Ultralearning — Scott Young

 

Rating: ★★★★

Summary: Ultralearning offers a path towards optimized, self-directed skill/knowledge acquisition that includes 9 key principles: meta-learning, focus, directness, drill, retrieval, feedback, retention, intuition, and experimentation. The book's essential premise is that traditional learning methods are often highly expensive and woefully inefficient. Through clear planning, active learning techniques, and corrective feedback, you can learn new languages, skills, and information in a fraction of the time—and at a fraction of the cost—when compared to university or college.

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Key Concepts:
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• One of the most important skills in the 21st century global economy is the ability to quickly learn, unlearn, and relearn difficult skills. 

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• Roger Craig, the Jeopardy contestant who won more than $200,000 over 5 successive episodes, wasn't just lucky or gifted at trivia—he devised a computer algorithm that visualized the data of previous questions, and focused his study efforts his points of greatest weakness.

• James Clear, the bestselling author of Atomic Habits, wrote the introduction to the book, and swears by the process and principles of ultralearning. This is a significant endorsement.

• General transfer, the idea that learned concepts in one setting (like a classroom) will spill over into another (like real life) has been essentially disproved. There are simply more effective ways to learn.

• Principle #1 — Meta-learning involves drawing a map of the anticipated learning outcomes. In my view, it is similar to setting your own curriculum, but you can delve even deeper than that. It involves lots of questions and structuring (and re-structuring). What skill will you develop? What methods will you use to learn it? Why are you learning this particular skill? Is it instrumental, like learning to code so that you can design a video game from scratch, or intrinsic, like learning a language that you've always wanted to speak? 

• Principle #2 — Focus is essential for learning anything, but is especially important if you are pursuing a course of learning independently. Removing or resisting distractions and working through periods where you feel frustrated are vital for keeping on track.

• Principle #3 — Directness involves learning actively. By throwing yourself into the melee and immersing yourself into the appropriate environment, the speed and quality of learning is greatly enhanced. Coding bootcamps, immersing yourself in a different culture and only speaking that language, and working on problems without resorting to passive review all make use of this principle. Learning in school contexts fails to take root so often because of a lack of directness (and a belief that general transfer works). 

• Principle #4 — Drills involve breaking down the desired skill/area into its constituent parts, isolating a weakness or potential bottleneck, and intensely practicing it. Cue cards, spaced repetition systems, and time slices (practicing a jump shot in basketball, or a pirouette in dance) are ways of getting better at one part of the skill and then reintegrating it back into the discipline. 

• Principle #5 — Retrieval is the process of testing one's knowledge and understanding. Active recall is a simple test to determine whether you can conjure up the answer to a question, like a contestant on Jeopardy, or explain a particular concept in depth. The process of retrieving information from memory without external support is one of the most powerful ways to engage the mind and maximize learning. Taking frequent breaks from a book you are reading to recall ideas and express them clearly is a highly valuable practice.

• Principle #6 — Feedback is crucial, as it guides the learning process. Without feedback, you are stuck making the same mistakes, and your progress will grind to a halt. Outcome feedback, like a great grade on a test or a joke that falls flat, can be helpful, but corrective feedback, like input on how to improve your writing from a mentor or editor, is ideal. 

• Principle #7 — Retention is the ability to store and access information or aspects of a skill. Mnemonics, like associating numbers with mental images, can help memorize key details. "Overlearning" involves learning a skill past the point of mastery so it won't be forgotten as easily. Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered that forgetting happens at a rate of exponential decay.  His concept of the forgetting curve shows that we forget new information rapidly, but what we do remember is likely to stick around for a long time. Overcome forgetting by using spaced repetition, procedure-oriented learning (we don't forget how to ride a bike; we can internalize other skills in the same way) or maintaining a habit of practice. 

• Principle # 8 — Intuition happens when vast networks of learning are accessed in more creative ways to learn new insights. An example would be when a chess master examines a chess board in the middle of a game. She puts together all of the painstakingly memorized positions and patterns in order to come up with a fluid, unconventional strategy. To use intuition, learn concrete examples and internalize them. Examine hard problems without going out and Googling the right answer. Prove concepts in order to learn them inside and out. 

• Principle #9 — Experimentation is when you have gone through all other principles and are closing in on your ultralearning goal. Combine your new skills with another skill set, use different mediums if you are an artist, and try on different styles if you are a writer. The possibilities are endless.