About this ebook
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About the author
Willie Dowls is a learning designer and cognitive science educator who has spent the past decade studying how people acquire, retain, and apply knowledge. His work focuses on bridging the gap between academic research on learning and the practical tools people use every day to make sense of the world.
After earning a master's degree in cognitive psychology, Dowls spent five years as a curriculum designer at a major online learning platform, where he helped build courses used by millions of students worldwide. During that time, he became frustrated by how much of the research on effective learning remained locked in academic journals, inaccessible to the people who needed it most. He left the platform to write, speak, and build tools that translate learning science into everyday practice.
His writing has appeared in *Wired*, *The Atlantic*, and *Psyche*, among other publications. He has spoken at conferences including SXSW EDU, the Learning Sciences Conference, and the annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. He also runs The Learning Curve, a newsletter exploring evidence-based approaches to learning, with more than forty thousand subscribers.
Dowls lives in Portland, Oregon, where he maintains a personal knowledge base of more than four thousand atomic notes, takes daily walks through Forest Park, and is perpetually trying to read fewer books at a time. The Smart Notes Method is his first book.
