Knowledge Base

The self-actualisation economy

The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been mostly used in psychology to understand the underlying forces that drive human motivation. It goes from physiological needs at the base of the pyramid, to safety, love and belonging, social needs, esteem, and ends with self-actualisation at the top of the pyramid. These are supposed to represent the … Read More

How to learn anything with the Feynman Technique

Our current education system is designed to optimise for input. Hours are spent reading, observing, and listening, and output is mostly encouraged as a way to measure the student’s progress. It’s a shame, because there’s lots of research showing that we remember things better when we actively engage with the information and create our own … Read More

Taking note of nature

I just spent the weekend in Champagne, France, in an old country house, with good food and good friends. Despite the rain, we spent most of our time outside observing the flowers, trees, and the insects and animals roaming the land. This was the first time in a long time where I didn’t touch my … Read More

The science of note-taking

While note-taking feels natural to students, this is something many people stop doing once they start working, either as an employee or for themselves. We may bookmark something to read it later, but the active process of taking notes when consuming content is not a common habit. “It doesn’t matter how you record your notes, … Read More

The generation effect

Do you feel like you can remember things better when you actively engage with the information and create your own version of it? That’s called the Generation Effect. In a research paper published in 1978 in the Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, scientists described it as the phenomenon where information is better remembered … Read More

The neuroscience of procrastination: A short primer

Procrastination makes it difficult and stressful to finish certain tasks or to meet deadlines, so why do we do this to ourselves? When we get stuck into an akratic loop, we know we “should” do something, but we resist doing it. The sister word “procrastination” itself comes from the latin “pro”, which means “forward”, and “crastinatus”, which means “till next day.”