For me, it's not just about repetition, but also repetition of different explanations of the same concept.
Sometimes one gets stuck, and a different explanation, previously completely incomprehensible, gets one "unstuck" enough to make all the other explanations start making more sense.
Sometimes you realize midway through that there's some other concept you don't fully understand (e.g. you can't fully understand why an attention layer looks like it does without understanding matmul or tensor ops). Getting some explanations of these other concepts can also get one unstuck.
I imagine this as every explanation containing little "nuggets" of knowledge at various "skill levels", but you can only grasp at those that are slightly beyond yours at the moment. Too high and nothing makes sense, too low and it's obvious.
As you re-read the explanation, you understand more, and so more "nuggets" are available to you. Sometimes the explanation is too hard, there's nothing to grasp onto and you're stuck, this is where other explanations, or explanations of other concepts, can push you over the edge.
> also repetition of different explanations of the same concept.
multiple encodings are stronger since they end up fusing into not just more robust and general representations, but also more well connected.
i forgot which neuroscience textbook it was that I read all this from from, but Dr. Barbara Oakley talks about this in her course too so anyone can look through there for more details and sources.
> desirable difficulty
Well regarded in anki, music practice, and most problem solving books (Polya's "How To Solve It"). I think some neuroscience texts also try to formalize it but I don't know enough there to point to a more concrete abstraction of the phenomenon.
> As you re-read the explanation
I suggest something even better. Try to do the explanation yourself from free recall, and when you fail, then re-read and note exactly where and why you failed. This is a mid-level efficiency technique (I forgot the source) compared to free call, active testing, and spaced repetition, but definitely better than plain re-reading.
Sometimes one gets stuck, and a different explanation, previously completely incomprehensible, gets one "unstuck" enough to make all the other explanations start making more sense.
Sometimes you realize midway through that there's some other concept you don't fully understand (e.g. you can't fully understand why an attention layer looks like it does without understanding matmul or tensor ops). Getting some explanations of these other concepts can also get one unstuck.
I imagine this as every explanation containing little "nuggets" of knowledge at various "skill levels", but you can only grasp at those that are slightly beyond yours at the moment. Too high and nothing makes sense, too low and it's obvious.
As you re-read the explanation, you understand more, and so more "nuggets" are available to you. Sometimes the explanation is too hard, there's nothing to grasp onto and you're stuck, this is where other explanations, or explanations of other concepts, can push you over the edge.