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.

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.

Bibliophile: How to Fall in Love with Reading

Is it possible to be a bibliophile in this era?

A Bibliophile is someone who loves books. In today’s fast-paced world, information is everywhere. But with so much content at your fingertips, how do you sift through it all and truly learn? The answer is simpler than you might think: reading.

This guide will unveil the power of reading, not just for staying informed, but for personal and professional growth.

You will learn why reading is essential, what to read, and most importantly, how to love the process.

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

WHY SHOULD YOU LEARN TO READ EVEN TILL NOW?

You can stay up to date on the latest research and trends in your field by reading. For instance, keeping up with the most recent findings can offer you a competitive advantage if you work in a technical field. Similarly, if you work in a creative field, branching out into new genres can inspire innovative ideas and techniques.

Reading also enhances your writing skills and communication abilities. And these are valuable assets in any profession.

WHAT SHOULD YOU READ?

The secret is simple – Read what you love until you love to read.

What do you enjoy reading now? Starting with topics you’re interested in makes reading fun. And you’re more likely to stick with it and develop a lifelong habit.

Since every person is different, finding the right books for you is more important than anything else.

HOW TO START READING?

It almost doesn’t matter what you read.

Books. Blogs. Tweets. Anything with ideas and information and learning. The best ones to read are the ones you’re excited about reading all the time.

You will eventually read enough to make a significant improvement in your life (and your interests will lead you there).

HOW DO YOU INTERNALIZE WHAT YOU READ?

Explain what you learned and read to someone else.

Teaching forces real learning. Do you know that you retain approximately 90% of what you learn when they explain/teach the concept to someone else. This is the best way to internalize and remember what you read.

3 Important Factors to Consider if you want to Love to Read

  1. Reading is not a race.

Infact, the better the reading material, the slower you should read it. Enjoy it like a delicious meal – slowly instead of gobbling it down. Take your time to absorb and understand the content fully.

  1. The number of books completed is a vanity metric.

A true bibliophile focuses on quality, not quantity.

Stop counting how many books you finish in a month or year; rather focus on what you get out of reading. The truth is that as you gain more knowledge and experience, you might start reading more challenging books or in-depth articles. Because you’re now choosier about what you spend your time on, it’s okay to ditch reading materials that isn’t grabbing your attention.

So it’s not only about finishing books; it’s also about also about the quality of learning and insight gained from them.

  1. No book or article should scare you.

Whether it’s a lengthy Medium article, complex e-books, or X threads. You should be able to pick any book or article from the internet and read it to the end. You might find many of them to be too challenging. It’s alright, read them anyhow. After that, go back and read them again and again.

After all, the beauty of online information is you can revisit it easily.

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

Embrace the Journey, Reap the Rewards

Remember, reading isn’t a race to the finish line.

Becoming a bibliophile is undertaking an adventure filled with discovery and growth. Don’t be afraid to tackle challenging material, and revisit what sparks your curiosity.

By embracing the joy of reading, you’ll unlock a world of knowledge and empower yourself to excel in all aspects of life.

So, grab that forgotten book today (or your favorite online resource!), and happy reading!