Favorite Learning Tip

Understanding over Memorization

Published on July 15, 2022•By Joey Davis

One of my favorite learning tips is from Albert Einstein. He says, "never memorize something that you can look up." I think it’s great because it calls into question the difference between memorization and understanding. Memorization focuses on recall whereas understanding focuses on comprehension. It’s important to be able to recall knowledge, but it is superseded by the ability to apply that knowledge with understanding to both new and familiar scenarios alike as we encounter them.

One example of this in practice (particularly in IT) is a runbook. References in papers are a more common example. The expectation is not for you to know every single detail through recall, but to apply pieces of information—data—to relevant contexts.