The learning methods and training details of Harvard's top students

Chapter 7 Be an effective learner and take the lead
(Harvard representative: Wang An) Every educated person should know a little about everything, but know a lot about individual things.

——Lowell, No.20 Second President of Harvard University

[Character Biography]

Biography of Wang An
Wang An (1920-1990), born in Shanghai, was admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University at the age of 16. In 1945, as a senior engineer and technician in China, he was sent to the United States for further study, and in the autumn of 1945, he entered Harvard University to study. In 1948, he received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University. In 1951, he sold the patent right of the memory core he invented, and used the $50 he received to establish Wang An Laboratory in Boston.

In 1955, Wang An Computer Company was formally established. In 1964, the desktop computer was launched. In 1967, Wang An’s company’s stock was listed. In 1976, Wang An launched a new type of electronic word processor. 1984 was the year when Wang An reached its peak, with an annual income of 21 billion US dollars, of which the profit was 2.1 million US dollars.

In 1986, Wang An's eldest son, Wang Lie, served as the company's president and was in charge of the company's daily business. In 1989, Wang An Company announced "debt restructuring" due to its inability to pay 2.09 million U.S. dollars in arrears, and the company lost 4.24 million U.S. dollars this year.Wang An dismissed his eldest son, Wang Lie, from the position of president this year, and Miller assumed his position. On March 1990, 3, Wang An died of cancer, and Miller became the chairman.The company lost $24 million for the year. In 7.16, IBM and Wang An announced their alliance.Under this combination, Wang An Company can sell IBM computers and provide corresponding software. On August 1991, 1992, Wang An Company declared bankruptcy.

Wang An's company employs more than 3 people at most, and its annual turnover reaches 30 billion U.S. dollars. In 1986, Wang An was listed as the fifth richest man in the United States. In 1989, he entered the "Hall of Inventors" in the United States. He was as famous as Edison and other great inventors, and was awarded the "American Presidential Medal of Freedom".However, its strong and conservative family concept, its internal management mechanism behind the times, and its wrong prediction of the development prospects of PCs and computer networks eventually led to the tragedy of this giant in the computer industry and Wang An Computer Company.

【Character Story】

A computer giant focused on achievement

In 1944, the Kuomintang government formulated a plan to send senior engineers to the United States for training. 24-year-old Wang An took part in the selection examination and was admitted with No.2 grades. He went to the famous university Harvard University for further study.

Wang An was very dedicated and diligent in studying at Harvard. His grades in the first semester of the university were two A+ and two A, and he soon became a well-known high-achieving student in the department.During his studies at Harvard, Wang An successively studied under two well-known professors, both of whom were Nobel Prize winners. It took him only 16 months to go from a master's degree to a Ph.D., which can be described as a model for many Harvard students.During his Ph.D. study, Wang An took courses in digital electronic circuit systems, which were crucial to his future innovations in computers. In 1948, Wang An obtained a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University with outstanding results, and was hired as a researcher in the Computer Research Laboratory of Harvard University with an annual salary of 5000 US dollars.

Dr. Aiken, who invented the Mark 1 computer, had a keen eye for talent, and handed over the task of developing a new type of memory to Wang An, who had just been working in the Harvard Computer Laboratory for three days.While studying at Harvard, Wang An, who was always paying attention to the development of computers, knew that the memory used at that time were extremely inefficient mercury delay line devices.He once read a report in the library introducing the development of soft magnetic materials by Germans, which may open up a new path for the development of memory.For the next three weeks, Wang An locked himself in the laboratory, devoted himself to exploring magnetic materials, and finally made a small magnetic core with a diameter of less than 1 mm from ferrite.The magnetic core invented by Wang An caused a revolution in computer memory and dominated the field of memory for more than 20 years.

【Harvard view】

The best win first and do the most important thing first
In learning, some people are always greedy for more and always want to learn all the content at once.This kind of practice of pursuing everything but failing to grasp the key points of learning will eventually lead to nothing.

Why can the drill bit drill through thick walls or hard rock formations in a very short time?Students have already learned this problem in physics. The principle is: when the same force is concentrated at one point, the unit pressure will be greater; and if it is concentrated on a plane, the unit pressure will be reduced countless times.A strategy of attacking one point like a drill is a good way to solve a problem.

Only when we know what is the most important and grasp the key to learning, can we concentrate time and energy on one point, identify the goal, and carry out the learning to the end.For the limited learning time and energy, everyone should cherish and use it reasonably, and improve the efficiency of learning.There are many temptations in modern society. Going online, playing games, and making friends will all involve a lot of energy. At this time, it is even more necessary to improve one's self-control ability. Take effective control and do the most important things first.In the process of learning, only by grasping the key to learning can we use every opportunity to actively overcome the difficulties in learning.

During the learning process, students often feel that they are busy all day long, but they don't know what they have done.In fact, there are three kinds of busyness behind this:
(1) Can't manage their busy time.These students often feel that time is not enough, and they are even crazy busy.

(2) Has learned to cope with the busyness of trade-offs.This kind of busyness is often the most effective use of time.

(3) Pretending to be busy.Because we almost associate busyness with success, idleness and failure now, some students think that as long as they are busy studying, they will succeed, so they are busy all day long, but the effect is not very satisfactory.

"Are you busy?" is often used as a greeting, but few people realize that they need to pay attention to the "time management" behind it and do the most important things first.In today's society, competition is becoming more and more fierce. It can be said that whoever first learns to grasp the key to learning will win the success of learning.

[Easy interaction]

1. Think about it, in the usual learning process, are you too greedy for everything and forget the most important content?
2. After reading this section, what do you think?How do you plan to improve your learning efficiency?
3. Do you think you have the ability to understand the priorities of things?
【Parent-child total product】

Teenagers often can't tell the importance of what they have to do, and their things are often arranged by their parents and teachers.This is a major reason why you are not good at using your time.

In fact, only by fully realizing the relationship between what you have to do and yourself can you handle all these things well.Every day, you should arrange the things you have to do in order of importance and urgency:
The first category is important and urgent things, such as exams, quizzes;
The second category is urgent but unimportant things, such as completing homework;
The third category is important but not urgent things, such as improving reading skills;
The fourth category is things that are neither important nor urgent, and you can skip them if time does not allow.

If you can arrange the learning tasks in this order, you can ensure that all the important things are completed and the learning is arranged in an orderly manner.

For the matter of reading, you should understand that this is the most important and urgent.The former Soviet educator Sukhomlinsky once said: "You must learn to force yourself to read every day, and don't put off today's work until tomorrow. What is discarded today, you can't make up for it tomorrow."

For playing, shopping, etc., before teenagers do these things, ask themselves: "Is it necessary for me to do this?" "How much time will it take me to do this?" "Is there anything more important than this?" I need to do important things.” Through this kind of thinking in advance, you can do less unimportant things, thereby improving the utilization rate of time.

【Harvard view】

Learning to focus is the weapon of all outstanding people
When studying, only by ignoring all kinds of interfering factors and studying with one mind can the efficiency of learning be improved.

Harvard psychology experts have found that the attention of learning can last about 40 to 50 minutes, but this time can be changed, because the attention is also related to the specific learning environment, the mood of the learner and other factors.

The duration of a person's attention is the so-called "concentration limit".Concentration limits determine when we should take a break, when we should study, and when we should return to study.

If you have been concentrating on studying for a long time, feel physically and mentally exhausted, and are still "persevering" there, your learning efficiency must be very low.Therefore, if you feel tired while studying, you should take a rest immediately in order to recover your energy and refocus your attention on learning.

When studying, how can we cultivate the habit of focusing on ourselves?We have to start from the following aspects.

1. Do a good job of preview before class
Preview is the preparation for listening to the class. When we preview, we will find out what we don’t understand, and we will have a clear purpose and a mental preparation before listening to the class, so that we can focus on the class.When the teacher tells something that he doesn't understand, his attention can be highly concentrated.

2. Take class notes
Taking notes in class is the most effective way to pay attention when listening to lectures.When taking notes, not only the ears need to listen, the hands need to remember, the eyes need to see, but the brain also needs to think. This puts our various organs in a relatively tense state, not easy to be distracted, and can effectively concentrate force.Of course, taking notes is not simply to write down all the teacher's words. You must learn to draw circles on the textbook, learn to make annotations, and learn to grasp the key points of the teacher's lectures. This is not only beneficial to future review, but also conducive to concentration. Focus on listening to lectures.

3. Dare to question the teacher
Confucius said: "Learning without thinking will lead to peril, and thinking without learning will lead to peril."That is to say, if you just study without thinking, you will be confused and ignorant; if you just think without learning, you will be confused.

When we study, we should have a questioning attitude instead of taking ourselves as a receiver to listen to the class. In this way, we can concentrate and learn knowledge well.

Listening to the class with a questioning attitude, we can ask many questions for the teacher to answer. In this way, when listening to the lecture, it is no longer the teacher's mouth like a faucet, and the students just accept it passively like a bucket, but the interaction between teachers and students , It fully embodies the modern learning method that students are the main body of learning and teachers are the leader of learning, thus really improving the learning efficiency.

[Easy interaction]

1. In the usual learning process, can you control your attention well?

2. In the teacher's class, can you actively ask your own questions?

【Parent-child total product】

Bill Gates showed amazing concentration since he was a child, coupled with the guidance and training of his family, he became obsessed with computers for a long time when he grew up, and once ranked first in the Forbes list.

Parents can play the following games with their children to improve their concentration.

1. Point to the nose

Parents speak out the names of human organs quickly and irregularly, let the children point out quickly, and then switch to let the children say the names of human body organs, and the parents point out the corresponding organs.

2. Play the piano and count
Let the parents play the piano, let the children count each time they play a note, stop when they play a certain note, and ask the child to tell how many notes they have played in total.

3. Take the game stick
Stack 5 to 10 game sticks one by one, and let the children pick them up one by one, trying to pick up one without touching the others. The difficulty increases from small to large.

4. Find numbers

在一个16～25格的正方形的格子里，写出数字1～10，要儿童用手指按顺序念出数字1～10，越快越好。

5. Play computer games

The United States has recently developed a "attention trainer" computer game system that can guide children to improve their attention.The inventor of the game said: "'Attention Trainer' uses computer games, and its special steel helmet replaces the electrodes of the EEG equipment in the laboratory. There is an instrument in the game called 'Bicycle Rider'. In the game, children's attention The more concentrated the force, the faster the cyclist will be."

(End of this chapter)