The closest thing to plugging a flash drive straight into your brain.

When we learn something—even as simple as someone’s name—we form connections between neurons in the brain.

 

When our brain tries to learn something, it creates a neural path and you can imagine this as a path in the forest. Very thin…narrow enough for about 1 person to squeeze through if they’re lucky, getting wider and wider every time someone travels along it, and over time if there is enough traffic, it will be made into a road, and then into a highway, which is like when you try to remember you mother’s name or if Shaq tries to dribble a basketball. It’s a very strong neural pathway

 

Every time you relearn something after forgetting it, Myelin (the thing “expanding the path in the forest”) forms an extremely conductive sheath around those neurons, increasing the rate those neurons can fire and the efficiency that your brain can actually recall that information.

 

The key to all this is Forgetting.

 

This is the core of Spaced Repetition Systems.

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Depending on how familiar you are with a flashcard, the algorithm will predict Exactly when your brain will forget it. As soon as it does, it gives you the card, teaches it to you again and creates stronger neural pathways in order to expand that path in the woods.