Arshil

The trap is that it feels like it's working

Highlighting feels productive. Rereading a chapter for the third time feels like the topic is finally clicking. Watching one more explainer feels like progress. Every one of those is comfortable, and comfort is exactly the problem.

When material starts to feel familiar, your brain reads that familiarity as "I know this." But recognising a page and being able to produce the answer from a blank sheet are two different skills. Psychologists call the mix-up the illusion of competence you feel ready, right up until the moment the answer's supposed to come out and nothing does.

Recognition isn't recall

For the past 2 months I have been working on my web app MakeSense. I wanted to share what the app is, and why I made this.

I am promoting my app here but I believe the system behind my app can be useful even without it. If you like what you read and got some value from it, please support me on my Product Hunt launching today.

Although the development started 2 months ago, the system has been silently refined over the last few years. Let me take you back in time for context.

Over the last year, I won 4 national hackathons and 1 international Google hackathon as a student. Each of them required different fields of knowledge. I also learned a new language during this period while also maintaining a decent GPA. For the first time in my life, I was actually consistent in the gym too, though there is still work left to be done in that department. I think, because my work life had started to blossom so did my personal life and I felt the quality of my relationships improve overall.