The First 20 Hours

With just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice, you can go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. That’s the message from Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast!.

The real challenge behind rapid skill acquisition, is to get past the initial challenge of “beginners mind,” which is the frustration that occurs when learning something new doesn’t come as naturally as hoped for.

The four basic steps of rapid skill acquisition are:

  1. Deconstructing a skill into the smallest possible subskills;
  2. Learning enough about each subskill to be able to practice intelligently and self-correct during practice;
  3. Removing physical, mental, and emotional barriers that get in the way of practice;
  4. Practicing the most important subskills for at least twenty hours.

Skill acquisition is fundamentally different from learning. Learning is only instrumentally useful: we don’t acquire a skill by learning; rather, we learn to acquire a skill.  Learning concepts related to a skill helps you self-edit or self-correct as you practice.

Ten major principles of rapid skill acquisition:

  1. Choose a lovable project.
  2. Focus your energy on one skill at a time.
  3. Define your target performance level.
  4. Deconstruct the skill into subskills.
  5. Obtain critical tools.
  6. Eliminate barriers to practice.
  7. Make dedicated time for practice.
  8. Create fast feedback loops.
  9. Practice by the clock in short bursts.
  10. Emphasize quantity and speed.

If you want to get good at anything where real-life performance matters, you have to actually practice that skill in context. Study, by itself, is never enough.

Ten principles of effective learning:

  1. Research the skill and related topics.
  2. Jump in over your head.
  3. Identify mental models and mental hooks.
  4. Imagine the opposite of what you want.
  5. Talk to practitioners to set expectations.
  6. Eliminate distractions in your environment.
  7. Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization.
  8. Create scaffolds and checklists.
  9. Make and test predictions.
  10. Honor your biology.

The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.

Summing-up: With a bit of strategy, you can learn just about any skills to a sufficient level with around 20 hours (and often less) of concentrated, focused effort. 20 hours amounts to just 40 minutes a day for a month, so what are you waiting for?

The Ultimate Online Diary
https://www.online-diary.com/
Keep a private journal and see your own unique perspective.
Continue 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *