How to learn anything FAST
Developing skills is meaningful. It feels good to be good at something.
In a world that is changing rapidly, the ability to acquire new skills and knowledge has never been more important. Innovation, new industries and evolving tech is reshaping our lives. If you feel like things are changing too quickly and you don’t know what to do about it. Then read on and find out how you can acquire radically different capabilities.
Learn to create your own learning path through ultralearning.
Learning is a huge part of my life and it may surprise you to know that I never made notes in medical school. I’ll write about why another time. Ultimately, there’s so many other ways to absorb information, some of which I’ll talk about now.
The book Ultralearning by Scott Young is a strategy for aggressive, self-directed learning.
Before we get into some of the principles, what is the point of ultralearning Ultralearning can help you to develop a hidden advantage in a super competitive world. It can help you find new confidence in yourself and learn new skills and hobbies.
In 2015, Nigel Richards won the World French Scrabble Championships.
The remarkable thing is that he didn’t actually speak French. Despite there being almost 400,000 French words approved by Scrabble, Richards won by committing these words to memory in just 9 weeks. This is a perfect example of ultralearning.
There’s 9 principles in total in the book. I’m just going to talk about the first 6.
The first chapter in the book introduces the concept of metalearning, which is the art of learning how to learn.
As a medical student, I had to learn a vast amount of content from my physiology, anatomy & histology textbooks as efficiently as possible. You start by drawing a map of why your learning, what your learning and how you’re going to learn it.
These maps should break your topic down into three categories: concepts, facts, and procedures.
Concepts relate to what you need to understand.
Facts relate to what needs to be memorised.
Finally, procedures relate to what needs to be done.
You must appreciate that not all skills will require all three procedures
So before you start, ask yourself, have you researched the typical ways of learning this subject or skill?
The second principle discusses the importance of focus and minimising distractions.
To overcome focus, you must overcome these 3 problems:
1: Failing to start focusing - aka procrastination.
2: Failing to sustain focus - aka getting distracted.
3: Failing to create the right kind of focus.
Start by removing any distractions from your environment.
Turning off your phone and finding a quiet study space is usually a good place to start.
Are you focused when you’re learning or are you multitasking with distraction?
Another principle in the book is about being direct in your learning.
When I was learning how to suture wounds, I knew that by watching videos it will only get me so far, you have to actually manually perform and practice the skill it to learn it before you’re confident enough to perform it on real wounds.
A friend of mine recently went through a coding bootcamp where they were taught a new programming language.
They started by identifying the specific skills and knowledge needed to become proficient in the language, such as syntax and algorithms.
The teachers had designed a learning approach that focuses on these areas which included things like the language's documentation, doing coding exercises, and building small projects.
Remember to ask yourself, am I learning the skill in the way I’ll eventually be using it?
The next principle is about using drills, which involves practicing skills repeatedly to develop mastery.
Identify components of the overall skill you are trying to conquer and determine what is the rate-determining step in the learning reaction. Then, apply drills to this step. Think about a basketball player who wants to improve their 3 point shots under pressure. They can start by breaking down the mechanics of the shot and analysing what is the rate limiting step holding them back. Transitioning from making shots without pressure to being pressured is a simple example. Gradually increasing the difficulty level, until they develop muscle memory and automaticity.
The downside with drills is figuring out what and when to drill. Also drills can be repetitive and uncomfortable.
The 5th principle is retrieval, which involves actively recalling information from memory to strengthen learning and retention.
When I was trying to memorise anatomy for exams, you had to know things like specific muscle origin points and insertions, the nerve and blood supplies to tissues and their clinical significance. Instead of simply reading the textbook or rewriting out notes from lectures, I used flashcards and quizzes to test my recall and reinforce my learning. Using spaced repetition techniques with this app called Anki really helped. I think its still free to download on your laptop - highly recommend.
Remember, do you have some way of testing yourself? Or do you just assume that you’ll remember it?
Feedback.
Do you get honest feedback about your performance? Do you know what you’re learning well and not so well? We’ve all received feedback at some point in life whether it was on homework or sports or at work.
Feedback can be broken down into 3 types.
- Outcome feedback - are you doing it wrong?
It’s the easiest type to get. Think about applause after a comedy show or a grade after a maths exam. The feedback is related to the outcome.
2. Informational feedback - what are you doing wrong?
It tells you what you’re doing wrong but not how to fix it. Think about the time you’ve tried to speak to someone in their language and then you get a word wrong, they will stare at you so you kinda know the mistake.
3. Corrective feedback - how can you fix what you’re doing wrong?
This is the best kind of feedback and is usually only available through a coach, mentor or teacher. The best feedback is informative and useful for the student The main challenge of this is finding an expert who can pinpoint your mistakes and correct them for you.
I know that by reading the book I’ve identified and tried to address some of my own learning weaknesses.
By adopting these principles and strategies, hopefully you can learn things faster and more efficiently than traditional methods of learning. Next time you find yourself scanning the horizon for growth opportunities, think about these principles and how you can apply them.
A quote from a great
Win the day,
Z
Ultralearning secrets
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