Thinking method · Young, Ultralearning

Design a learning path

Planning what to learn from how you intend to use it, backwards. Before starting any course or long piece of self-teaching.

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Planning what to learn from how you intend to use it, backwards.

The steps

1. Write what you want to be able to DO, not what you want to know.
2. Find someone who can already do it and ask what actually mattered.
3. Split into concepts (understand), facts (remember) and procedures (practise) — each needs a different method.
4. Front-load direct practice of the real thing, early and badly.
5. Find the hardest sub-skill and drill it separately.
6. Build in a way to be tested that you cannot fool.

When to use it

Before starting any course or long piece of self-teaching.

What it will not do

The plan is not the learning. It mostly stops you spending three months on the wrong material.

Where it comes from: Young, Ultralearning. Described in our own words.