Super-compensation and Learning

Hi, 

Today is going to be a little bit of a heist, but instead of stealing the crown jewels, I am going to steal a concept from physiology and use it as an analogy in psychology. 

I do want to start with that this isn’t actual science, but looking at myself through this lens has really helped me learn and develop new things, so I think that it could in turn help some of you. 

The concept: super-compensation. 

In the exercise world it works like this: physical stimulus drops you below homeostasis, as a result you need rest, once you are done resting your body brings you above homeostasis to prepare for that level of stimulus again. 

Over a long period of time, this raises your effective level of homeostasis. 

The graph looks kinda like this:

From a training perspective, this makes a lot of intuitive sense. This idea can be referred to as adaptation or super-compensation, but even if you have never heard those terms before, you have most certainly felt this in one way or another at some point in your life. 

Now it is time for some borrowing.

If you look at the neuroscience of learning and that is your jam, there is going to a be a lot left out here. My goal is not to be correct, my goal is to show you a mental model that will help you overcome the hard part of learning things. 

One of the most common story types that you will hear from professional athletes is a welcome to the league moment. These stories center around experiences that showed them that they would have to level up to continue to play in their respective sports. 

A common version of that is when athletes will talk about the work it will take to get better once they reach that level. It usually goes something like this: 

This is happening to us when we are trying to learn new things, but instead it is with our attention and mental bandwidth. For instance, if you have not read a book in several years, and you are trying to learn something from a book, you are not only fighting the new idea, you are also fighting the mental fatigue of reading. 

This can cause you to miss the learnings because you are more focused on the endurance your brain needs to just sit and read the book. 

There are a lot of learning methods and a lot of them are really good. 

There are also a lot of things that are trying to come for your attention. You have to train yourself to stave off the distractions even when there is nothing to learn because when it is time to learn you don’t want to get tired in the warmup. 

Some things that you can do: Read any book, write daily, draw, debate. 

They don’t have to be about anything meaningful, but the practice will allow you to use those tools when they are necessary to learn the things that you need to. 

Have a great week! 

Kyle