games like "The Witness" are a good example of that intuitive learning. Even "Elden Ring", because of the learn as you go type of feel in the design choices.

[medmind]

This method totally works, not just for programming btw! I started doing this from the second year of medschool and it completely changed everything, before that I thought I wasn't good enough for school, now I have one more year to go and my grades and understanding of concepts are almost perfect.

[wesleydunn]

Colin mentions that intuitive understanding means accepting a concept as a fundamental truth without needing to justify it, and that this hardwiring can be achieved through generating insights, treating learning like problem solving, and continually practicing and reviewing the concept. They also discuss the importance of actively engaging with the material and finding connections to other concepts, as well as setting goals and tracking progress. Overall, Colin is advocating for a structured and proactive approach to learning and understanding concepts deeply. Thank you for the video Colin, I do believe that this is an important concept that everyone should try to understand.

[bigmonkey]

I think that "inventing" is really helpful because you convince yourself that something is your own idea rather than someone else's.

[miniyodadude]

Im a competetive smash player and its frustrated me how people are unable to explain concepts in an intuitive way to a point where i invented a similar way of learning to what you have.
This video perfectly encapsulates my perspective on improvement and learning, thank you for making this

[lolersauresrex]

I’ve always wondered why I’ve been able to think through and absorb concepts so quickly and you just articulated the way I have thought my whole life.

[vinesauces]

Huge thanks for providing those information for free, always wanted to program but everything is so overwhelming, not knowing where to start and if I actually have the IQ to be great.

Those videos really help in give a sense of direction and some comfort.

Huge love from Australia <3

[wipriel]

This is so much different and seems so much interesting than my (and that of 99% percent of people) method of learning which consists of just hammering theory and redoing the same questions over and over again without taking a step back. I love your perspective and will definitly try to apply it soon !
I hope i will remember to get back to you on my experience.
Again thanks a lot for this video

[onceall]

Please continue doing what you're doing, you're single handedly building a better tomorrow for everyone listening to you

[Phonophobic]

You are truly “a thinker’s thinker.” Thank you so much for articulating (thus reinforcing and crystallizing) so much of what I’ve ‘felt’ intuitively but have never been able to put into words Your understanding of problem solving is astounding.

[angelbeatswolf]

as a tutor, being able to explain/teach something has always been my personal indicator of my understanding on a topic. my favourite teachers in school were the ones who, when i asked a question they didn't know the answer to, would always take time to figure it out with me. i'm a software dev and i feel so seen by this video

[moisescristiano]

Here's one thing I did when I didn't like a subject at first or it seemed too difficult for me: I skipped the boring/difficult parts looking for something I found interesting or useful to me. And there was my starting point for that subject. From there, I managed to accumulate knowledge of the content until I came to understand it, and even enjoy it.

[yonatanyoffe]

Thank you so much! My whole life I was thinking about this form of learning and had thoughts that I might be slightly crazy or something but with years of refining it and having experience and practice I proved to myself that it's a mind tool aka schema and that it is ok... This literally enforced this side of my reasoning! Kudos to you!

[tamnker]

Another thing you can do is:
If there’s a certain rabbit hole or tangent in the problem that doesn’t really help, but is interesting to you, it’s sometimes good to go down it anyways (if you have enough time) While it may be off-topic, it will build care & confidence, improve current mood, develop skills you may use later, and might even circle right back to what you’re learning.