In these videos, learn how to learn anything with a practitioner’s guide to rapid skill acquisition.
Key Takeaways
How long does it take from starting something to getting really good?
Research says 20 hours. If you put 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice into whatever you choose, you will be astounded at how good you are.
- It’s not like you can just fiddle around for 20 hours and expect massive improvements.
- There is a method to do this and practice intelligently, efficiently that will make sure you invest those 20 hours the most effective way you can.
10,000 Hour Rule Expert level performance. Practice a lot, practice well and you will become an expert.
- People get good at things with just a little bit of practice.
- When you start something, you’re incompetent and you know it. With a little bit of practice, you can get really good, really quick.
- The early level of improvement is really fast and then eventually you’ll reach a plateau and the subsequent gains become much harder to get.
- Rapid skill acquisition is a process—a way of breaking down the skill you’re trying to acquire into the smallest possible parts, identifying which of those parts are most important, then deliberately practicing those elements first.
"The trouble comes when we confuse learning with skill acquisition. 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."
Rapid Skills Acquisition
1. Deconstruct the Skill
Decide exactly what you want to be able to do when you’re done and then look into the skill and break it down into smaller pieces.
- Most of the things we think of as skills are actually big bundles of skills that require all sorts of different things.
- The more you can break apart the skill, the more you’ll be able to decide which parts of the skill will get you to what you want and then you can practice that first.
- Practicing the most important parts first will allow you to improve your performance in the least amount of time possible.
Decide exactly what you want to be able to do when you’re done and then look into the skill and break it down into smaller pieces.
2. Learn Enough to Self-Correct
Get 3-5 resources on what it is you are trying to learn, but don’t use those as a way to procrastinate on practice.
- You want to learn just enough that you can self-practice and self-correct as you practice.
- So the learning becomes a way of getting better at noticing when you’re making a mistake and then doing something a little different.
3. Remove Practice Barriers
Internet, t.v., all distractions and things that get in the way of you putting in the work.
- The more you’re able to use willpower to remove the distractions that keep you from practicing, the more like you’ll sit down and practice.
4. Practice for 20 Hours
Most skills have a frustration barrier or the grossly incompetent and knowing it part.
- No one likes feeling stupid and feeling stupid is a barrier to us actually sitting down and doing the work.
- By pre-committing to practicing for 20 hours, you will be able to overcome the frustration barrier and stick with the practice to reap the rewards.
The Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition
1. Researching the Skill identify the most important subskills, critical components, and required tools for practice as quickly as possible. The more you know, the better.
2. Focusing Energy on One Skill A common mistake to make when acquiring new skills is attempting to acquire too many skills at the same time.
3. Defining the Target Performace Level Your target performance level is a brief statement of what your desired level of skill looks like.
4. Deconstructing the Skill into Subskills After finding a skill to focus on, the next step is to deconstruct it, to break it down into the smallest possible parts.
5. Obtain Critical Tools acquiring the necessary tools are in order to practice your skill.
6. Eliminating Barriers to Practice You will acquire the skill in far less time by creating the environment to make it as easy as possible to practice.
7. Making Time for Practice finding the time in your schedule for skill acquisition.
8. Creating Feedback Loops getting accurate information about how well you’re performing as quickly as possible. The more sources of feedback you integrate into your practice, the faster you’ll acquire the skill.
9. Practicing in Short Bursts set a timer for 20 minutes and practice until it goes off. (Pomodoro Technique)
10. Emphasizing Quantity and Speed Instead of trying to be perfect, focus on practicing as much as you can as quickly as you can, while maintaining good form.
Ten Principles of Effective Learning
1. Choosing a Lovable Project focus on acquiring your skill or lovable project before anything else, you’ll acquire it in far less time.
2. Jump in over your head some work will contain concepts, techniques, and ideas you don’t understand. Understand that feeling confused is completely normal.
3. Identifying Mental Models and Hooks you’ll begin to notice patterns: ideas and techniques that come up over and over again or “mental models”. You will also notice a few things that look like something you’re already familiar with “Mental Hooks”.
4. Imagine the opposite of what you want By considering the worst possible outcome, you can identify important elements that aren’t immediately obvious.
5. Talk to practitioners to set expectations Talking to people who have acquired the skill before you will help dispel myths and misconceptions before you invest your time and energy.
6. Eliminate distractions in your environment distractions come in two forms: electronic (TV, Internet, phone) and biological (people, pets). Get rid of them as efficiently as possible.
7. Using Repetition and Reinforcement use spaced repetition and reinforcement (like learning vocabulary words) when quick recall is essential. Otherwise, spend this time in practice or experimentation.
8. Create scaffolds and checklists Checklists are a simple way 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 (free throw routine of a basketball player).
9. Make and test Predictions Getting into the habit of making and testing predictions will help you acquire skills more rapidly. Observations what are you currently observing? Knowns what do you know about the topic already? Hypotheses what do you think will improve your performance? Tests what are you going to try next?
10. Honor your biology keeping your body healthy- sleep, diet, exercise etc.
