Your Brain on Learning

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This Is Your Brain. On Learning.

Hi, this is Ray.

And yes, this is the email where I make a joke about my brain feeling like it’s buffering whenever I try to learn something new. Especially before coffee. And after 35. Which, if you're keeping score, is pretty much always.

But learning isn't magic. It’s neuroscience. And the good news? Once you understand how your brain learns, you can hack the system to learn faster, deeper, and better.

So let’s dive into how the brain actually works while learning—without the fluff, but with plenty of nerdy analogies from the world of superheroes and maybe one too many bad metaphors.

Neuroplasticity – Your Brain’s Superpower

Think of your brain like a high-tech 3D printer. Every time you learn something new, it lays down a new layer of wiring.

This isn’t poetic metaphor. It’s literal biology.

Your brain is made of about 86 billion neurons. Every time you practice or think about a concept, neurons fire together. If they keep firing together, they form connections—what neuroscientists call “synapses.” Over time, these connections get stronger. Like building a hiking trail in the forest. The more you walk it, the more visible and easy to travel it becomes.

This ability to rewire and build new neural pathways is called neuroplasticity. It’s how a stroke survivor can learn to speak again. It’s how kids learn to walk. And yes, it’s how you finally memorized that Excel pivot table formula you Googled seven times.

But here’s the kicker: the brain only rewires when it's challenged. Which means if learning feels hard, that’s a feature, not a bug.

The Four Stages of Learning – From “Noob” to “Ninja”

Learning something new goes through four stages. Understanding them helps you stop freaking out when you feel dumb. Because it means you're doing it right.

1. Unconscious Incompetence
   You don’t know what you don’t know. This is the blissful ignorance phase. Like me trying to learn Japanese before I realized there are three alphabets.

2. Conscious Incompetence
   The "I suck at this" phase. Painful, yes. But it's also when real learning begins because your brain starts recognizing the gaps.

3. Conscious Competence
   Now you can do the thing… but it takes effort. Like parallel parking while giving yourself a pep talk the whole time.

4. Unconscious Competence
   Mastery. You do it without thinking, like riding a bike, or dodging spoilers on social media.

Each time you move through these stages, your brain creates new pathways and strengthens them with repetition. Which brings us to…

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Memory – The Ultimate Filing System (With a Terrible Secretary)

Here’s the unsexy truth about memory: your brain doesn’t store information like a USB stick. It’s more like a messy librarian with ADHD and a love of sticky notes.

There are three main systems in your memory:

• Sensory Memory: Holds info for a split second. Like when someone says their name at a party and you forget it before they even finish their drink.

• Short-Term/Working Memory: Holds about 7 chunks of info for 20–30 seconds. It’s your brain’s scratchpad. That’s why cramming 15 facts before a test rarely works.

• Long-Term Memory: Where the magic happens. But only if you encode information through:

  • Repetition

  • Emotional connection

  • Chunking (grouping)

  • Sleep (yes, really)

If it doesn’t get encoded, it’s gone. Like your keys on Monday morning.

Attention – The Gatekeeper of Learning

If memory is the storage, attention is the bouncer at the club. Nothing gets in unless attention lets it through.

Fun fact: your brain is hit with 11 million bits of info per second. You can only consciously process about 50.

So how does your brain decide what’s worth it? Simple. It looks for:

• Novelty

• Relevance

• Emotion

• Reward

That’s why TikToks grab your attention in 3 seconds, but that 1980s history textbook with sepia-toned maps never stood a chance.

To learn better, we need to:

• Minimize distractions (hello, airplane mode)

• Use curiosity to spark attention

• Build in small wins to trigger dopamine

Emotions – The Secret Sauce

Learning is emotional.

No, I don’t mean crying over your organic chemistry exam (though that’s valid). I mean emotions anchor memories.

The amygdala, your brain’s emotional processing center, helps decide which memories get stored. Emotional experiences are more likely to be encoded and recalled later. That’s why you remember where you were when big events happened—but not what you had for lunch last Thursday.

To make this work for you:

• Tie learning to personal meaning

• Use stories (especially ones with surprise or tension)

• Make it social—emotionally charged group learning boosts retention

Sleep, Spacing, and Retrieval – Your Brain’s Maintenance Crew

Want to boost your learning without doing more? Sleep on it. Literally.

Here’s what helps your brain move things into long-term memory:

• Sleep: Your brain “replays” the day’s experiences while you sleep. Think of it like clicking “Save” on your brain’s hard drive.

• Spacing: Spread out your study. Known as spaced repetition, it forces your brain to work harder to recall info—which strengthens memory.

• Retrieval Practice: Don’t re-read. Quiz yourself. Actively pulling info from memory strengthens the pathways more than passive review.

This is why flashcards beat rereading. And why watching another YouTube video on sales funnels is less useful than trying to teach what you just learned to your dog.

Motivation and Meaning – The Why That Fuels the How

Here’s where things get personal. Your brain is lazy.

Not in a bad way—it’s efficient. It doesn’t like wasting energy. So if learning feels pointless, your brain won’t invest effort.

This is why “just try harder” never works long term.

You need relevance. Purpose. Dopamine.

So ask yourself:

• Why does this matter to me right now?

• How will this help me grow, connect, or achieve something I value?

• Can I turn this into a challenge or game?

That’s the secret to adult learning. Make it matter. And make it rewarding.

TL;DR – How to Hack Your Brain for Better Learning

• Challenge your brain to spark neuroplasticity

• Move through the 4 learning stages without judgment

• Use attention, emotion, and meaning to encode memories

• Sleep, space, and self-test for better retention

• Tie everything to your goals to stay motivated

I started learning all this because I wanted to be a better teacher, entrepreneur, and dad. Also because my brain flat-out refused to learn Japanese kanji until I got sneaky with flashcards and made the symbols look like Batman logos in my head.

But the truth is, we’re all learners. If you know how to learn, you can do anything.

And knowing how your brain works? That’s the first step to using it better.

Until next time, may your neurons fire together, your prefrontal cortex stay calm, and your hippocampus get some good REM sleep.

– Ray

Sources and References:

1. Center for the Developing Child – Harvard University: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/

2. Oakley, B. (2014). A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science. https://barbaraoakley.com/books/

3. Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab – UCLA: https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/research/