Experimentation is key to mastery - continuing to try outside
of your comfort zone
There will always be a tension between spending your time
continuing to learn to mastery and experimenting with what
4) Find your superpower in the Hybrid unrelated Skills
a deep mental model of how other problems work. Intuition
sounds magical, but the reality may be more banal—the
product of a large volume of organized experience dealing
with the problem.
Rule 1) Don't give up on hard problems easily
Rule 2) Prove things to understand them
Rule 3) Always start with a Concrete example
Rule 4) Don't fool yourself
Use the Feynman Technique - write down the
problem/concept, attempt to explain it, go back to material to
further clarify.
Helps solve tough problems or further builds your intuition
with a problem
Memory Mechanism 1) Spacing - Repeat to Remember
Memory Mechanism 2) Proceduralization - Automatic will Endure
Memory Mechanism 3) Overlearning - Practice beyond perfect
Memory Mechanism 4) Mnemonics - Picture retains a 1000 words
What often separated the ultralearning strategy from more
conventional approaches was the immediacy, accuracy, and
intensity of the feedback being provided.
Feedback can backfire....Feedback works well when it
provides useful information that can guide future learning.
3 Kinds:
1. Outcome Feedback - Are you doing it wrong?
2. Informational Feedback - What are you doing wrong?
3. Correct Feedback - How can you fix what you're doing wrong?
Tactics: 1) Noice Cancellation, 2) Hitting the difficulty sweet
spot, 3) Metafeedback 3) High-Intensity / Rapid Feedback
Experiment with
1) Learning Resources,
2) with your Technique,
3) with your Style
you've learned
Tactics: 1) Copy, then Create
2) Compare Methods Side-by-Side
3)Introduce new constraints
5) Explore the extremes
Experiment with Uncertainty!! Learning is a process of
experimenting in two ways. First, the act of learning itself is a
kind of trial and error. Practicing directly, getting feedback,
and trying to summon up the right answers to problems are
all ways of adjusting the knowledge and skills you have in
your head to the real world. Second, the act of experimenting
also lies in the process of trying out your learning methods.
Principle 8: Intuition
Dig Deep before building up
Principle 7: Retention
Don't Fill A Leaky Bucket
Principle 6: Feedback
Don't dodge punches
The actual results, however, weren’t even close. Testing
yourself—trying to retrieve information without looking at the
text—clearly outperformed all other conditions.
Take the final exam before you learned the material....by
trying to solve a problem you haven’t learned the answer to
yet—nonetheless helps reinforce search strategies that are
put to use once the knowledge is encountered later.
More difficult retrieval leads to better learning, provided the
act of retrieval is itself successful. Use a forgetting curve to
maximize this sweet spot.
Tactics: 1) Flash Cards, 2) Free Recall, 3) Question-Book
Method , 4) Self-Generated Challenges, 5) Close Book
Learning
Mental Model: The rate-determining step is the slowest part
of this chain of reactions....Rate-determining steps in learning
—where one component of a complex skill determines your
overall level of performance.
So as part of drawing your MAP, know how to break down
your topic into the required (potential rate limiting) steps
Consider learning mathematics.
This is a complex skill that has many different steps:
1. you need to be able to understand the fundamental
concepts,
2. you need to be able to remember the algorithm for solving
a certain type of problem,
3. you need to know in what context it applies. Underlying
Tactics: 1) Time Slicing, 2) Cognitive Components, 3) The
CopyCat, 4) Magnifying Glass Method, 5) Prerequisite
Chaining
Principle 9: Experimentation
Explore outside your comfort zone
Learning, at its core, is a broadening of horizons,
of seeing things that were previously invisible and
of recognizing capabilities within yourself that you
didn’t know existed.
2 Motivations:
1. Instrumental - Improving X in your life
What could you learn if you took the right
approach to make it successful? Who could you 2. Instrinsic - for the joy of it!
become?
ˆWill enrolling in an MBA truly help with X?" Be clear on the
HOW
In the realm of great intellectual
accomplishments an ability to focus quickly and
deeply is nearly ubiquitous.
Start with, "WHY, WHAT, HOW"
Principle 1: First Draw a Map
see how a subject works,
what kinds of skills and information must be mastered, and
what methods are available to do so more effectively
Break your Map down into:
1. Concepts - Concepts are ideas that you need to
understand in flexible ways in order for them to be useful.
2. Facts - Needs to be memorized
3. Procedures - Learning to ride a bicycle, pronunciation
Medicine -> Facts, Math -> Concepts
Young, Scott. Ultralearning
HarperBusiness. Kindle Edition. ...learn to find methods to master each area more effectively.
Tactics:
1. Ask an Expert how it worked for them!
Ultralearning by Scott Young 2. Benchmarking
3. Know what to Emphasize vs Exclude
4. 10% RULE
5. Know when you're hitting diminishing returns
Principle 2: Focus Problem 1: Failing to Start Focusing (aka Procrastinating)
Sharpen the Knife
Problem 2: Failing to Sustain Focus (aka Getting Distracted)
Problem 3: Failing to Create the Right Kind of Focus
Tactic: Improve your ability to Focus.
You can do this by, controlling your environment, know your
task, know your mind
Principle 5: Retrieval
Test to learn
Tactic 1: Project Based Learning
Tactic 2: Immersion Based Learning
Tactic 3: The Flight Simulator Method
Principle 3: Directness
Go Straight Ahead Tactic 4: The Overkill Method
Directness is the idea of learning being tied closely to the
situation or context you want to use it in.
Principle 4: Drill
Attack your weakest point The easiest way to learn directly is to simply spend a lot of
time doing the thing you want to become good at.
Allows you to overcome the "Transfer Problem"
Whenever you learn anything new, it’s a good habit to ask
yourself where and how the knowledge will manifest itself. If
you can answer that, you can then ask whether you’re doing
anything to tie what you’re learning to that context. If you’re
not, you need to tread carefully, as the problem of transfer
may rear its ugly head.