Learning is not filling an empty mind; it is rearranging what you thought you knew.

Nobody arrives at a subject empty. You already have assumptions, half-formed models, and things you picked up without noticing, and learning mostly means disturbing those rather than adding to a blank space. That is why it is more effortful than it seems: the work is renovation, not construction.

Before learning something, write down what you currently think about it, including the vague parts. Then notice which of those get overturned. Making your starting picture explicit turns learning from a matter of accumulation into a matter of correction, and correction is what actually changes what you can do.