Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects, Diffuse Mode
By: John Von Neumann Ii
Tags: Neuroscience, Learning, Education, Students, Brain

Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects, Diffuse Mode

How to make use of your superior diffuse mode a.k.a. your subconsciousness

This is a follow-up of the chapter discussing the focused mode. I have a lot of ideas every day, but not enough time to write them all down, so I chose to write the other ideas down before I forget them. I was pretty certain I won’t forget the ideas described in this chapter.

So the diffuse mode is somewhat the opposite of the focused mode. It is active in the background or your subconsciousness. The mistake most people and students tend to make when learning, is that they don’t spend a lot of time in the diffuse mode. This can cause a dramatic lack of depth in their understanding about subjects.

If you teach those students about the simulation hypothesis (see the chapter: 09/14/2019 — Simulation Hypothesis and ‘Good and Evil’), they will use their focused mode to learn every bit of element related to that hypothesis, but won’t spend much time in the diffuse mode. What is the consequence of spending less time in the diffuse mode? Well, they won’t ask themselves those deep and abstract questions like “But how does this hypothesis relate to ethics and morals?” It is a sad trend you get to see in modern education, superficial understanding of material. I much prefer the old days like in Ancient Greece or Rome where even the emperors like Marcus Aurelius knew about philosophy and had a deep understanding about things.

How to enter the diffuse mode

First of all, you can enter the diffuse mode simply by not focusing on anything (through meditation or mindfulness), but this alone is not effective in terms of creativity and learning new things. In order to command your diffuse mode to learn something in the background, you need to use the focused mode first.

For example, you want to know your own personal definition of the meaning of life. What you could start with is simply Googling information (and also storing them long-term), try to answer and view as many perspectives as you can, and then just relax. Do something else like exercising or meditating, the thinking will continue and run in the background. And after 15 minutes or even hours afterward, simply return to the question and you will be surprised how many new and stronger connections were formed in your brain without the conscious ‘you’.

This technique can also beautifully be used when taking tests, exams, or making homework:

https://lifehacker.com/improve-your-test-scores-with-the-hard-start-jump-to-e-1790599531 — Improve Your Test Scores With the “Hard Start-Jump to Easy” Technique

Diffuse mode and working memory

The diffuse mode is not limited to the working memory slots located in your prefrontal cortex, unlike the focused mode which is. This makes your subconsciousness so much more powerful when used correctly (albeit not as powerful as depicted in those movies).

The focused mode also tends to activate old neural pathways that aren’t really that creative nor are the cerebral distances very long (the distance between two activated neurons, brain regions etc). The diffuse mode can activate but also create new neural pathways that have a much longer cerebral distance than the focused mode can. This allows the diffuse mode to be much more creative but also combine ideas from many different brain regions. Again, the diffuse mode is not limited to your working memory slots located in your prefrontal cortex, so it can connect and ‘think’ about as many ideas simultaneously as its neural resources allow.

Diffuse mode and psychedelics

I would really advise the book ‘How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence’ by Michael Pollan to learn more about the information I am going to say next.

So the diffuse mode is mostly active when you don’t focus (using your focused mode). What mostly happens, neurophysiologically seen, is that the activity in the so-called default mode network increases. This allows for all kinds of connections to be much more active too, not only within one brain region but between brain regions, too. This is why someone taking psychedelics gets to see all kinds of weird hallucinations like seeing faces in inanimate objects (this phenomenon, called pareidolia, happens even without taking psychedelics, but the increased activity from the default mode network just increases the probability of occurrence).

People who take psychedelics or meditate have the feeling they have found all kinds of ‘truths’ never thought of before. You could say, that when taking psychedelics, you are essentially being aware of your diffuse mode. During sleep, you are experiencing your diffuse mode, too.

Diffuse mode and Entropic Learning Model

See the chapter 09/11/2019 — Entropic Learning Model for more information.

The diffuse mode is just such an important part of our learning and thinking process, that I made a separate phase in my learning model to remind myself that after hours of hard thinking, I need to relax to allow my diffuse mode to take over the thinking work.

Can the diffuse mode run when you are activating the focused mode?

Yes, but only when you switch tasks or ways of thinking. If you are thinking about psychology and get stuck somewhere, switch to a more left-hemispheric mode of thinking like physics or mathematics (the idea that the left and right brain hemispheres are separated from each other, in terms of logic and creativity respectively, is a myth, but brain lateralization or specialization certainly does exist to a certain degree).

How long does it take to ‘enter’ the diffuse mode?

I am not sure, but as far as I have read the information, it can be as little as 10 minutes to even hours. The thing, however, is that to stay in the diffuse mode, you need to repeat to yourself the images, ideas, questions etc. from time to time in order to make your diffuse mode think about the subject even if it takes hours.

According to research, there seems to be a correlation between having more knowledge and the duration required to switch between focused and diffuse mode effectively. The more knowledge, the faster you can switch between those two modes.

Diffuse mode and exponential learning

It is important, no matter how much homework you have, to try to switch between the focused mode and diffuse mode. It may feel like it takes a lot more time to finish your homework, in the long run, you will understand the things much deeper. This deeper understanding will make it much easier to learn new and related material. You don’t want to end up studying for years and then only using and remembering less than 10%. Imagine how it feels to spend 40 hours a week studying, while knowing in the back of your head that only 4 of these hours were ‘effective’. Keep this thought alive in the background to motivate yourself to use that diffuse mode from time to time and not to rush your learning.

Of course there are many more techniques to make your retention get closer to that 100%, like the method of loci, spaced repetition, interleaved practice, exercise, nutrition, reducing stress, getting enough sleep (which most students lack), etc.

I personally don’t spend 40 hours a week learning (new) things, not only because I don’t have the time for it, but because I don’t really need to. My retention and understanding of material is very close to that 100% and you might even say above 100%, because of all the new ideas I am generating. Those little 20 hours a week quickly turn into the equivalent of 40 hours a week most students follow, and it grows exponentially.