Some Thoughts on Learning

16 Jul, 2025

I see many people spin their wheels studying for exams, LeetCode, etc. without many results. The reality is, they are not limited by their talent or effort, they simply study wrong. I believe this is primarily driven by a combination of unfair stress + "intellectual laziness."

Specifically, I believe that students are encouraged to employ bad study habits due to stress that leads them to becoming "intellectually lazy." Which, here, means they do not put in effort in understanding the content they study.

Here are some loose reasons why this happens (from my personal experience) and how I've tried to recalibrate myself to be a better learner.

Aesthetics

Matcha + MacBook + highlighted notes. Spend it actually learning, not making your notes prettier for the 37th time.

However, it does feel good to study for studying sake. It just isn't very effective. Solve problems don't rewrite what you already know.

Personally I never actually did this, but, please... I hate performative studiers taking up my library space :(

Memorization

Memorization is an easy way to get an A. Unfortunately it's also an easy way to get nothing from a class.

Instead of plugging and chugging formulas, try to derive them from the building blocks provided in your class. For example, Kepler's third law can be derived super easily with the centripetal force and gravitation formula -- it just takes a bit of effort.

Doing this will teach you how to reason about the problem space, not just solve already solved problems.

Confidence

This was something I really struggled with. I've always felt like I "wasn't smart enough" and couldn't do things others could. Please believe in yourself and do not give up on chasing your dream. Everyone started somewhere.

In context to Codeforces, I found that working on easier problems for warm up helped build my confidence to begin tackling problems that took me multiple days.

Easy Problems

On the flip-side, people solve problems that are simply too easy. Getting a 100% on a practice test just tells you that you know how to solve that test. You learn when you solve problems a little outside of your range.

Procrastination

Procrastinate studying --> cram for test via memorization --> repeat (nothing was learned in this cycle)

I found that spending time doing things harder (but more interesting) things inspired from what I hear in the course is a good spend of my time. From there, the day before the test I actually learn the content in detail. This lets me work on thinking the right way and just need to brush up on the minutia of the exam.

Prioritization

Your time is your greatest resource. Don't go with the flow. Spend the time to identify your goals for the day. Figure out what needs to be done. Do it.

I find filling a todo Google Doc every morning helps.

Embarrassment + Curiosity

It feels embarrassing to not know something, but it isn't. Be curious. Spend the time learning things that you're curious about but don't know about. Keep hearing a algorithm/concept/etc. you don't know? Look it up, understand the motivation, derive the formula.

It might help to have nerdy friends. Discord communities helped me learn things I simply wouldn't've back when I was at University of Iowa.