Fluency illusions trick us into believing we've mastered material when we've merely become familiar with it. This happens because:
<ul>
<li>Rereading creates recognition that feels like recall ability</li>
<li>Highlighting produces familiarity without improving retrieval</li>
<li>Massed practice (cramming) inflates confidence without building lasting knowledge</li>
<li>Fluent processing is mistaken for understanding</li>
<li>Self-assessment is notoriously unreliable</li>
</ul>
The feeling of knowing is a poor indicator of actual learning. Material that comes to mind easily due to repeated exposure creates the illusion of mastery, when in fact it merely indicates short-term familiarity that quickly fades without retrieval practice.

Illusion of Knowing

Retrieval practice strengthens memory by forcing the brain to reconstruct knowledge. This technique:
<ul>
<li>Directly enhances memory compared to rereading or reviewing</li>
<li>Creates lasting learning by requiring active recall effort</li>
<li>Identifies knowledge gaps that might otherwise remain hidden</li>
<li>Works best when slightly difficult (desirable difficulty)</li>
<li>Becomes more effective when feedback follows attempts</li>
</ul>
The retrieval effort itself strengthens neural pathways, regardless of success. Even unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning when followed by feedback. This explains why flash cards, practice tests, and teaching concepts to others build stronger memories than passive review methods.

Retrieval Practice

Learning is deeper and more durable when it's effortful. Learning that's easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow.

Spaced practice distributes learning over time rather than cramming it into single sessions. Research shows:<ul><li>Spacing creates partial forgetting that enhances subsequent learning</li><li>The harder the retrieval, the stronger the memory formed</li><li>Optimal spacing increases as time passes (expanding retrieval)</li><li>Interleaving topics strengthens discrimination between similar concepts</li><li>Forgetting is actually an essential component of effective learning</li></ul>This approach directly contradicts common practice. Most students mass their practice (cramming), which produces rapid short-term gains that create the illusion of learning while failing to produce durable knowledge.

Spaced Practice

Interleaving involves mixing different topics or types of problems within a single study session. This approach:
<ul>
<li>Forces the brain to continually retrieve different solution strategies</li>
<li>Builds ability to discriminate between problem types</li>
<li>Prevents reliance on contextual cues from blocked practice</li>
<li>Feels more difficult but produces stronger learning</li>
<li>Creates flexibility in applying knowledge to new situations</li>
</ul>
While blocked practice (focusing on one topic at a time) creates smooth, fast initial learning, interleaving builds the ability to recognize when to apply different approaches—a crucial skill in real-world application that blocked practice fails to develop.

Interleaving

The generation effect shows that self-generated information is remembered better than information merely read or reviewed. This occurs because:
<ul>
<li>Active construction of answers strengthens neural connections</li>
<li>Effort required for generation deepens processing</li>
<li>Connections formed with existing knowledge become stronger</li>
<li>Elaboration naturally occurs during generation attempts</li>
<li>Errors made and corrected during generation enhance learning</li>
</ul>
This principle explains why answering questions before reading material, completing partial notes rather than reviewing complete ones, and attempting to solve problems before being shown solutions all enhance learning compared to passive review.

Generation Effect

We're easily seduced into believing that learning is better when it's easier, but the research shows the opposite: when the mind has to work, learning sticks better.

Deliberate difficulties are intentional learning challenges that slow down immediate progress but enhance long-term outcomes. These productive obstacles:<ul><li>Create cognitive effort that strengthens memory formation</li><li>Prevent superficial pattern recognition that fails with new problems</li><li>Build conceptual understanding rather than procedural knowledge</li><li>Develop problem-solving skills transferable to new contexts</li><li>Require calibration to avoid excessive difficulty that causes abandonment</li></ul>Effective learning often feels slow and frustrating compared to fluent, error-free practice. This explains why desirable difficulties like varied practice, delayed feedback (in some contexts), and problem-solving before instruction lead to stronger learning despite feeling less productive.

Deliberate Difficulties

Elaboration involves explaining and connecting material to other knowledge. This technique:<ul><li>Enhances recall by creating multiple retrieval pathways</li><li>Builds understanding of underlying principles rather than isolated facts</li><li>Creates meaning by connecting new information to existing knowledge</li><li>Improves transfer to new contexts and applications</li><li>Works through explanations, examples, and analogies</li></ul>Effective elaboration answers questions like: How does this work? Why does this matter? How does this relate to what I already know? What's an example? These connections transform isolated facts into integrated knowledge networks that remain accessible long-term.

Elaboration

Calibration refers to the accuracy of our judgments about what we know and can do. Research shows:<ul><li>Most learners are poorly calibrated, overestimating their abilities</li><li>Unskilled individuals suffer from a double curse—they lack both skill and the ability to recognize their lack of skill</li><li>Objective testing with immediate feedback improves calibration</li><li>Self-testing reveals gaps invisible during review or rereading</li><li>Reflection on errors enhances future calibration</li></ul>Poor calibration explains why students continue using ineffective study methods despite evidence that they don't work. They mistake familiarity for mastery and attribute failures to external factors rather than flawed approaches.

Calibration

Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt.

Metacognition—thinking about your thinking—enables selection of effective learning strategies. Students with strong metacognitive skills:<ul><li>Engage in retrieval practice rather than passive rereading</li><li>Space their learning instead of cramming</li><li>Self-test regularly to identify knowledge gaps</li><li>Connect new information to existing knowledge</li><li>Reflect on their learning approaches and adjust based on results</li></ul>This learning literacy separates successful students from those who work hard but ineffectively. Understanding how memory works allows learners to implement evidence-based practices rather than relying on intuition about what feels productive.

Metacognition

Mental models are frameworks that represent how something works in the real world. Strong learning develops accurate models by:<ul><li>Challenging existing misconceptions directly</li><li>Creating predictions that can be tested against reality</li><li>Connecting abstract principles to concrete applications</li><li>Developing frameworks that organize knowledge meaningfully</li><li>Building hierarchies of understanding from foundational to advanced concepts</li></ul>When learners develop accurate mental models rather than memorizing procedures, they can solve novel problems, transfer knowledge to new domains, and continue building knowledge systematically rather than accumulating disconnected facts.

Mental Models

Forget cramming, re-reading, and highlighting—these popular study methods don't work. This game-changing book reveals scientifically-proven learning techniques that feel harder but create lasting knowledge. Backed by cognitive psychology, these evidence-based strategies explain why struggle, mistakes, and even forgetting are actually crucial parts of effective learning. Whether you're a student, teacher, professional, or lifelong learner, these practical techniques will transform how you approach learning anything new and ensure that knowledge actually sticks.

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

Peter C. Brown is a writer and former management consultant.

Peter C. Brown

Henry L. Roediger III is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Henry L. Roediger III

Mark A. McDaniel is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mark A. McDaniel

Make It Stick

Most people can’t remember events from the first few years of their lives – a phenomenon researchers have dubbed infantile amnesia. But why can’t we remember the things that happened to us when we were infants? Does memory start to work only at a certain age?Here’s what researchers know about babies and memory.

We Don't Remember Us Being An Infant

Infants may be able to form:Semantic memories: memories of facts like the names of different varieties of apples or the capital of your home state.Procedural memories: how to perform an action.Infants cannot form autobiographical memories, remembering events with them being the main character of their consciousness.You can get infants to remember events for longer by training them for longer periods of time and by giving them reminders.

Infants Can Form Memories

It still isn’t clear whether people experience infantile amnesia because we can’t form autobiographical memories, or whether we just have no way to retrieve them. No one knows for sure what’s going on, but scientists have a few guesses.<ul><li>The hippocampus, which is the region of the brain that is largely responsible for memory, isn't fully developed in the infancy period.</li><li>Another possible explanation for infantile amnesia is that because infants don’t have language until later in the <a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/speech-and-language">second year of life</a>, they can’t form narratives about their own lives that they can later recall.</li></ul>

The Reason For Infantile Amnesia

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Science & Nature

Why You Can’t Remember Being Born: A Look at ‘Infantile Amnesia’

These are membership, influence, integration/ fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. To be part of a community, you must feel a sense of belonging (membership), feel like you make a difference to the group and that the group makes a difference to you (influence), feel like your needs will be met by other group members (integration and fulfillment of needs), and feel that you share history, similar experiences, time, and space together (shared emotional connection).

A community is defined by four criteria

Becoming a member of communities helps build social diversity. However, finding community is much different from just making friends.Friendship is an invested, dedicated, platonic relationship where two people who are friends with each other are committed to the growth, the well-being, the support, the thriving of each other.

Finding community is much different from just making friends

One of the easiest ways to find a group you’d mesh with is to figure out where you wouldn’t mind spending a few hours of your time. Consider your talents and interests or a skill you’d like to learn and seek out places to do those activities.Seek out groups that create together; the act of making something as a group facilitates closeness and brings you into contact with people of different ages, backgrounds, and stages of life. Whether it’s a performance or a neighborhood coat drive, anything you’re creating together is a beautiful way to build community.

Prioritize your values and interests

To forge a true connection with the group — and vice versa — you’ll need to continually show up and add value. You’ll develop closeness more quickly if you have that regularity and you don’t have to agonize over scheduling. Immediately add the next meeting date to your calendar and make it a point to consistently attend. Coming early with a snack or staying late to stack the chairs shows you’re invested in the community.

Make it a habit

Because communities are made up of lots of people with varying opinions and life experiences, being an active member means regularly interacting with others in the group. But don’t expect other members to immediately support you in your endeavors, want to do you a favor, or even engage in conversation with you. Forging these connections takes time and effort, and you risk rejection, but to fully integrate into a community, you can’t be a wallflower. It’s your job to put energy into other people and not just wait for them to put energy into you.

Put energy into others

<ul><li>You don’t need to join a dozen clubs or societies or introduce yourself to every neighbor on the block to have a community.</li><li>Consider the time you’re able to commit and how much energy you’re able to bring to each meeting. </li><li> The goal of community building isn’t necessarily to make new friends (though that definitely can happen), but to build a network. The people who are a part of that network can remain acquaintances.</li></ul>

Don’t exhaust yourself

A community can serve as a social safety net, but finding one and becoming a part of it is different from simply making friends.

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Career

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Love & Relationships

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Society, Arts & Culture

Why community matters so much — and how to find yours

Certainly, networking requires some self-promotion; otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to determine who has similar backgrounds and interests. Unfortunately, some see networking as an opportunity to take self-promotion to the extreme, giving everyone they meet the “hard sell.”
The goal of these hard sellers is to try to impress as many people as possible by talking about themselves as much as possible. This often produces the opposite of their intended results, as many are turned off by braggarts who show little interest in others.

The Hard Seller

While hard sellers will network with anyone willing to listen to them talk about their favourite subject (themselves), self-servers are only willing to network with those who they believe can help advance their careers. Once they target someone, they may also prove to be hard sellers.
However, if self-servers discover that the person they’re speaking with doesn’t have the professional clout they originally thought, they won’t waste another second before abruptly ending the conversation and searching for someone with the credentials necessary to further their career goals.

The Self Server

It’s imperative to demonstrate strong communication skills from the first interaction. Job seekers who use poor grammar, talk too much or too little or appear socially awkward or reluctant to answer questions about their background may raise concerns about their ability to communicate with coworkers, managers or clients once hired. 
While socializing may pose a challenge to introverts, it’s only the first of many hurdles they must clear during the job search process.

The Poor Communicator

Many people judge others on their appearance, and job seekers who attend networking events dressed sloppily or inappropriately are starting off on the wrong foot. Attire and grooming habits are often taken into account, as is the ability to give a proper handshake and personal introduction.
Also, if alcohol is served, overindulging can be seen as a red flag and could easily kill potential job offers. Job seekers should always be cognizant of how they’re being perceived by those with whom they hope to form lasting professional relationships.

The Bad First Impression

Those who fail to follow up, who call at the wrong time, or who simply forget to call prove that their reliability is questionable, and recommending them for employment becomes a risk if they were to show similar unreliability at work.
Also, sending a thank-you note to those who go out of their way to help is always a good practice, whereas failing to acknowledge their effort may appear selfish or inconsiderate.

Failure To Follow Up

From resume writing to interview questions, Our ultimate guide to help you find the job you love

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Teamwork

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Leadership & Management

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Communication

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Personal Development

A Job Seeker's Guide

Let’s look at a few networking mistakes job seekers often make, and how they can damage their prospects

Regardless of the role or industry, nearly every job requires networking in some form in order to be successful. No matter how talented a business owner

5 Networking Mistakes Job Seekers Make

The word hustler means an aggressively enterprising person or a go-getter. Hustlers have a great ability for getting what they want from a new person or situation. If you want to rehab your career, hustle yourself into new conversations with people who can help you land your dream job.

Hustler - The go-getter

<ul><li>It builds your personal brand confidence, provides more opportunities to market and sells your experience, expertise and education through conversations.</li><li>Meeting new people can help you find a job at the ideal company.</li><li>It gives more opportunities to exchange information with intelligent people. </li><li>It encourages you to connect with like-minded people who can support you.</li></ul>

Benefits of networking like a hustler

<ul><li>Don't overpromote your resume. Focus on building relationships with your professional connections that go beyond what they can do for you. If they ask for your resume, give them a copy, but don't force it on them.</li><li>Don't assume people know why you're reaching out. Be clear about why you want to connect and let them know if you can help them.</li><li>Don't attend networking events to collect business cards. First have short conversations to see what you have in common.</li><li>Don't neglect to follow up. Hustlers are proactive to follow through.</li></ul>

Pitfalls of the rookie networking hustler

Networking means looking after your current relationships with your family, friends and co-workers. The best hustlers know how to get what they want from exiting relationships. They ask people about themselves first, then ask for the information they require. Win their hearts first, then ask them for help. Your current network can help you with:<ul><li>A professional reference on a job application.</li><li>A letter of recommendation.</li><li>A referral for a job.</li><li>Asking your peers who know a new industry standard or technology for help.</li></ul>

Hustlers network with those they know

The following tools can be used to build your network strategically. <ul><li>Social media: Focus on the social media profiles of professionals in the same industry as you or the industry you would like to enter.</li><li>Virtual events: Attend Facebook Live events and webinars to learn from industry leaders and connect with like-minded attendees.</li><li>Online learning platforms: Enrol in online courses at sites like Udemy or LinkedIn Learning. Private message with other professionals who've taken the course.</li><li>Blogs/websites: Learn about the personal brand and expertise of professionals, industry leaders and authors.</li></ul>

Hustlers network online

In-person networking helps to create an emotional connection. Hustlers who learn how to network in person learn the art of selling themselves to strangers. <ul><li>The workplace should be the first place you build your professional network. Schedule networking lunch dates, coffee chats, and office conversations.</li><li>Professional events. You can meet remarkable people at professional workshops, conferences and job fairs.</li><li>Personal/social events. These events are more relaxed and can help you to be more transparent about your career needs.</li><li>Educational institutions. Connect with deans and professors.</li></ul>

Hustlers network in person

Learning to be a networking go-getter is easy if you follow this advice from a networking pro.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

How to Work the Room Like a Network Hustler

Technology helped to normalised the lack of boundaries in our lives. We are attached to our phones. With the lockdowns, office closures and more limited social lives have added to the norm.<ul><li>A global study shows that the average daily working time increased by 30 minutes a day in 2020.</li><li>A UK poll found that more than 30% of remote workers find it harder to switch off from work during the pandemic.</li><li>A similar proportion of people are working more unpaid hours.</li></ul>

Blurred boundaries between home and work

Technological convergence, where every messaging application is available on every device, has created more freedom and flexibility around where and when we work. But it has also blurred the boundaries for knowledge workers. This situation became more exaggerated as millions of people began working from home daily. Digitalisation enabled us to tackle work quicker and with a more constant flow of new tasks and information. It means work is never 'done.'

Finished working for the day

With companies that have an always-on culture, staff may be concerned about speaking up in case of potential trouble. Others are concerned about being viewed as less hard-working. Some businesses and national governments are starting to look at the challenges of companies that are 'always on' with specific policies, such as banning emails out-of-hours or encouraging staff to turn off notifications at weekends.

Economic insecurity

The way we approach boundaries has to do with how we think as individuals. <ul><li>Ask questions. Some may feel guilty for logging off and embracing free time. Instead, we should ask ourselves why we're feeling guilty and who exactly is pushing us to react? We may find that we make ourselves work endlessly.</li><li>Stay with the feeling of guilt. Even if your colleagues respond to messages late at night, experiment and see what happens if you only answer in the morning.</li></ul>

How to think about work

Even before Covid-19, the lines between our work and private lives were blurring. As we edge out of the pandemic, why does setting better boundaries still feel so tough?

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Remote Work

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Corporate Culture

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Time Management

Why it’s so hard to put boundaries on our time

Nostalgia can be defined as a longing for an experience of another time in your life. The workplace holds many memories - you may have bonded with a colleague over a funny incident in a client presentation or an outburst from your former boss.
The feelings may not be the same warm feeling as other nostalgic moments, but the underlying emotions are just as strong. Research found nostalgia can be a tool for comfort and inspiration and can draw people together in strong bonds.

Nostalgia may be a vital tool

The past events we find personally meaningful are shared with those we care about. Nostalgia can bring a diverse group of people together, such as the workplace.
<ul>
<li>It can promote inclusivity in a work team.</li>
<li>It can help us empathise, and make people more open and tolerant.</li>
<li>Nostalgia can also be based on overcoming challenging situations.</li>
</ul>

Nostalgia is a very social experience

In the workplace, nostalgia reflecting on earlier wins in one's career can be inspirational as well as remembering the challenges that have been mastered.
<ul>
<li>Research shows that nostalgia can increase creativity. When nostalgia makes people feel connected, they are more likely to act confidently and take risks with their work.</li>
<li>But nostalgia can also have a dark side. It can leave people stuck in the past, especially those who are afraid of change.</li>
</ul>

Nostalgia as a motivational force

Working from home has decreased opportunities to connect with colleagues. It is a problem companies must solve. It could mean embracing nostalgia and creating conditions to make future nostalgia.
Tactics that might be usable in a workplace to evoke nostalgia:
<ul>
<li>Encouraging teams to contribute songs to shared playlists.</li>
<li>Using the start of a meeting for employees to tell a story or share a memory.</li>
</ul>

Connecting workplaces

Although it may seem inappropriate to talk to your colleagues about your university years or your former boss, nostalgia may be vital tool for creating stronger teams.

health

Health

How nostalgia makes you work better

Jargon refers to terms, expressions, or acronyms specific to a particular industry or professional group.
People enjoy complaining about jargon, saying it is hard to understand, pretentious, and unnecessary. Many industries and government leaders criticize it, but jargon continues to thrive in most professions despite these complaints.

Workplace jargon

Jargon fulfils a number of fundamental needs.
<ul>
<li>It produces efficient and precise communication in some contexts.</li>
<li>It encourages social bonding by reinforcing a shared identity.</li>
<li>Jargon can also be used consciously or unconsciously to signal membership in a professional community.</li>
<li>It is used out of the desire for status in one's profession or because of insecurity.</li>
</ul>
Jargon is used in place of more easily understood, less professional alternatives.

Why jargon is so common

<ul>
<li>Jargon can make communication more difficult for outsiders and cause them to disengage.</li>
<li>Jargon can make people feel excluded.</li>
<li>It can sound meaningless.</li>
<li>It can hurt the impressions of a speaker. Audiences may view these speakers as manipulative or less likeable.</li>
</ul>

Potential negative effects of jargon

<ul>
<li>Identify when jargon is proper. When credibility is important, jargon may be useful. When understanding and engagement of a varied audience are necessary, excessive jargon can be costly.</li>
<li>Ask yourself if you can communicate the same idea in a simpler way.</li>
<li>If you want to reduce excessive jargon use in your company, start from the top.</li>
<li>Letting others know why you want to refrain from excessive jargon sends a message that you're confident in your abilities and more interested in being understood.</li>
</ul>

Concerned about potential negative effects

Research shows we use buzzwords to impress our colleagues — but they often have the opposite effect.

Does Your Office Have a Jargon Problem?

Office chit chat, whether real or virtual is essential for building good relations with colleagues and makes our mood better. It is a reminder that not everything is about work when an office colleague talks about his dog or some hot new Netflix show.
Due to the pandemic, many such small talks are happening via Slack or Google Chat and can seem daunting to initiate. A few handy tips can make your virtual work life a little less awkward.

The Awkward Small Talk During WFH

When we initiate small talk, an instant response is expected, and that is because we are used to face-to-face conversations around the office water cooler.
Online conversations can have a different response time and the other person may respond after hours.

Remote Communication: Response Time Expectations

<ul>
<li>Just a ‘hi’ or ‘how are you’ is not going to cut it. You can open the conversation in a better way: ‘So what’s new in the past week?’</li>
<li>When asked something specific on an online chat, it is easier to interpret it, as it does not sound vague, overcoming the handicap of lack of visual/body language cues.</li>
<li>Ensure the topics do not include negative gossip or complaints, as these conversations can be easily accessed by other people.</li>
</ul>

Get Specific And Find Common Ground

When asking for some favour, do not start with pleasantries, like ‘how are you?’. The chit chat should not be clubbed with favours or even for a required input from the colleague. 
Make the small talk feel like a much-needed break, a mental work-free zone.

Do Not Ask For Favours

Small talk happening online can be made better using emoji or funny GIFs. There are many tools at our disposal that help with engagement. 
One can try video conversations to liven up the moment with the colleague. A Zoom lunch is a great option too.

Use Technology For Your Benefit

Not having a definitive goodbye is absolutely fine, so there is no reason to specifically ask to end the chat.
If the other person is not very well known to you, then the conversation can be formally ended with:
<ul>
<li>‘Thank you’</li>
<li>‘Let’s stay in touch’</li>
<li>‘I’m glad we could connect’</li>
<li>‘I appreciate your time.’</li>
</ul>

Ending A Conversation

At work, chitchat is an essential skill. Here are ways to make online chatting less anxiety-inducing.

How To Make Office Small Talk Less Awkward And Fake Online

<ol><li>Good listener.</li><li>Positive attitude: it makes people want to cooperate and associate with you. </li><li>Collaborative to serve others. </li><li>Sincere and authentic.</li><li> Follows up.</li><li>Trustworthy.</li><li>Approachable.</li></ol>

Top Characteristics of a Great Networker

5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Many people (including me) offer advice on what it takes to be better at networking. One thing often is left out of that equation, however: Networking involves interacting with others, so it's worth asking what the average person believes it takes to become great.