Angela's Book Notes ' "The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything....Fast".

By Josh Kaufman

I chose this book this week because like, Josh, I am a "learning junkie". There are not enough hours in my day to do everything I WANT to learn, projects I want to work on, etc. This was the perfect book to read. The only challenge I will have with his method is that I want to learn several things at one time and he says you can only learn one thing at a time...well. Enjoy!

Many things are not fun until you’re good at them. Every skill has a frustration barrier.

It takes around 20 hours of practice to break through the frustration barrier. 

I am a learning addict. Every day I come up with an idea for another project or experiment. 

Skill acquisition is not really about the raw hours you put in…it’s what you put into those hours. The amount of time it will take you to acquire a new skill is largely a matter of how much concentrated time you’re willing to invest in deliberate practice and smart experimentation and how good you need to become to perform at the level you desire. 

Learning concepts related to a skill helps you self-edit or self-correct as you’re practicing. 

If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never enough. 

Modern methods of education and credentialing have almost nothing to do with skill acquisition. 

Creativity, flexibility, and freedom to experiment – the essential elements of rapid skill acquisition. 

Rigorous education and credentialing can actively prevent skill acquisition.

Neurons that fire together, wire together.

Cultivate a temporary obsession with what it is you want to acquire the skill for. Rapid skill acquisition happens naturally when you become so curious and interested in something that other concerns fall away, at least temporarily.

Ten principles of rapid skill acquisition:

1.    Choose a loveable project. The more excited you are about the skill you want to acquire, the more quickly you’ll acquire it. 

2.    Focus your energy on one skill at a time.

3.    Define your target performance level. We’re shooting for capacity and sufficiency at maximum speed, not perfection.

4.    Deconstruct the skill into subskills. Deconstructing the skill before you begin also allows you to identify the parts of the skill that aren’t important for beginning practitioners. 

5.    Obtain critical tools. What tools, components, and environments do you need to have access to before you can practice efficiently?

6.    Eliminate barriers to practice.  Set yourself up for uninterrupted focused practice for 1 – 1.5 hours. Make sure your tools are with you, technologies are turned off, and people know not to bug you.

7.    Make dedicated time for practice.  You won’t find time – you have to make time.

8.    Create fast feedback loops. The more sources of fast feedback you integrate into your practice, the faster you’ll acquire the skill. 

9.    Practice by the clock in short bursts. Set aside time for 3 – 5 short practice bursts per day.

10. Emphasize quantity and speed. Instead of trying to be perfect, focus on practicing as much as you can as quickly as youcan, while maintaining “good enough” form.

Skill is the result of deliberate, consistent practice, and in early-stage practice, quantity and speed trump absolute quality. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill.

After you reach a certain level of skill very quickly, your rate of improvement declines, and subsequent improvement becomes much slower. Steep learning curves are good. 

Ten principles of effective learning:

1.    Research the skill and related topics.

Search the web, browse a bookstore and library. Identify at least 3 books, DVD’s or courses. Time spent reading and watching is not practising. You need to identify the most important subskills, critical components, and required tolls for practice. Collect a wide body of knowledge about the skill as quickly as possible, creating an accurate overview. For rapid skill acquisition, skimming is better than deep reading. 

2.    Jump in over your head. 

Don’t panic.  Your initial confusion is normal. In fact, it’s great! Move toward the confusion – it is called comprehensible input. If you are not confused by at least half of your early research, you’re not learning as quickly as you’re capable of learning. If you start to feel intimidated or hesitant about the pace you’re attempting, you’re on the right track. Not being willing to jump in over your head is the single biggest emotional barrier to rapid skill acquisition. 

3.    Identify mental models and mental hooks.

Begin to notice patterns. Mental models are the most basic unit of learning: a way of understanding and labeling an object or relationship that exists in the world. You’ll also notice a few things that look like something you’re already familiar with. These are mental hooks. 

4.    Imagine the opposite of what you want.

This is a problem-solving technique called inversion. By studying the opposite of what you want, you can identify important elements that aren’t immediately obvious. 

5.    Talk to practitioners to set expectations.

6.    Eliminate distractions in your environment.

Distractions are the enemy number 1 of rapid skill acquisition. The most significant sources of distraction come from electronic and biological. 

7.    Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization.

Repetition reinforces the idea. Use spaced repetition and reinforcement flash card programs like Anki, SuperMemo and Smart. 

8.    Create scaffolds and checklists.

Checklists are handy for remembering things that must be done every time you practice. Scaffolds are structures that ensure you approach the skill the same way every time. 

9.    Make and test predictions.

Try new things to see if they work. 

10. Honour your biology.

Typically most people can only focus in 90 minute increments. You can split it into 2 -3 smaller time periods, too. 

Kaufman then goes into detail of how he used this learning technique with six different things he wanted to learn such as yoga, programming, touch typing, Go, the Ukulele and windsurfing. The only one I was interested in was Go, which my husband, David, and I are beginning to learn. 

What are you learning next?