Category: Rapid learning (page 1 of 4)

A collection of blog posts about Rapid learning. Here, Zamai Banje writes and discusses on rapid learning, efficient skill acquisition and how it affects young individuals.

Why the 10,000 Hour Rule is Outdated (And What to Do Instead)

“Put in your 10,000 hours and you’ll become a master”

You’ve probably heard this advice if you’ve ever pursued excellence in any field. It’s been repeated in bestselling books, TED talks, and countless motivational speeches. But what if this widely accepted “truth” about mastery is fundamentally wrong?

For years, people have clung to the idea that 10,000 hours of practice is the magic ticket to expertise.

What is the 10,000 Hours Rule? (And Why It’s Misunderstood)

Gladwell’s “Outliers” popularized that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice leads to expertise.

The concept is simple: dedicate time, and you’ll achieve mastery.

But here’s the problem: time alone doesn’t make you great — iterations do.

Time Spent does not Equal Mastery

Time Spent does not Equal Mastery

Think about it.

If you spend 10,000 hours lifting weights with bad form, will you become an elite powerlifter? No.

If you practice the wrong technique in business, will you become a millionaire? Highly unlikely.

If you drive a car for 10,000 hours, do you become a Formula 1 racer? Not at all.

Why?

Because mastery isn’t about counting hours — it’s about counting iterations, refining each attempt, and learning from every mistake.

I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times. – Bruce Lee

This reminds me of Zenitsu, one of the characters in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Zenitsu mastered a single sword-fighting technique (Thunderclap and Flash), so he could utilize it even while asleep. His swordsmanship skill drastically evolved to match that of the Hashira, the highest-ranked and most powerful swordsmen in the story.

All I am saying you can spend 10,000 hours doing something wrong and remain mediocre.

Many people focus on the quantity of hours, not the quality of practice.

The Problem with the 10,000-Hour Rule

Most people misinterpret it.

The 10,000-hour rule misses a crucial point: two people can spend identical amounts of time practising something yet achieve dramatically different results.

Why? Because most people have misinterpreted the research, focusing on the quantity of practice rather than quality.

The problem with the 10,000 Hours Rule is that it focuses too much on time spent rather than the quality and structure of practice.

Many people have put in 10,000 hours at their jobs without becoming exceptional at them.

They focus on the sheer quantity of practice, ignoring the quality. It’s not about mindless repetition — it’s about strategic, intentional iteration.

It’s 10,000 Iterations, not 10,000 Hours

“It isn’t 10,000 hours that creates outliers, it’s 10,000 iterations.” – Naval Ravikant

Top performers don’t just put in time—they test, tweak, and refine.

They aren’t afraid to break things, fix them, and push the limits of what’s possible.

It’s about 10,000 focused attempts at perfecting that one sword technique, with feedback and correction each time.

Do this to Replace the 10,000 Hour Rule

Do this to Replace the 10,000 Hour Rule

Iteration is Already a Part of Life

Look around you—iteration is the fundamental building block of progress in nearly everything:

  • Children learn to walk through thousands of tiny adjustments after falling.
  • Startups use “build-measure-learn” loops to develop products.
  • Evolution works through iterations of genetic variation and natural selection.

Also, look at how technology evolves.

Mobile phones started as bulky bricks that did little more than make calls. Now, they’re pocket-sized supercomputers. From Nokia 3310s to iPhones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Every major advancement in technology, art, science, and human skill came through repeated iterations — not just hours of effort.

The same applies to your personal growth and skill development.

You’re already iterating every day

You just don’t realize it.

  • Ever adjusted a recipe after tasting it? Iteration.
  • Ever tweaked your workout after feeling sore? Iteration.
  • Ever adjusted your playing style after failing at a game? Iteration.

The problem? Most people stop refining too soon. They settle for “good enough” instead of pushing for “what’s next?”

What is Iteration

Iteration is not repetition. Iteration is error correction.

This distinction is crucial. Repetition without adjustment is just going through the motions. True iteration involves these 4 Steps:

  1. Try something.
  2. Break it.
  3. Fix it.
  4. Repeat.

Each iteration should teach you something new about your craft. Without this learning component, you’re just spinning your wheels—even if you’re logging hours.

How to Iterate Your Way to Mastery (Progressive Overload)

The secret? Add weight to your practice.

  • Lifters add more plates.
  • Learners add more challenges.
  • Gamers add more combos.

The key to real growth is progressive overload.

This is the principle that small, consistent improvements over time lead to massive gains. Just like lifting weights, you don’t jump to the heaviest load on day one. You progressively challenge yourself, increasing complexity and intensity with each rep.

Imagine learning a new language.

You don’t just cram vocabulary for 10,000 hours. You practice speaking, make mistakes, correct them, and repeat. That’s iteration.

It’s not necessarily all about the volume of time, but the number of reps you put into a specific task. The magic happens when you complete enough quality iterations — whether it takes 1,000 hours or 20,000.

Because it’s the meaningful repetitions that matter, not the clock.

Make Every Iteration Count

Want to master anything? Make every repetition count.

  1. Start small. Focus on one variable at a time.
  2. Measure. Track what changes.
  3. Adjust. Improve one thing each time.

This is progressive overload—the same way athletes build strength by gradually increasing resistance.

But instead of weights, you’re adding challenge, precision, and refinement.

Mastery isn’t about sitting in one place for 10,000 hours — it’s about pushing through 10,000 iterations, each one sharper and more refined than the last.

It’s not the hours put in at work, it’s the work put in during the hours.

If you want to accelerate your success, stop worrying about the clock. Instead, focus on how many quality reps you’re putting in.

Your highest self will thank you.

Buckle Up: Everything is Just a Skill Issue

Till now I still dread the term – Buckle up because I have always been a creative at heart.

I loved the thought of creating something from scratch, putting it up for display, people come to buy what I create and I don’t have to worry about money.

Naturally, as a child I learnt to draw cartoon characters and write essays and short stories. As I got older, I studied things like graphic design, content writing and photography.

Although I learned a lot from these things, they never really helped me financially.

More specifically, I wanted to do my own thing but was unable to monetize my creativity.

It’s not because I was not skilled enough, it’s because I didn’t stack other skills that would allow me to make money and experience freedom. I was just a man-child who wanted to watch anime and read books for a living while expecting that my money problems solved themselves miraculously.

I will talk about my full story in a subsequent article, but for now, just know that this approach did not work out.

I had to swallow a pride and get a job.

But there is a profound lesson I learned which is still valuable today:

Lesson: Anything and everything can be learned.

Buckle Up: Everything is a Skill Issue

Buckle Up: Everything is a Skill Issue

Everything is a skill Issue

Buckle up is often used as an interjection or exclamation to infer that an event is about to be exciting, unexpected, dangerous or even troubling. In real time, it simply meant – Things are about to get serious.

As time goes on, I am realizing that a person’s life changes when they realize everything is a skill.

The goal you currently strive for is just a couple of skills you must learn and build.

Discipline is a skill.

Patience is a skill.

Being funny is a skill.

Socializing is a skill.

Making Money is a skill.

Saving money is a skill.

Being good at anything is a skill.

Everything now depends on your skillset.

What are Skills?

A skill is your ability to do something well.

I love how wild_stoic puts it – “Skills are not magical words that you either do or don’t have. They are things that you build through repetition.” This makes it simple to understand because repetition leads to Mastery.

And mastery leads to the fulfillment of your goal.

How to Turn Anything to a Skill You Can Master

This framework is in 3 steps:

Step 1: Break it into Chunks and Daily Tasks:

Chunking is a phenomenon where a task is split into smaller units for easy doing.

To begin chunking, ask yourself:

  1. What is the smallest single element of this skill that I can master?
  2. What other chunks link to that chunk?

Practice one chunk by itself until you’ve mastered it. Then connect more chunks, one by one, exactly as you would combine letters to form a word. Then combine those chunks into still bigger chunks. And so on.

Go a step further by creating a daily action.

Which daily task would you need to complete in order to make noticeable, progressive progress in your selected skill?

Step 2: Execute with 30 for 30 or with Deep Work.

I learned this execution step from Sahil Bloom (He is a great guy you can check out as well):

a. 30-for-30: Do the daily task for 30 minutes per day for 30 straight days. 30 days is meaningful enough as a commitment that you can’t be half-in, but 30 minutes is short enough that you can convince yourself to take it on. 900 minutes of effort in a single month is enough to create tangible progress that will keep you pushing forward. This is my favored approach for getting started on any new area of progress.

b. Deep Work: Deep work means carving out 1-2 blocks of time per day when you will enter a deeply focused state to make progress against your area of choice. These blocks are generally 1-2 hours for most people and should be completed without distraction. This is the favored strategy for big professional goals.

Sahil also recommends that you start with 30-for-30 and then transition to Deep Work after a few months if you feel motivated and energized to go harder.

Step 3:  Teach Others What You are Learning.

The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to transfer it to another.

You can use the Feynman Technique to buckle up when seeing everything as a skill issue. The Feynman Technique is a simple and popular way of teaching others while developing mastery over your newly acquired skill.  There are four steps to his method.

  1. Teach your skill in its simplest form.
  2. Identify gaps in your explanation. Go back to the source material to better understand it.
  3. Organize and simplify your information.
  4. Transmit and Transfer till the other person understands it.

But remember, do before you teach or share with others.

It Only Gets Better From Here On

When you see things from this angle, I strongly believe you can do anything you want if you practice it enough. You no longer have an excuse not to do anything.

Infact, you can do everything.

I hope this makes sense. Again, buckle up and see everything as a skill issue.

Corrective Feedback: Give and Receive the Best Form of Feedback

Have you ever worked really hard on something, only to get a shrug or a simple “good job”? This is because most people lack corrective feedback.

We’ve all been there. But what if there was a way to get feedback that actually helps you improve? If you’re serious about rapidly enhancing your skills and achieving your goals, you need the best form of feedback. The kind of feedback that not only points out what you’re doing wrong but shows you how to fix it.

This article will show you exactly how to do that.

You’ll learn the different types of feedback, how to get the best kind of feedback, and how to use mistakes to your advantage.

Corrective Feedback - The Best Form of Feedback

Corrective Feedback – The Best Form of Feedback

The Importance of Feedback

The ability to gain immediate feedback on your performance is essential for your rapid growth.

Feedback is the information that aids in understanding what has happened. Feedback often works best when it provides useful information that can guide your future learning. To be the best at your work, you must be sensitive to which feedback is useful and tune out the rest.

This means you must always seek the best form of feedback when others choose work with little or no feedback at all.

The Best Feedback Starts by Sharing Your Work

Share your work to gain immediate feedback.

By exposing your work to others for inspection, you will gain unique perspective and insights on making your work better.

Now here are the forms of feedback you should know about.

The Three Forms of Feedback

There are three types of feedback depending on the context it was given.

  1. Outcome Feedback (Are you doing it wrong?)

This feedback tells you about how well you’re doing overall but offers no ideas as to what you’re doing better or worse (e.g., Getting an A or F in an exam). This type is often easiest to get.

  1. Informational Feedback (What are you doing wrong?)

This feedback tells you what you’re doing wrong, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you how to fix it. This kind of feedback is easy to obtain when you can get real-time access to a feedback source (e.g., a computer programmer and errors)

  1. Corrective Feedback (How can you fix what you’re doing wrong?):

This is the best kind of feedback to get.

Corrective feedback shows you not only what you’re doing wrong, but how to fix it. This kind of feedback is often available only through a coach, mentor or teacher. And sometimes, it can be provided automatically if you’re using the right study materials.

The best feedback is informative and usable by you when received.

How To Always Get Corrective Feedback

To consistently receive corrective feedback, you can follow these strategies:

  • Seek out coaches, mentors, or teachers: Having a mentor or coach who is an expert in the field you’re learning can be invaluable. They can observe your work, identify areas for improvement, and provide specific guidance on how to correct mistakes and enhance your skills.
  • Utilize interactive learning materials: Look for resources that incorporate quizzes, answer explanations, or interactive exercises that point out mistakes and offer solutions.
  • Participate in peer review or study groups: Join or form study groups or peer review circles where members can provide feedback on each other’s work. This collaborative approach allows you to receive constructive criticism and learn from the perspectives of others.
  • Practice self-reflection and self-assessment: Develop the habit of critically evaluating your own work. After completing a task or project, review it with a critical eye and try to identify areas for improvement. Then, research or seek guidance on how to address those areas.
  • Request detailed feedback: When receiving feedback from others, whether it’s a teacher, mentor, or peer, explicitly ask for specific, corrective feedback. Instead of general comments, request that they point out what needs to be improved and provide suggestions on how to correct it.
  • Implement feedback and track progress: Once you receive corrective feedback, make a conscious effort to implement the suggested improvements. Track your progress over time to see how effectively you’re incorporating the feedback and improving your skills.

Lastly, Let Your Mistakes Guide You

Take mistakes seriously, but never personally.

Always be wide open to every bit of information you receive about your work. Then develop the habit of attending to your errors right away. Don’t wince or don’t close your eyes. Look straight at these errors and see what happened, and ask yourself what you can do next to improve.

Your mistakes are the guideposts you use to get better.