The basic idea is that we have two  ways of learning new information,

we have focused and diffused thinking.

Ping Pong explains how to switch between focused

and diffused thinking in order to increase

your understanding and get creative.

Wearing tiny shorts and grunting is optional.

Focused learning works by looking at a problem set

and trying really hard to get it.

It’s about actively using  every ounce of mental force

to understand the problem that is in front of us.

It’s like seeing a brick wall and reasoning,

“It’s too hard to just run  through and too tall to climb.”

Diffused learning is just letting  your mind wander without a plan.

It can deepen your understanding

or trigger new creative thoughts.

With diffused learning your mind might say,

“Hey, why don’t we tie a bunch of  balloons together and just float over it?”

Both processes are important to maximize

your understanding of a problem you’re facing.

To truly optimize your learning,

play ping pong between the two:

focus, relax, focus, relax, focus, relax,…

The best practice is to first  focus all your attention,

ideally shutting off any distractions

like your phone and other noise.

After doing this for a while

(a timer can be used)

deliberately stop to focus and  let your mind freely wander.

This is when the brain connects

what you just focused on

with other information stored in your memory,

which leads to deeper thinking,

better retention

and allows for creative thoughts to happen.

Painter Salvador Dali was  using the ping pong technique.

After a round of focused work,

Dali sat on his arm-chair to think and doze off.

In one hand he held a big key

and the moment he fell asleep the key dropped.

The sound of the key woke him

and he would go back to the canvas  to continue his focused work.

Steve Jobs broke up his daily thinking routine

by going out for long walks.

The ping pong technique can  be useful to study for tests.

Start with the most difficult problem,

once you get stuck, switch to a more simple one.

While doing the easier problem,

your brain will keep the difficult  problem in its working memory.

Without conscious thought,

your brain will look for connections

and try to make sense of the initial,

more difficult problem.

Once you are done with the easy problem,

go back to the difficult one.

Maybe it wasn’t as difficult as you thought?

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