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Here’s what YOU can do to bend
your brain into submission

So, we did our part. The rest is up to you. These tips are a
starting point; listen to your brain and figure out what works
for you and what doesn’t. Try new things.
Cut this out and stick it
on your refrigerator.

1 Slow down. The more you understand, the 6 Drink water. Lots of it.
less you have to memorize. Your brain works best in a nice bath of fluid.
Don’t just read. Stop and think. When the book asks Dehydration (which can happen before you ever
you a question, don’t just skip to the answer. Imagine feel thirsty) decreases cognitive function.
that someone really is asking the question. The
more deeply you force your brain to think, the better 7 Listen to your brain.
chance you have of learning and remembering. Pay attention to whether your brain is getting
overloaded. If you find yourself starting to skim
2 Do the exercises. Write your own notes. the surface or forget what you just read, it’s time
We put them in, but if we did them for you, that for a break. Once you go past a certain point, you
would be like having someone else do your workouts won’t learn faster by trying to shove more in, and
for you. And don’t just look at the exercises. Use a you might even hurt the process.
pencil. There’s plenty of evidence that physical
activity while learning can increase the learning. 8 Feel something.
Your brain needs to know that this matters. Get
3 Read the “There are No Dumb Questions” involved with the stories. Make up your own
That means all of them. They’re not optional captions for the photos. Groaning over a bad joke
sidebars, they’re part of the core content! is still better than feeling nothing at all.
Don’t skip them.

4 Make this the last thing you read before bed. 9 Write a lot of code!
Or at least the last challenging thing. There’s only one way to learn to program: writing
Part of the learning (especially the transfer to a lot of code. And that’s what you’re going to
long-term memory) happens after you put the book do throughout this book. Coding is a skill, and the
down. Your brain needs time on its own, to do more only way to get good at it is to practice. We’re going
processing. If you put in something new during that to give you a lot of practice: every chapter has
processing time, some of what you just learned will exercises that pose a problem for you to solve. Don’t
be lost. just skip over them—a lot of the learning happens
when you solve the exercises. We included a solution
5 Talk about it. Out loud. to each exercise—don’t be afraid to peek at the
Speaking activates a different part of the brain. If solution if you get stuck! (It’s easy to get snagged
you’re trying to understand something, or increase on something small.) But try to solve the problem
your chance of remembering it later, say it out loud. before you look at the solution. And definitely get it
Better still, try to explain it out loud to someone else. working before you move on to the next part of the
You’ll learn more quickly, and you might uncover book.
ideas you hadn’t known were there when you were
reading about it.

you are here 4 xxix