December 13, 2019
How to Be Good at Everything (The Rapid Skill Learning Process) – College Info Geek Podcast
Check out The College Info Geek Episode Page & Show Notes
Key Takeaways
- The definition of mastery is fluid, and some people pick up skills faster than others, so don’t take the 10,000-hour rule as gospel
- 5 tips for skill-building:
- Deconstruct the skill into the smallest possible subskills
- Practice > theory
- Watching or reading about a craft is helpful, but practice is the main ingredient when it comes to skill acquisition
- Space out your practice sessions
- Practice in short bursts
- Learning a new skill can be difficult at first, so you’re more likely to practice if you commit to just 10 minutes at a time
- Remove the barriers standing between you and practice
Intro
- Thomas Frank (@tomfrankly) is the creator of College Info Geek
- Martin Boehme (@yomartholomew) is the Head Developer at College Info Geek, and co-host of the College Info Geek podcast
Books Mentioned
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente
- The Kingkiller Chronicle Series by Patrick Rothfuss
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman
- The 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss
- Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
Let’s Talk Books
- Thomas and Martin both love to read
- Martin claims to have once read 100 books in one summer
- The Kingkiller Chronicle Series by Patrick Rothfuss is one of Thomas’ favorite fictional series
- It’s estimated that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at a specific craft
- This idea originates from the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- That said, the definition of mastery is fluid, and some people pick up skills faster than others, so don’t take the 10,000-hour rule as gospel
- And, to add: “Sometimes you don’t really need to be a master at what you’re doing to get the purpose you want out of it” – Martin Boehme
- To learn more about how to rapidly acquire skills, Martin recommends reading The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman and The 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss
- You really only have to read the first chapter of The 4-Hour Chef to learn about skill acquisition; the rest of the book is about cooking
The Rapid Skill Learning Process
- Tips for rapidly learning a skill from The First 20 Hours:
- Deconstruct the skill into the smallest possible subskills
- Learn enough about each subskill to practice it intelligently; be able to self-correct
- Remove the barriers standing between you and practice
- Practice the most important subskills for at least 20 hours
- Tips for rapidly learning a skill from The 4-Hour Chef:
- Deconstruct the skill into subskills
- Determine which 20% of subskills are most important
- Sequence the subskills (determine in what order you need the learn the subskills)
- Set up stakes to make sure you keep practicing
Additional Tips for Learning New Skills
- Choose a loveable project – if you care you’ll go faster and farther
- Focus your energy on one skill at a time
- Make sure to define your target performance level
- Create fast feedback loops
- Humans are able to adapt quickly, especially when there’s feedback
- In the beginning, practice in short bursts
- Learning a new skill can be difficult at first, so you’re more likely to practice if you commit to just 10 minutes at a time
- Emphasize high quantity over high quality
- The more you do something, the better you’ll get at it
- Practice > theory
- Watching or reading about a craft is helpful, but practice is the main ingredient when it comes to skill acquisition
- “In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in the practice, they’re not” – Martin Boehme
- An example: Thomas spent hours studying figure skating on YouTube, but when he got on the ice, that knowledge didn’t translate well into actually being able to figure skate
An example: Mastering the Piano
- If you wanted to master playing the piano, here’s what you would need to do:
- Make time for deliberate practice
- Removes barriers to practice
- Find a place where you’ll have easy access to a piano or, better yet, buy an electronic keyboard
- Make learning the piano a priority (this means sacrificing leisure time or other activities)
- Define your target performance level (like learning a specific song that they’ve always wanted to be able to play)
- Deconstruct the skill of playing the piano into subskills. For example:
- Learning how to play a C-scale with your left hand, and then with your right hand
- Afterward, learning how to play the C-scale with your left hand while playing a note with your right hand
- Then, learning how to play scales simultaneously with both hands
- Lastly, learning how each pedal works
- Find songs to learn that are out of your zone of comfort, but not so difficult that it makes you want to quit
- “People don’t like to be terrible at stuff for extended periods of time” – Martin Boehme
- Create a positive feedback loop – once you learn how to play an easy song, take that as a win and use it as motivation to move onto a harder song
- One useful app: Yousician
- Create stakes, such as booking several piano lessons at once so you’re more likely to follow through on your commitment
- Space out your practice sessions
- Example: You’re more likely to remember a learned skill, and be happier in the learning process, if you practice for 30 minutes a day for one week (instead of 3-4 hours straight just one day a week)
Not Every Skill In Life Requires Mastery
- You don’t have to be a master at every skill to derive joy from it
- Martin has been learning woodworking and wants to get good enough to be able to create simple items, but has no intention of becoming a master at it
- But, know this: “There’s a very big difference in the amount of progress you make with deliberate practice versus playing around” – Thomas Frank
- If you don’t care about the rate of improvement, play to your heart’s content
Anxiety is a Part of The Process
- Don’t be surprised if you encounter anxiety while learning a new skill; it’s part of the process
- Remember that the anxiety you’re feeling is more mental discomfort than physical discomfort
- “Everyone who’s ever done the thing you want to do has probably dealt with some form of anxiety when they were at your level” – Thomas Frank
