UltraLearning

Scott H. Young
 Accelerate your Career
Master Hard Skills
Outsmart the Competition
 Ultralearning is an
intense, self-directed strategy
for learning skills and knowledge.
What is 1. Intense : not just dabbling

Ultralearning? 2. Self-directed : you are in

control of your learning.
3. Strategy : not the only way to
learn but a better way.
 Happiness of self-actualising your
potential in :

1. Professional Life
a. Career Growth, Change or
Why bother? to be a Linchpin
b. Rising Tuition Fee
c. End of Average or Skill
What a man can be, he must be Polarization
- Abraham Maslow
2. Personal Life
a. To achieve your goals and dreams

Deep happiness comes not from doing easy things,

but hard things that expand your capabilities and realise your potential.
 1. Metalearning
2. Focus
3. Directness
4. Drill
9 Principles 5.
6.
Retrieval
Feedback
7. Retention
8. Intuition
9. Experimentation
 Draw your Map :

1. Why
a. Intrinsic Project
Principle 1 b. Instrumental Project
i. Expert Interview method
2. What
a. Concepts
METALEARNING b. Facts
c. Procedures
3. How
First, draw a map a. Benchmarking
b. Emphasize-Exclude method

Planning-Execution ratio :

1. 10% Rule
2. Law of Diminishing Returns
 Focus problems :

Principle 2 1. Procrastination
a. Awareness
b. 5-min Rule
c. 25-min Pomodoro sessions
FOCUS d. 90-min Deep Work session
2. Distraction
a. Environment
Sharpen the saw b. Task
c. Mind
3. Quality of Focus
a. Low-arousal state
b. High-arousal state
 ● Directness = Learn-by-Doing
Principle 3 approach
● Solves the Problem of Transfer

DIRECTNESS Tactics :

Go straight ahead 1. Project-based learning

2. Immersion
3. Flight Simulator method
4. The Overkill approach
 ● Direct-Drill-Direct approach
● Identify the Rate-Determining
Principle 4 Step

DRILL Tactics :

1. Time Slicing
Attack the weakest point
2. Cognitive Component Slicing
3. Prerequisite Chaining
4. Magnifying Glass method
5. CopyCat
 ● Active Recall > Review
Principle 5

Tactics :
RETRIEVAL
1. Free Recall
2. Flash Cards
Test to Learn
3. Question Book method
4. Open Book method
5. Self-Generated challenges
 Types of Feedback :
Principle 6 1. Outcome feedback
2. Informational feedback
3. Corrective feedback
FEEDBACK Tactics :

Don’t dodge the punches 1. Flow state

2. Meta-feedback
3. Noise Cancellation
4. High-Intensity, Rapid feedback
 ● Forgetting Curve

Theories of Forgetfulness :

Principle 7 1. Decay
2. Interference
a. Proactive Interference
b. Retrospective Interference
RETENTION 3. Forgotten Cues

Tactics :
Don’t fill a leaky bucket
1. Spaced-Repetition
2. Proceduralization
3. Overlearning
a. Core Practice
b. Advanced Practice
4. Mnemonics
 Rules for building Intuition :
Principle 8
1. Have a struggle timer for hard
problems
INTUITION 2. Always start with an example.
Use analogies and visuals.
3. Prove things to test
Dig deep before building up
understanding. And then
articulate it.
4. Ask lot of questions
 Basics = Proficiency.
Experimentation = Originality

Experiment with :
Principle 9
1. Resource
2. Technique
3. Style
EXPERIMENTATION
Tactics :
Explore outside your comfort zone 1. Copy, then Create
2. Introduce new constraints
3. Hybrid of unrelated skills
4. Compare methods side-by-side -
Split testing
5. Explore the extremes
 1. Start early
a. Education by 3

b. Specialisation by 6

2. Convert Practice into Play

Raising 3. Positive Reinforcement
a. Foster > Impose

Ultralearners b. Curiosity > Coercion

4. Teach Self-Education
5. Access to Resources
a. Tutors
b. Books, Courses
 Steps :
Your 1st 1. Research

Ultralearning 2.
3.
Schedule
Execute

Project 4.
5.
Review
Master or Maintain