Review: Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would like to thank the reviewers who said everything useful could be found in Chapter 8. I ended up reading that, and then going back to other chapters for details (mainly chapter 3).


It contained some great nuggets for any type of learning, whether it's for school, business, language learning, etc. I'll be applying these to my chinese language learning so let's see how it goes.


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Review: Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I probably wasn't the right target market for this book, in that I already agreed with everything he said. I've never gotten rid of all social media on my phone in order to give it a break, and then start from there, as he advocates. But I make it a point to keep very few apps (especially social media apps) on my phone. Only keeping the ones I use for work, and using my desktop for anything else. 

I also use Rescuetime to analyze how much time I spend on every app/website, and my numbers are nowhere near some of the crazy numbers he mentions, luckily. 

Regardless, some good points were made. I believe this would have made an excellent article, maybe with relative website to sign a pledge, or join a group, in order to enact what he mentions. As a book it's a bit long-winded. 

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Review: Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World

Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World by Emily Balcetis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author’s journey to play the drums well enough to have a private concert is an interesting anecdote that would’ve made a great article (or Ted talk, with subsequent performance). As a book it’s just dragged out and, frankly, unrelatable to most readers. 

Having said that there are some decent takeaways, which I wish had been given more focus:

- Apparently pushing something bad (like junk food) from your mind doesn’t work as well as actually thinking about eating it in terms of avoiding it in the near future. This seemed counterintuitive to me, but very interesting. 

- Narrow your focus: Focus on smaller, more immediate goals rather than the big final outcome. 

- Think back to the bad points/mistakes as much as the good points. This helps you avoid them in the future. 

These weren’t the 4 takeaways given by the author, but they were from my notes. 

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