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The practice that feels wrong

How to get good fast at something new · 13 min

In 1879 Hermann Ebbinghaus began memorising thousands of nonsense syllables, with himself as the only subject, and found how forgetting works. Since then, experiments from Harvard to a Turkish high school that tried AI have shown the practice that feels like learning often isn't. How to get good fast at something new, and one habit to start this week.

Takeaways

  • In a study of university students, those who reread a passage did better five minutes later, but a week later people who had practised recalling it remembered about sixty-one percent of its ideas against forty, and the rereaders had expected to remember more.
  • The feeling of learning is a poor judge: in a Harvard physics course and a Turkish high school that tried an AI assistant, the practice that felt easier left people knowing less, and they didn't notice.
  • This week: close it, space it, check it. Pull one thing you're learning out of your own head, after a gap, then check.

Chapters

  1. The man who memorised nonsense0:17
  2. The feeling of knowing2:40
  3. When easy is a trap4:44
  4. Two new starters7:01
  5. Hear it done8:33
  6. Build yours9:50
  7. The answer11:35

References

  1. Ebbinghaus, H. — Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology (Über das Gedächtnis)(1885)
  2. Murre, J. M. J., & Dros, J. — Replication and analysis of Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve(2015)
  3. Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. — Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention(2006)
  4. Kornell, N. — Optimising learning using flashcards: Spacing is more effective than cramming(2009)
  5. Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. — Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom(2019)
  6. Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakcı, Ö., & Mariman, R. — Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics(2025)
  7. Larsen, D. P., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. — Repeated testing improves long-term retention relative to repeated study: a randomised controlled trial(2009)
  8. Agarwal, P. K., Nunes, L. D., & Blunt, J. R. — Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: a systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms(2021)
  9. Sigayret, Parmentier, & Silvestre — Testing the testing effect on Prolific: when retrieval practice fails to boost learning(2026)
  10. Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. — Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning(2011)
  11. Harvard University, via ScienceDaily — More learning in 'active learning' classrooms, but students don't know it(2019)