The basic idea is that we have two ways of learning new information,
we have focused and diffused thinking.
Ping Pong explains how to switch between focused
and diffused thinking in order to increase
your understanding and get creative.
Wearing tiny shorts and grunting is optional.
Focused learning works by looking at a problem set
and trying really hard to get it.
It’s about actively using every ounce of mental force
to understand the problem that is in front of us.
It’s like seeing a brick wall and reasoning,
“It’s too hard to just run through and too tall to climb.”
Diffused learning is just letting your mind wander without a plan.
It can deepen your understanding
or trigger new creative thoughts.
With diffused learning your mind might say,
“Hey, why don’t we tie a bunch of balloons together and just float over it?”
Both processes are important to maximize
your understanding of a problem you’re facing.
To truly optimize your learning,
play ping pong between the two:
focus, relax, focus, relax, focus, relax,…
The best practice is to first focus all your attention,
ideally shutting off any distractions
like your phone and other noise.
After doing this for a while
(a timer can be used)
deliberately stop to focus and let your mind freely wander.
This is when the brain connects
what you just focused on
with other information stored in your memory,
which leads to deeper thinking,
better retention
and allows for creative thoughts to happen.
Painter Salvador Dali was using the ping pong technique.
After a round of focused work,
Dali sat on his arm-chair to think and doze off.
In one hand he held a big key
and the moment he fell asleep the key dropped.
The sound of the key woke him
and he would go back to the canvas to continue his focused work.
Steve Jobs broke up his daily thinking routine
by going out for long walks.
The ping pong technique can be useful to study for tests.
Start with the most difficult problem,
once you get stuck, switch to a more simple one.
While doing the easier problem,
your brain will keep the difficult problem in its working memory.
Without conscious thought,
your brain will look for connections
and try to make sense of the initial,
more difficult problem.
Once you are done with the easy problem,
go back to the difficult one.
Maybe it wasn’t as difficult as you thought?
Please use the comment section below
to let us know if you find this technique useful
and subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive updates.