Cognitive Ankle Weights

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If you’re having to do algebra and think about basic arithmetic, if every problem makes you recompute multiplication from scratch, doing strategies or repeated multiplication or God forbid, finger counting.

You’re just carrying these cognitive ankle weights around that nobody can see but they stay with you, they get heavier over time, they drag you down.

And you’re going as fast as you can, putting as much effort as you can and it’s all getting wasted on lower level stuff that you haven’t automated yet.

And everybody else who has automated those skills, they’re just passing you up. You’re huffing and puffing, going slow, and they’re just joking around and having a good time and passing you up.

Further reading: Cognitive Science of Learning: Developing Automaticity .

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