Welcome to Sentivia

Alright, let me tell you a bit about myself and what I'm all about. My name isn't explicitly mentioned here, but you can think of me as someone who's incredibly passionate about learning and figuring out how we learn best. I've been on a bit of a journey myself, and that journey informs everything I do.

I wasn't always a star student, not by a long shot. In fact, I flunked a grade, twice, and it took me seven long years to finally get my high school diploma. It felt like torture at the time, and I was completely disillusioned with the traditional learning system. I honestly didn't think "book learning" was for me at all.

So, instead of heading straight to college, I went off to sunny California and worked as a bagger at a supermarket. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, that year was actually incredibly transformative for me. I learned how to be efficient with my hands and work quickly, sure, but I also learned how to drive and even, believe it or not, how to just strike up a conversation with a stranger! That's not as common in Amsterdam, where I'm from, as it is in California. Most importantly, I discovered I *didn't* hate learning; I just hated *how* I was being taught.

That realization led me to pursue psychology. Finally, I was studying something that genuinely fascinated me, and I was actually *excited* to spend time in the library. But the problem was, even with my newfound passion, I was struggling because I never learned *how* to learn effectively. So, I started experimenting with different study techniques, methods of reading and memorizing, and I ended up cutting my study time down significantly and was able to get into an honors program and achieve my degree.

Now, I work for a company called Remind, where we're dedicated to teaching others the science and art of learning. It's an effort to bring back into education the things that were missing from my own experience, the things I think *everyone* deserves to learn. For the past three years we’ve also been organizing the Dutch National Memory Championships for high schoolers, which is a fantastic way to demonstrate that everyone can achieve incredible memory feats, and it goes way beyond just learning facts or vocabulary.

That brings me to what I'm sharing with you today. First, I wanted you to take that short memory test. Not to judge you, but to get you to think about *how* you currently approach memorization. It's a check-in point. Then, I led you through a different type of memory experience. The bizarre visualization exercise – imagining John throwing the sun, the Knicks on your knees, Fords for thighs, and so on – this wasn't just for laughs. It’s a way to illustrate how using bizarre imagery connected to places – specifically your body – makes it easier to memorize and to do it in order.

What's the point of all this? Well, it's not just about memorizing lists. It's about learning *how* to learn, to embrace experimentation as a skill itself. I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't learned to experiment, because one of the things I was truly afraid of and thought I was bad at was public speaking. What if I had simply accepted that I was a bad student and simply given up after high school? By becoming better at experimentation, I got better at learning itself.

And that's why we broke the process down into three steps, The Check, the Experience, and the Experiment. The "check" is about awareness of our current method, the experience is about trying out a new approach, and the experiment is about figuring out how this new approach can be used in your own life to help you achieve something you're struggling with.

I'm encouraging you to take that final step, to truly use what you learned today and try something new on your own. Take that card and write down something that you'll experiment with, so you can start on this journey of becoming a better learner, a process that can improve every area of your life. So, go out there, experiment and learn. Because the ability to learn is one of the most valuable skills you can have. Thank you.