How it works

If you’ve read this far, you already know that you’re not going to be able to just sit back and listen to me talk at you. The core of this book is the exercises, and if you’re going to learn, you’ll need to work through them. Really do them. You can’t just think about the answers, You need to sit down at the computer or pick up your pencil and do the work. Here’s a taste of some of the things you’ll be doing:

The thinking hat

Most of the exercises in the book tell you to Put on Your Thinking Hat. I’ll give you answers to these exercise, but it’s really important to understand that you won’t always get the answers completely right, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re not “getting it”. It means that I don’t always play fair, because you learn as much (or more) from your mistakes.

On your own

Some exercises ask you to do things on your own, and I won’t give you the answers. Sometimes there really aren’t answers; they’re just things you need to think about. It might be tempting to put these aside for “later”, but it’s best if you don’t. They’re part of the learning process.

Take a break

From time to time I’ll suggest that you take a break before you move on to the next section. Of course, you can take breaks whenever you like, but these suggestions aren’t because I think you might be getting tired. I make these suggestions because learning research tells us that if you stop for 15 minutes or so before you review, you’re much more likely to transfer information to long-term memory. (In other words, you’ll actually learn it.)