How to hit the 'sweet spot' of learning new skills -- over and over again

Learning is fun.?

School might have fooled us into thinking that it’s not, but it is.?

Feeling your skills and competency increase in a domain that you’re interested in is an awesome feeling. Especially if you’ve had to overcome obstacles and setbacks to acquire that skill.?

Having my first ‘conversation’ in Chinese while not realising that I was speaking Chinese, and then saying “Oh shit, did I just have a conversation in Chinese?”?

Getting my first submission against a skilled opponent in Brazilian jiujitsu.?

Running my first marketing campaign that 'actually worked'.

These are all things that I’ll never forget.?

But learning is non-linear.

But there is a ‘problem’ when it comes to learning new things. It doesn’t happen in a linear progression.?

First, there is the ‘latent phase’. This is when you’re in over your head, none of the terminologies make sense, and you have no idea what you’re doing. It’s exciting, but it’s not quite ‘fun’ yet.?

And then comes the good bit. The part where you’re learning things at a rapid rate, and things start to ‘click’. This is where you begin to comprehend the fundamental concepts and skills behind the thing you’re trying to learn.?

Then, you’re sort of hit with a wall. Your learning speed slows down, and one unit of time invested does not yield as much in things learned as it used to. This stage can be frustrating, and many people give up here.?

But if you persist, you get to the stages of ‘mastery’. Asymptotic learning. You’ve picked most of the low hanging fruit, now you’re really refining your skills and techniques. At this stage, you’re not making rapid progress anymore, but you’re fighting for inches, and those inches matter a lot.?

If it’s world class sprinting or swimming, this is a difference of nano-seconds. If you’re weight lifting, this is the extra 5 pounds on the 500 pound bar.?

Time to learn.

There is also the matter of time. For most skillsets, the ‘latent phase’ and ‘rapid learning phase’ are over relatively quickly, compared to the asymptotic learning phase, which can last years or decades.?

To become a ‘decent’ or ‘okay’ soccer at the local soccer field takes months if you’re serious. It takes years to get ‘good’ or ‘great’.?

You can get to a ‘conversational’ level of language competency in most languages within a year if you’re serious. It takes years or decades to speak like a native.?

The ‘trouble’ is the diminishing returns of the learning curve. At first things are fun, and you are learning a lot for each hour spent practicing. Then things get slower, and less fun. And most people stop here and move on to the next ‘fun’ thing.?

Shiny object syndrome. Good or bad?

This is the classic ‘shiny object syndrome’.?

The term ‘Shiny object syndrome’ has a negative taboo surrounding it. If you describe someone as having ’SOS’, you’re saying that they’re a quitter and lack commitment.?

I think it depends on the ‘why’ behind the skill.?

If you’re trying to acquire a skill as part of your career, business or professional development, having shiny object syndrome is terrible.?

An almost competent professional is basically as good as an incompetent professional. Maybe worse.?

When it comes to your profession, you should definitely commit to a skillset and try to reach levels of mastery.?

But if you’re learning something for fun, I think it’s fine to have Shiny Object Syndrome, as long as you know that’s what you’re doing.?

Output per unit of input.

Let’s say that it takes 10 years to get really, really good at playing guitar. You need to stay on the same learning curve and keep going until you reach mastery.?

But in the same 10 years, you could also become a pretty good guitarist, bassist, and drummer. You won’t have mastery in any of them, but you’ll be good enough to enjoy yourself. And if music is your hobby, I think this is more fun, because you’ll spend more time on the ‘rapid learning’ phase of various learning curves.?

Same goes for language acquisition. In the time it takes to learn 1 language to native levels, you could realistically become conversational in 5 different languages. That would actually give you more bang for your buck, in my humble opinion.?

By 'curve hopping' between various learning curves, you maximize the time spent in the 'rapid learning' phase and have the most fun, which keeps you motivated to keep learning over the long term. This is the 'sweet spot' of learning.

But it depends. Even if you’re learning something for fun, you might be the type of person to want to be as good as you can be at one thing. That’s fine too.?

I saw an Instagram post once, and it said that you should have 3 hobbies. One to make you money, another to keep you fit, and another to make you smarter. I think that’s pretty good advice.?

Keep learning,

Sam