📖 Backstory
For as long as I can remember, I’ve thought I was good at learning.
But it turns out that I was dead wrong, and I was just lying to myself all along.
I read hundreds of books, take notes, highlight passages, even explain things right after learning. But weeks later? Most of it was gone. I’d reread the same chapters, watch the same videos, and feel like I was constantly starting from scratch. The frustrating part was that I was putting in the time. I just wasn’t seeing lasting results.
In this post, I’ll share the core ideas from Make It Stick and how they’ve changed the way I study, read, and retain information — especially as someone who learns independently and is deeply curious. If you’ve ever felt like learning takes effort but doesn’t stick, this book might change how you think about the process.
💡 The Big Idea
The central message of Make It Stick is deeply counterintuitive:
Learning that feels easy is often ineffective. Learning that feels difficult is usually what lasts.
Most of us judge learning by how it feels in the moment. If reading feels fluent, if the material seems familiar, if we can recognize answers right away — we assume we’re learning. But research shows that these cues are misleading. Familiarity is not mastery. Recognition is not recall.
The authors argue that durable learning requires effort — specifically, effort that forces your brain to retrieve, reconstruct, and apply information rather than simply re-expose itself to it. This means that the most effective learning strategies often feel slower, messier, and more uncomfortable than the ones we naturally gravitate toward.
What really shifted my mindset was realizing that forgetting isn’t failure — it’s part of the learning process. Every time you struggle to recall something, you’re strengthening the neural pathways that make future recall easier. The struggle is the work.
Once I understood this, I stopped asking, “Did this feel productive?” and started asking, “Can I retrieve this without looking?” That single question has changed how I read, take notes, and review information.
5 Keys to Make Learning Stick
Evidence-based strategies for durable learning
Retrieval Beats Rereading
Actively pull information out of memory without looking at the source
- •Answer questions from memory
- •Explain ideas out loud
- •Write summaries without looking
Retrieval exposes what you actually know
Difficulty Is a Feature
Conditions that slow learning often improve long-term retention
- •Embrace spacing between reviews
- •Add variation to practice
- •Test yourself frequently
Struggle is a signal that learning is happening
Spacing Beats Cramming
Revisit material over time with gaps in between for stronger retention
- •Review key ideas a day later
- •Then review a few days later
- •Then review a week later
Each spaced retrieval strengthens memory
Mixing Beats Blocking
Interleave related topics to force your brain to discriminate between ideas
- •Rotate between related topics
- •Compare similar ideas across sources
- •Ask "How is this different?"
Mixing is harder, slower, and works better
Context & Transfer
Connect new knowledge to existing models, examples, and experiences
- •Link to what you already know
- •Apply to real-world scenarios
- •Ask what changes in your thinking
Information → Insight through elaboration
Learning isn't about how much you consume — it's about what you can retrieve, apply, and explain later
Learning Scorecard
How applying these principles transforms your learning system
Old Approach
Passive consumption focused
- ✗Reread chapters multiple times
- ✗Highlight aggressively
- ✗Cram before important moments
- ✗Judge learning by how smooth it feels
Result: Familiarity without retention
New Approach
Active retrieval focused
- ✓Test myself before rereading
- ✓Space reviews over time
- ✓Embrace forgetting as part of process
- ✓Opt for explanation over consumption
Result: Lasting retention and understanding
When learning feels uncomfortable, you're reassured you're doing it right
At its core, Make It Stick taught me this:
Learning isn’t about how much you consume — it’s about what you can retrieve, apply, and explain later.
Once I internalized that, everything about how I learn changed — and for the first time, it actually sticks.