Learning How To Learn (Index)
Over the years, I’ve looked into learning how to learn from many different angles (which is only natural, as learning is part of every single aspect of our lives) and I have written many articles on this topic. You can find them all here, and my personal pick and the articles I especially recommend to your attention are these:
Learn Faster & Better
Most People Think This Is A Smart Habit, But It’s Actually Brain-Damaging. This is the mental equivalent of eating McDonald’s every day…
Law Of Accelerating Learning: Why Being Great Is So Much Harder Than People Realize. "If one is to stand on the shoulders of giants, one must first climb up their backs, and the greater the body of knowledge, the harder this climb becomes."
Successful People Are Not Necessarily Smarter. They Just Do More Of This. This is how you build world-class expertise in any field.
Conquer Information Overwhelm
While Everyone Is Distracted By Social Media, Successful People Double Down On An Underrated Skill. This career skill will change the way you think about reading.
Yuval Harari (45M+ Books Sold) Shows How To Learn And Communicate Like A Bestselling Author. 10 years ago, Yuval Noah Harari was an unknown history professor. Today, his books have sold tens of millions of copies. In this clip, he poetically describes the problem of info overwhelm better than I've ever seen before. Then he shares his very unique approach for sifting through the noise in order to come up with big ideas.
Explanation Effect
Memory & Learning Breakthrough: It Turns Out That The Ancients Were Right. Have you ever wondered what’s the fastest, most effective way to learn? What’s the secret to remembering what you learn? When it comes to learning how to learn, these are the big questions. If you have a better answer to them, you will be more successful. Period.
Explanation Effect: Why You Should Always Teach What You Learn. "While we teach, we learn."—Seneca
5-Hour Rule
The 5-Hour Rule is probably the model I’m best known for, and it’s a “rule“ that has changed many lives, including my own.
5-Hour Rule: If You’re Not Spending 5 Hours Per Week Learning, You’re Being Irresponsible. The exploding number of assets in the world gives more people the chance to profit from their unique knowledge. Furthermore, the rewards for learning will increase exponentially.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett And Oprah All Use The 5-Hour Rule. Just as we have minimum recommended dosages of vitamins, steps per day, and aerobic exercise for leading a healthy life physically, we should be more rigorous about how we as an information society think about the minimum doses of deliberate learning for leading a healthy life economically.
Why Constant Learners All Embrace The 5-Hour Rule. Benjamin Franklin did this 1 hour a day, 5 hours a week. Why you should do it too.
Modern Polymath
People Who Have “Too Many Interests” Are More Likely To Be Successful According To Research. The most comprehensive case that has ever been made for why nearly everyone should become a polymath in a modern knowledge economy.
The One Trait That Elon Musk, Ben Franklin, And Marie Curie Have In Common. Many people fail to become successful generalists because schools and society tend to encourage focus on single expertise. As a result, few ever develop the necessary skillset.
Studies Show That People Who Have High “Integrative Complexity” Are More Likely To Be Successful. A self-made billionaire studied Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk. An eminent researcher interviewed Nobel Laureates. They each came to the same conclusion.
How Elon Musk Learns Faster And Better Than Everyone Else. How is it even possible that Elon Musk could build four multibillion companies by his mid-40s—in four separate fields (software, energy, transportation, and aerospace)?
Hockey Stick Rule
The Jeff Bezos Hockey Stick Rule: If A Technology Is Growing Exponentially, Don’t Blow The Opportunity Like Most Do. I first heard about Bitcoin in 2013. I started hearing about it from many of the smartest people in my network in 2017. I didn’t invest until 2020. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t written it off without taking the time to at least understand it.
While Most People Fight To Learn “In-Demand” Skills, Smart People Are Learning Rare Skills Instead. "If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster."—Stephen Covey
Learning Speed: What Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Bill Gates Know That Most People Don’t. Hidden games are played in sandboxes that people don’t even realize exist. Hidden games have a higher return, but they are more long-term and abstract.
If you want to dive into mental models on learning how to learn that I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!