Author | Shejiang
Source | Alibaba Cloud Native Official Account
Introduction : Learning is something we have been doing right from the beginning of the fall. From simple imitation to systematic training, learning seems to have become commonplace for us. However, have we really learned to learn? What is the ultimate goal of learning? What is the difference between technical learning thinking? This article starts with structured thinking and shares how to learn.
Preface
Imagine that when you take over a new business direction, the business side requires you to quickly become familiar with and invest in it. How would you deal with such a challenge? Imagine again, as a newcomer to risk control technology, you need to introduce new graph computing technology to the original prevention and control strategy, and how can you quickly learn the new technology to achieve your business goals?
If you happen to have heard of the theory of the XY problem, you will know that the above problems are actually Y problems raised by the author. The X problem is how we should learn a new topic quickly.
The XY problem is the solution Y that others asked about their own attempts, not the actual problem X. This wastes a lot of time and energy, both for those seeking help and those who provide help.
What is structured thinking?
Let’s look at such an example. The preparations for a platform battle before KO are divided into two ways: Group A and Group B.
Group A
Group B
In the above example, group B has one more "dimension" than group A. The original elements are classified and grouped, so that the overall information is more organized and logical, and easier to remember.
We are in an environment of information explosion, but information is not equal to cognition. The brain needs to process the received information to finally form cognition and transfer it when needed. This process is thinking. Information processing is an extremely complex process, and a set of scientific methodology is needed to improve work efficiency, and structured thinking has emerged.
Structured thinking is to establish a clear, stable and orderly thinking structure, which helps us to transform our knowledge system from fragmented to systematic. We often use the pyramid structure for structural understanding and thinking. The pyramid structure is a concept proposed in the book "Pyramid Principles". It is a tree diagram that embodies structured thinking into a triangle-like structure, which intuitively reflects the conclusions and arguments. , Arguments are composed of a three-dimensional analysis method of “first total and then divided” (vertical structure), and then sort and exhaust the information through classification and grouping (horizontal structure).
Pyramid structure
What's interesting is that the pyramid structure first totals and then divides. From the appearance, it seems that the horizontal structure expands and the information becomes more and more. In fact, as information is classified and grouped, information becomes knowledgeable and systematized, and the less information is processed, if it is refined again to form its own methodological level, it can eventually become a long-wave memory. As shown in the figure below, when we encounter massive amounts of information on a certain subject, we need to follow a "funnel" thinking process.
In the preface, the author raises a few questions. Let's think about it. Can structured thinking help us learn a subject quickly? We try to use structured thinking to solve this problem. From the perspective of learning itself, first obtain the definition of learning from Wikipedia :
Learning is the process of improving ability through external professors or from own experience. From a narrow perspective, it is a process of acquiring knowledge or skills through reading, listening, research, observation, understanding, exploration, experimentation, and practice. Individuals can get continuous changes (knowledge and skills, methods and processes, emotion and value improvement and sublimation) behavior.
To analyze the subject of learning, from a narrow perspective, learning can be divided into four aspects: collection, processing, precipitation, and enablement after horizontal disassembly. Structured thinking is a process of structured thinking and understanding of information. The overall longitudinal structure matching of studying this topic can be concluded that structured thinking can mainly help complete the processing stage of learning, and a small part covers the precipitation stage of learning. Therefore, we can draw a simple conclusion that only structured thinking is not enough for learning.
Does learning require learning?
In the first sharing session of Alibaba's public welfare training Java grapefruit training camp, Mr. Gu Jin shared the four steps of learning, namely memory, understanding, expression, and integration.
Memory is the first step in information acquisition, just like when a CPU is operating, the data must be read into the memory first, and the data with memory can be processed by the brain. How to remember efficiently? In fact, the first principles of memory are repetition, but in actual work and study, there are some methods that can help the brain to remember information more easily.
Memory is divided into long wave memory and short wave memory:
-
Long wave memory: It has been persisted in the brain. When you forget it, it is only because it is not retrieved, but it is easy to recall, similar to disk storage.
- Shortwave memory: I forget it for a period of time, and I can't remember it later, similar to memory storage.
As far as memory is concerned, the following points are worth noting:
- Information with scenes helps memorize
- Regular information helps memorize
- Classified information helps memorize
- Information with images helps memorize
- Naturally connected information helps memorize
If you do not think before remembering, the efficiency of simple repetition is not flattering. For example, there are two sets of words below. Which set is easier to remember in a very short time? The first group is abstract nouns, while the second group is concrete objects. Obviously, the second group allows us to think of concrete scenes more quickly, and can also use structural thinking to quickly classify them to form shortwave memories.
-
Identity, Contradiction, Helicity, Struggle, Unity, Metaphysical Idealism, Materialism, Human Nature
- Watermelon Apple Banana Pear Cucumber Pumpkin Tomato Cabbage Chives Chives Pepper Chili Coriander Cherry
The content after the quick memory is the content that has not been digested. It is easy to forget. It requires repeated understanding to internalize knowledge as part of one's own cognition, and to express and pass it out so that the internalized knowledge can be enabled. Only by learning and practicing can you master them.
Teacher Gu Jin uses memory as an inspiring point, telling us to cultivate the ability to learn quickly, pay attention to methods and efforts, and learn how to learn. It’s worth sharing that many times we don’t know that we don’t know, and we haven’t thought about the proposition of how to learn ourselves. We often plunge into our own business and work, and we can’t extricate ourselves without jumping out to see some fundamental elements.
For another example, in Java, is LinkedList a singly linked list or a doubly linked list? In the curing thinking of many development students, it is a singly linked list, and it is not clear whether it is a suitable scene when using it. In the four parts of the study, only the first point is actually achieved. Remember that there is such a List subclass. All the following trilogy failed.
Another example is why there is a precision problem with floating-point numbers, why is such a result after the loss of precision, if there is no clear storage structure diagram of computer floating-point numbers in the brain (the information of the image is helpful for memory), then in the process of learning There is a big gap.
Single-precision floating-point number storage structure
From this point of view, will you still learn?
Learning thinking from a technical perspective
From the perspective of technical students to talk about learning thinking, we might as well start with Domain-Driven Design.
When supporting the business, it is necessary to correctly understand the business domain, analyze the problem domain and model the domain knowledge. One of the vivid ways is the 6W model, that is, the process of describing the scene must include Who, What, Why, Where, When and With these six elements of How, domain experts or business analysts extract "scenes" from the domain. When we study the domain, it seems to be telling a story or making a movie. The 6W model is shown in the figure below:
6W model
The realization of software relies on the abstraction of the knowledge model of the real problem domain, and the construction of this knowledge model is actually the performance of learning thinking from a technical perspective (hereinafter referred to as technical learning thinking). In domain-driven design, it is mainly divided into strategic modeling and Tactical modeling, in which the thinking from strategy to tactics itself can be seen as a vertical to horizontal information classification to facilitate our structured and orderly understanding and thinking.
We say that software is the process of automating the real world. The first task is to learn these processes. At the same time, technical learning thinking is more challenging than conventional cognition. In addition to processing information into knowledge, it is necessary to further model knowledge and use computers. Language to express these knowledge models and simulate the process of the real world. Is software development difficult? I think it's difficult, but it's not difficult. Both good design and bad design can support business examples, but we are more looking forward to good design. How to make well-designed software? Yes, this is another Y problem, and the X problem is how we learn to learn.
Practice and summary
1. Special
Take the field of risk control that the author is engaged in as an example, it is necessary to quickly learn the knowledge of risk control to support the international battlefield of Ali and Ant Group. After sorting and memorizing the collected information, from the perspective of risk control thinking, it can be summarized as the following value and description:
One-sentence value: risk control value = business assistance + effective interception-business interruption
After processing and thinking about related concepts, understand the risk control technology. One of the abstract ways is to treat risk control as a formula:
Expand the risk control function f with a variable system:
Where s is the strategy system, u is the variable system, and var is the variable.
Variables can be regarded as the left value of the condition part of the strategy.
It can be seen that the process of learning is to focus a huge subject on the core elements and establish an easy-to-understand model level, but this is still in the middle or even early stages of learning, and it needs constant expression and integration, and internalization as part of itself . In the field of risk control, there are actually many aspects that need to be explored. It is also a huge gain to have a sense of not really learning. It can urge oneself to move towards a more systematic goal, and finally integrate it into their own learning results. Some areas of output.
2. Summary
Fast learning is a demand that can be strongly perceived. Inspired by the Ali Grapefruit Training Camp, sometimes the anxiety is because I have not learned how to learn yet, or I am repeating it in the past. Learning how to learn is a skill. To know that we don’t know, our ultimate goal is to enable ourselves to learn efficiently in a limited time. The ultimate goal of learning is not precipitation, but the expression of knowledge and continuity. The change.