Thread by @TheBigYogurt

I had the obvious realization that spending a few hours on how to learn better would pay for itself in a week or two and then would pay enormous dividends over the course of my whole life.

So...how do I learn to learn?

I actually haven't given this subject much thought yet, so this is a bit free-form/twitter diarrhea.

Let's start with how not to learn because that's easier:

- No drugs and alcohol. They'll just wipe out your memories and capacity to learn
- No distractions. Focus!

- Just play, no practice.
- Avoid people better than you
- Avoid books (Hmm...what type of books?)
- Don't reflect on what went wrong in the past
- Be overconfident
- Never approach your limit (your muscles must learn to lift that weight!)
- Don't seek criticism, stay silent.

- Don't make an effort to retain what you've learned (a story for every nugget of wisdom, the feynman method, spacing etc...)
- Don't identify root causes

Okay...forgive the scatteredness of this tweet-whatever. I didn't prewrite it.

So, now let's try to flip this on it's head and come up with some rules/tactics to learn:

1. Avoid drugs and alcohol
2. When you're trying to learn something avoid distractions i.e. music with words
3. You cannot just play, you have to practice.

[What is practice in life though? I know what practice is in basketball, in chess, in talking to women, in public speaking, but what is practice in learning? In life? Help me out here]

4. Reflect on your mistakes. What are some errors that you have made in the past and why did you make them? Why did you not realize that you were making an error at the time and how could you have?

5. Find people who are better than you are at what you want to learn! In this particular instance, it would be much appreciated if such a person would appear and tell me how to learn. That'd make this easier.
6. Find books on the subject!

[But how do you find the right books? Suppose I wanted to learn finance. There are so many books out there that would teach me the wrong things! Books by operators with skin in the game? Usually their just self/business-marketing. Ugh!]

7. Stay humble young grasshopper. If you think you have learnt it all and you're right, well that's cool, but also pretty unlikely. Keep an open mind to learning new things and you will.

8. Go to your limits! Increase your mind's endurance (A), its maximum computational capacity (B), its flexibility (C), and its creativity (D)! Do A until your mind is tired. Multiply 32x981 in your head until you get it (B). Argue for a position that you disagree with (C).

But, D! How do we become more creative? What is creativity? Sometimes it's noticing a synergy, or applying a concept in one field to another where it is not typically applied. How do we channel that?

9. Take public points of view and then seek out criticism. That's exactly what I'm doing right now. Hopefully people will read this and give me thoughtful criticism, correct what I'm wrong about and what I'm neglecting to mention. It's okay to be wrong publicly.

10. Make an effort to retain the information/wisdom you've learned. Some techniques: the feynman method, the spacing effect, watch=>do=>teach (from medical school), memory palace...others?

11. Make a strong effort to identify root causes and "first principles". I've noticed you can really learn interesting things you never would've thought of by using the 5 why's technique. For example, like a child, ask why something is, then ask why that is, and keep going!

Okay, I'm spent for now.

[false alarm, not spent]

12. Experiment. Try innovative and novel methods. Most will fail, but occasionally you'll hit upon some gold and that will really accelerate your learning.

13. Go outside your area of expertise or the typical places. Immerse yourself in a new culture. Not only will this change your perspective, but you may learn something that people around you do not because it's not in the canon of your culture/industry.

If you can learn something that people with whom you compete have not, it's enormously valuable.

14. Can you copy something before you understand it to understand it later? Just a thought I had...

Good stuff, though I'm unsure about #3 at present.

https://twitter.com/obstaclecap/status/1122167514992001024