How to become an expert in ANYTHING FAST (Ultralearning by Scott Young)
Summary
TLDRScott Young shares his system for accelerated learning to master new skills quickly. It involves pre-learning to map out what to learn and how, focused and directed practice to transfer knowledge to real situations, and drilling weaknesses to avoid bottlenecks. This cycle ultimately leads to intuitive expertise where you can think effortlessly and originally about the subject, innovating and expanding boundaries. But reaching this next level requires diligent application of his rigorous methods.
Takeaways
- π Scott Young's system for faster learning involves pre-learning (planning), focused learning, and drilling weaknesses.
- π§ Pre-learning involves researching what to learn and the best order and methods to learn it.
- β±οΈ Set a deadline for pre-learning to avoid procrastination.
- π― Focused learning eliminates distractions and trains focus through meditation etc.
- π―π― Directedness tailors learning techniques to the context you need to use your new skills.
- π§ Drilling isolates and corrects weaknesses that are exposed during practice.
- π True mastery leads to intuitive, effortless thinking and innovation.
- π The combination of focus, directed work and drilling boosts expertise.
- π₯ Reaching the next level requires hard work following Scott Young's system.
- π€ Subscribe for more tips on thinking to improve your life.
Q & A
What is the first step in Scott Young's learning system?
-The first step is pre-learning, which involves planning out what you are going to learn, the order you will learn it in, and how you will learn it.
What is the danger of spending too much time on pre-learning?
-The danger is that pre-learning can lead to procrastination. Planning and fantasizing about learning is more enjoyable than actually sitting down to study, so it's important to set a deadline for finishing the pre-learning phase.
What are the three main principles of Young's learning approach?
-The three main principles are: focus - eliminating distractions and training your focus, directedness - gearing practice towards the context you want to use your knowledge, and drilling - identifying and correcting weaknesses.
Why is transferring learning from one situation to another difficult?
-Humans are not very good at transferring learning between different contexts. For example, statistics students may not have better intuitive probability estimations despite taking classes.
What does Young mean by drilling?
-Drilling involves first identifying a weakness during practice, then spending targeted time correcting that weakness with specific practice before returning to direct practice.
What level of mastery does Young's system aim for?
-The goal is to hone skills to an intuitive level where you can think effortlessly and originally about the subject, innovate, and potentially expand the boundaries of the field.
Why is focus important in learning?
-Focus eliminates distractions, allowing you to fully utilize your limited study time. Focused learning is more effective, efficient, and enjoyable than unfocused learning.
What technique helps gear study towards a specific context?
-Directed practice that approximates as closely as possible the actual situation you want to apply your knowledge to. For example, writing practice essays for a history exam.
How can intuition aid mastery?
-Intuition is the sum of our distilled knowledge and observations. It allows us to cut through information overload and make strong, original claims about our field.
How can Young's system lead to innovation?
-By honing abilities to an intuitive level, we can think effortlessly about our subject and have the expertise to expand the boundaries of the field through innovation.
Outlines
π Pre-learning is key preparation before starting to learn
The first step in Scott Young's learning system is pre-learning or preparation. This involves research to map out what you will learn, the order, and how you will learn it. For example, if learning a language, determine the most vital things to learn and efficient ways to learn them. Pre-learning makes the overall project more efficient but guard against procrastinating on actually starting. Set a deadline for ending the pre-learning phase at no more than 10% of the total project time.
π§ Use focus, directedness and drilling for effective learning
Young's learning approach involves three main principles: focus to eliminate distractions and train concentration skills; directedness to gear practice towards the specific context you want to use your knowledge; and drilling to identify and strengthen weaknesses. This cycle of directed practice, isolated drilling of problem areas, and returning to practice helps build expertise efficiently in each sub-topic until mastery is achieved.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘pre-learning
π‘focus
π‘directedness
π‘drilling
π‘intuition
π‘procrastination
π‘bottleneck
π‘innovation
π‘efficiency
π‘goals
Highlights
Pre-learning involves researching and planning out what and how you will learn before starting
Set a deadline for ending the pre-learning phase to avoid procrastination
Focus eliminates distractions and trains focus as a skill through meditation and practice
Direct your learning towards the specific context you want to use your new skills in
Drilling isolates weaknesses identified during practice and corrects them through targeted repetition
The learning cycle moves from practice to identifying weaknesses to drilling improvements and back to practice
Focus, directed work, and drilling together speed up mastery of skills and subjects
Extreme expertise leads to intuitive, effortless, and original thinking in a subject
Intuition is a distillation of knowledge and observations into instant gut feelings
Ultra learning hones abilities to an innovative level beyond most people
Hard work is still needed to reach innovative expertise through this system
Preparing properly before starting prevents wasted effort later
Isolate weaknesses in fundamentals to avoid bottlenecks later
Practice skills in the context you need them to transfer learning
Intuition allows instant pattern recognition beyond logic
Transcripts
Scott young is an extraordinary man he
speaks multiple languages learned the
MIT computer science course from scratch
in a year and so so much more today
we'll explore his system for learning
new subjects and skills quicker than
anyone else and how you can use it to
get ahead in your studies one
pre-learning if you wanted to hike
Across America that would require
planning you would need to know what
route you were going to take whether you
had enough food and have contingency
plans for if something went wrong
mastering a new subject is just like a
long hike we need need to know what
route we're going to take long before we
first set out this is Young's First Step
preparation or pre-learning this is
where we do some research and sketch out
a road map of what we're going to learn
the order we're going to learn it in and
how we're going to learn it if you
wanted to learn a language you would
both ask what the most vital things to
learn are and what the most efficient
way of learning them is for languages
this is almost always how to speak the
language and speaking to people in the
language respectively for maths or
engineering it's almost always how to
solve problems and solving problems and
on a WI scale you must know which topics
provide prior knowledge for other topics
if you don't know high school algebra
then there's no point learning calculus
just yet and if you can't string a
sentence together in Welsh then
composing Bic poetry is perhaps a little
bit ambitious but there is also a danger
here while pre-learning can make your
study project more efficient it can also
lead to procrastination planning your
study course and fantasizing about
already being a world-renowned expert is
a lot more fun than actually sitting
down and getting started so set yourself
a hard deadline for when your
pre-learning will end when this deadline
should be set depends on the size of the
project be young recommends no more than
10% of your entire project should be
taken up by this research phase so use
that as a hard and fast line this will
ensure the research prepares you for
your project without giving you an
opportunity to procrastinate on actually
starting for more study tips subscribe
to my email list the link is in the
description two the learning as I've
discussed before the way you learn can
make all the difference between being a
successful student in a seemingly
impossible span of time and wasting
Years Learning learning nothing at all
young has three main principles behind
his learning approach focus directedness
and Drilling and these are the pillars
upon which the entire learning project
rests I will never stop talking about
Focus because it will never stop being
important the difference between focused
learning and unfocused learning is the
difference between having perfect vision
and having cataracts without focused
learning everything will take more time
everything will be less effective and
everything will be less enjoyable in a
nutshell focusing comes down to just
three things eliminating external
distractions like your phone your TV and
your younger brother eliminating
internal distractions like stress
anxiety and perfectionism and training
Focus specifically as a skill through
meditation consistency and continual
reflection and Improvement these will
all link together to make your focus
laser sharp and this will be key to your
Ultra learning project this is even more
important if you're fitting this project
around a job or other studies then you
must ensure that your limited time is
utilized to its maximum capabilities
next we look at directedness and
confront a disheartening fact about the
human brain we are just not not very
good at transferring learning from one
situation to another very bright
statistics students often have no better
intuitive probability estimations than
those who've never taken a statistics
course and it doesn't matter how much
Shakespeare you've read if you never
perform your debut as Hamlet will be a
total disaster for anything we learn
there is a specific scenario or set of
scenarios that we are trading for we
might be looking to Ace an exam or hold
a conversation with a native speaker we
might want to write a truly spectacular
research essay or just look clever at
dinner by knowing Lots about Napoleon
whatever situation are learning is
directed towards we need to gear a huge
proportion of our study time towards
practicing in that exact situation or as
close an approximation as we can get
sure you could prepare for your History
exam by just revising from flashcards
but why do that when writing an essay
from memory is going to practice both
your historical knowledge and your
ability to use it in an exam context so
for whatever you're learning make sure
your study techniques never steer too
far from the context you wish to use
your newfound understanding in if you
don't do this you'll end up wasting a
lot of time and you won't get as close
to your goals anyway anyway finally we
must talk about drilling this is where
we first identify weakness during our
practice perhaps our vocabulary is
letting us down during our conversations
and our target language or our grasp of
the fundamentals of python is so weak
it's actively affecting our coding
projects next we isolate the weakness
and we put specific practice into
bringing it up to the same level as the
rest of our studies learning something
new is in fact bringing a variety of
different aspects of a subject together
towards a particular goal if there's one
aspect you are particularly weak on it
can form a bottleneck where the goal
cannot be achieve despite the strengths
of the other aspects this is where more
isolated practice comes into play you
might spend a few hours drilling vocab
memorization or revising the
fundamentals of your coding language
before returning to your direct practice
this process forms a kind of cycle where
you begin with direct practice identify
a weakness spend time correcting it with
specific Drilling and then return to
direct practice rinse and repeat until
you've mastered your desired skill if
you use this combination of focus direct
work and focus drilling you will reach
your desired skill level much more
quickly and if you do this for each
subtopic of your chosen subject it will
ensure that your expertise only grows
three the next level I've had the
privilege of speaking to a number of
people who I consider Geniuses I've met
a mathematician who used to be able to
tell just by looking at most
mathematical statements whether they
would be provable or not and a musician
who could tell just from looking at a
bar of sheet music which composer wrote
the piece in question these people were
brilliant not just because of their
learning but because they did not even
actively need to think about their area
to make brilliant discoveries and bold
proclamations a lot of people demonize
intuition as a collection of prejudices
and biases and it can sometimes be that
but it's also the sum total of our
knowledge and observations about the
world distilled into a feeling it is the
ability to cut through the noise and
make a strong claim in the face of so
much information that no one could
consciously process it at all this is
the level that awaits us if we use Scot
Young's system we'll hone our abilities
to such an extent that we'll be able to
think effortlessly and originally about
our chosen subjects we will be able to
innovate to develop and potentially to
expand the very boundaries of the field
but this Promised Land lies behind a lot
of hard work but you'll have your best
shot at getting there by using Scott
Young's system subscribe to my email
list and my channel for more on thinking
to improve your life
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