Hey, I made this 10 minute summary of "Learn Better" (Mastering the skills for success in life), which describes specific techniques for learning and practicing any skill, so that you maximize both the learning efficiency, as well as the overall gained level of skill and performance in the end. Enjoy.
This book talks about a specific set of learning methods used to become an efficient learner. These don’t require any special conditions such as: having an outstanding memory, photographic memory, or being a "genius".
Experts are showing that learning ability is not dependent on innate intelligence, but rather on a few strategies and tools.
Technique is Key In a 1980 study, conducted by Anastasia Kitsantas, she split girls into 3 teams, and taught each team to play darts. The first team was asked to win by hitting the bullseye. The second team was taught throwing strategies, such as keeping their arm close to their body. And the third team was simply told to do their best. The second team not only outperformed the other two, but also enjoyed themselves most.
Self Quizzing
Self-quizzing is a strategy where you constantly ask yourself questions about what you learned and test yourself. This makes ideas stick in your long term memory. Research has shown that self-quizzing was 50% more effective than other learning strategies.
A 2006 Washington University study compared 2 groups of students. The first group was asked to read the text 4 times. The second group read it only once, but practiced recalling the text 3 times. When re-tested a few days later, the second group significantly outperformed the first one, because they had done self-quizzing.
Minimizing Distractions
Another method is using ear plugs to block out external noise. Ulrich did this when he was 11 years old, and had trouble concentrating on his math problems. Constant use of ear plugs really helped him concentrate.
There is a 6-step process to improving learning: Value, Target, Develop, Extend, Relate and Rethink
Value Involves making the knowledge and skills you learn more meaningful and valuable to you. This increases your drive, initiative and perseverance. As an example: a professor at the University of Virginia wanted to motivate some students to get excited about statistics. He asked the students to write essays about how statistics could enhance them personally and their interests. They came up with all kinds of applications for nursing, management, and marketing. This had a large, positive effect on their interest in statistics, and some of them even jumped a grade level as a result.
Setting Targets
Large goals are important, but they should be broken down into smaller tasks that are achievable targets. This way you can focus on one at a time, without being overwhelmed. If, for example, you wanted to improve at running marathons, you can have a smaller goal of practicing running through hilly terrain, and measuring your time improvement. You can work on different aspects related to your running, one at a time. Before being able to break it down, however, you need to learn the basics of an all-new subject. Small achievable goals can only be set after you understand all the basics at a high level.
Develop through Feedback
Practicing with an audience is a great way to improve. Another person’s perspective helps shed light on the areas where you still need to improve, as you’re still learning. There is a little extra time overhead to this, but it’s worth it, since the benefits are profound.
The author loved playing basketball, but he only practiced shooting hoops. He didn’t work on his footwork, or his movements on the court. This is what’s called “unfocused efforts”. He then found a basketball instructor on Craigslist, who taught him various moves, such as: foot positioning, the one-dribble pull-up jump shot, and rolling the middle finger off the ball. Within just a few weeks, the author started succeeding executing these moves, including jump shots, and three-pointers.
Another important component of developing through feedback, is monitoring for, and reducing your error rate. This slowly builds the habit of being meticulous and mistakes are repeated much less. Toronto brain surgeon, Mark Bernstein recorded every mistake that occurred in the operating room, into a database, over a 10-year period. This ranged between: miscommunication, a poorly positioned sponge, or a delay in anesthesia. This allowed his error rate to drop from 3 mistakes per month to one and a half.
Extend your existing knowledge
Genius scientists only succeeded because of continuous learning. To reach the absolute highest echelon in your skill area, you need to constantly improve understanding of a given topic.
Jackson Pollock was a painter who, at 23 years of age, joined the workshop of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. There, Jackson experimented a lot, with techniques such as: drip-and-pour, for which he eventually became world renowned. It took a long time to master, practicing working with fractal structures, which are geometric patterns, which repeat on smaller and smaller scales, as found in Romanesco broccoli or spiral galaxies. At first, Jackson’s fractal structures were not very complex or detailed. But he kept working on this technique’s detail level, until a physicist, Richard Taylor spotted his paintings.
Relate
Create relationships between concepts. Practice alone is not enough, because it’s not very efficient. You have to make relationships between concepts which can be used in many situations. Charles Judd was a psychologist at the University of Chicago in 1908. He conducted an experiment, teaching two groups of students to throw darts at a target that was under water, at a depth of 4 inches. The first group was simply asked to practice throwing darts at the target. But the second group learned about the physics of refraction first. They understood that the target wasn’t where it appeared to be, because of the bending of light. When Charles Judd moved the target downward from 4 inches to 12 inches under water, the second group significantly outperformed the first, due to their understanding of the refraction of light.
A case study in basketball found that those practicing more variety of specific shot distances performed better than those practicing basketball free-throw. In other words "Systematizing your practice".
World famous guitarist John Petrucci, of the band Dream Theatre practices guitar by working through each topic for only half an hour at a time. He has a filing cabinet full of hundreds of guitar magazine clippings for various topics, such as: chords, scales, arpeggios, sweeping, alternate picking, hybrid picking, legato, left hand exercises, exotic scales, etc. By the end of the day, he has covered every topic/category in his practice.
Create mental, visual associations, with your “mind’s eye”. Comedian Bob Harris wanted to memorize all the book titles of E. M. Forster. Bob imagined himself in a room, looking out the window at a “giant, throbbing, thirty-foot-wide buttocks of a guy named Howard”. This strong mental image ensured that he remembered the book titles: “A Room with a View”, and “Howard’s End”.
Rethink
Review your knowledge and rethink. Knowledge can lead to confidence, causing you to not be willing to ask for external feedback. Overconfidence has been proven to cause regular mistakes, as people overestimate their abilities based on previous performance. The military calls this “victory disease”. If a general has won many battles before, he may underestimate his own abilities. A famous example of this was: General George Armstrong Custer, who held many victories during the civil war. He then led 200 of his men against 1,000 Native Americans, who killed 199 out of his 200 men. So make sure to review your knowledge objectively and understand the details of each challenge ahead.
It doesn’t have to be a complex issue for you to become overconfident. For example: do you know how a toilet really works? How does water come in? Why does it stop? What prevents it from overflowing? Where does the water go after a flush? What can go wrong in a toilet? etc. If you’ve never opened a toilet cistern, chances are you won’t really understand the mechanics, unless you take the steps to learn about it.
Summary: The 6 steps again are: value, target, develop, extend, relate and rethink. It’s very frustrating to study hard, only to find that you’ve forgotten everything a few days later. Also break down learning itself, into small, achievable goals. Your mind needs breaks to be able to store new information.
I have 30 more business books summarized on my Medium: https://medium.com/@franticrock
Let me know if this stuff is useful.