Thinking books · Learning how to learn · Scott Young, 2019
Ultralearning — the big ideas
A method for aggressive self-directed learning projects, built from cases and from learning science.
Free — no account needed to read
The big ideas
Directness: practise the actual thing as early and as badly as possible. Most learning fails by spending months on material adjacent to the real task.
Drill: find the hardest sub-skill, isolate it, and attack it separately, then put it back into the whole.
Design the feedback before you start — including a test you cannot fool — because self-assessment of learning is unreliable in a consistent direction.
Practise it — no need to have read it
Write what you want to be able to DO, not what you want to know. Then write the first direct attempt at the real thing you could make this week, badly.
A hint: If your plan begins with a course rather than an attempt, that is the thing to question.
Where it shows up in real life
- Career changes
- Learning a language or an instrument
- Choosing between courses
Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.
Thinking methods from this book
- Design a learning path — Planning what to learn from how you intend to use it, backwards.
- Deliberate practice — Practice aimed at a specific weakness, with immediate feedback, just past what you can do.
The thinking it builds
- Thinking Foundations — Notice how your own mind is working
- Strategic Thinking — Think beyond the immediate next step