The evidence supporting the learning benefits of analogue technology.

Pick one technical concept you’re trying to learn. Close your laptop. Get a pen and paper. Write down what you understand about it in your own words. Draw diagrams. Create examples. Struggle with the parts you don’t understand.

It’s slow. It’s inefficient. It’s unfashionable. And it works.

The irony is that in our rush to optimize everything, we’ve optimized away one of the most effective learning techniques humans have. Sometimes the old ways persist not because we’re stuck in the past, but because they actually work.

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