The first 20 hours of learning a new skill
In the book that sheds light on rapid and methodical skill acquisition , “The first 20 hours how to learn anything fast”, Josh Kaufman describes the key principles of how to tackle this inertia surrounding learning and confront new skills with a plan.
Firstly, there is a widespread misconception that has been adopted since Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers'' which is understood that it takes ten thousand hours to reach a good level in a skill. Mastery Gladwell however argues mastery is largely associated with completing ten thousand hours in any given sphere whether that is being a lawyer, playing in a band or basketweaving for that matter. Gladwell mentions throughout highly successful people such as the Beatles, Bill gates and Joe Flom, a successful New York attorney. However, the idea of the ten thousand hour rule has been conflated with the idea of just learning a skill enough to get good. Gladwell’s ideas have been left misconstrued and seemingly irreverent. Readers fail to see this is based on the research carried out by Anders Ericcson at Florida State university which is mainly to achieve complete mastery.
It would be very demotivating to ponder over the amount of hours needed to get good at a subject. It is probably why most people are comfortable in the confines of procrastination. I have a lecturer at my University with two PHDs and it is awfully inspiring. I reflect and say how I want to accomplish such brilliant undertakings. Paradoxically procrastination purveys periodically. We are all human succumbed to the normalities of internet communication, family and social life. We may have interests in what we do to relax. After all we cannot be the errorless robot that demands perfection. How do we therefore draw the line?
It was Thatcher with her marmite like entity that said “We have been ruled by men who live by illusions ... the illusion that there is some other way of creating wealth than hard work and satisfying your customers.” Sometimes, relaxation can fall into the territory of delusion and delusions have consequences because what if the delusions transcend to party politics, the workplace, the supreme court or the constitution? Little things are little things but faith in little things is a great thing.
If you are eating Doritos on your sofa when you might want to accomplish more of an insight into Chairman Mao’s policies then I have good news. Perhaps, basketweaving can be for you after all and you envisage a utopia whereby you gather making beautiful baskets with multiple communist dictators. If only they weaved baskets instead of commit atrocities. Kaufmann discovered that in order to get to a reasonably good level in something it takes around 20 hours of learning. One of his demonstrated impressive successes was learning the ukelele to a “good” standard of which he finally completed in his Ted Talk. Why he wouldn’t just go pick up an electric guitar is not for me to question being the rebellious black sabbath loving teenager that I was. However, it goes to show that this skill pretty random as it is can be attacked methodically much like learning a language, the Law or something a lot more serious how to make a proper brew (extreme importance if you are English and after teaching some of my international counterparts it probably does take about 20 hours to learn).
In less than a year, Kaufmann learned six complex skills by setting aside an hour or so every day to practise and he practised in an “intelligent way”. An intelligent way must have meant “Skills that began as a complete mystery became comprehensible in a matter of days, often hours. All it took was a bit of research and around twenty hours of consistent, focused, deliberate practice.” In his book he talks about the ten ways to cultivate a temporary obsession.
Kaufman lists these key principles:
“Choose a lovable project.”
The more exciting a project is, the more quickly you will acquire the skills to accomplish your goals.
You naturally learn things you care about faster than you don’t. Think about the subjects that excited you at school, did you enjoy maths and like working out the puzzles it presented or did you enjoy English as you played with words, read literature and dreamed of Macbeth, Jane Eyre or had a terrific nightmare involving Miss Havisham’s eccentricities.
Choosing a loveable project should act in combination with who you are. This is why I would advise taking the personal identity audit set out by Patrick Bet - David. To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom Socrates said. You are more complex than you can imagine investigate yourself a bit more and it will lead to amazing things.
The feedback is important. That thrill that person who replies to you can give you over the one who reciprocates your textual advances with a feigned attempt at being human and really has the personality of a spoon except not as shiny . Make sure your project gives you a bit more satisfaction than such trivial interaction.
2.) Focus your energy on one skill at a time.
Focus all your energy one skill at a time. When you try to learn everything at once you don’t learn anything. Skill swapping creates a slow skill acquisition process.
Sometimes we want to learn every language going or we want to play multiple musical instruments, books that we want to read. It is really a Promethean existence to salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs at the sight of a possible new hobby.
Success is not what you say yes to but what you say no to. Sometimes we want it all, the part time job, the nightlife, the uni experience filled with networking opportunities or a relationship. Be adament about what you want to sacrifice and what you want to accept into your life. What is your main goal and how does that goal fit with you as a person and in your life?
3.) Define your target performance level.
“Good enough” what does it look like? Charles Kettering said “a problem well stated is a problem half solved”.
How you define your target level depends on why you chose to acquire the skill.
What is your intent behind learning this skill? Intent can be to have fun when you feel frustrated you are going to stop. Is it the Intent to perform? What is the minimum you will accept?
So before you begin feeling like you are being interrogated by the Gestapo, this is to get you to start thinking about how you will apply your learning. I want a Law degree it does not mean I am going to move into academia or politics. I mean the clue is in the website name.
4). Deconstruct the skill into sub-skills.
Deconstructing allows you to identify important parts. Eliminate non critical sub skills or techniques. You can skip over some grammar if you are learning a language or maybe some archaic vocabulary.
What are the main parts of your skill? For Youtube it might be editing, filming, public speaking and writing. For law it might be writing, essay planning, critical analysis of case law. For Programming it may be copy and paste erhmm… understanding algorithms, debugging or understanding something simpler like how to install Python or a text editor.
5. Obtain critical tools.
What tools can guarantee your development? For example if you are learning languages maybe it is best to consult an individual on Italki to practice speaking. This would be in-line with point three which establishes your good enough. I want to speak languages so my learning goals are going to be geared towards that.
6. Eliminate barriers to practice.
“Significant prepractice effort. Such as misplacing your tools, not acquiring the correct tools before practicing, or skipping setup requirements.”
I would advise having everything in one place digitally if you want to learn a new skill.
Intermittent resource availability. Such as using borrowed equipment or relying on a resource that has limited operating hours.
This can even concern if you are in shared living spaces as other people’s routines can affect you.
Environmental distractions. Such as television, ringing phones, and incoming e-mail.
Get an app like Opal to reduce your screen time if you are not gonna just take the nucear option of quitting social media.
Emotional blocks. Such as fear, doubt, and embarrassment.”
7. Make dedicated time for practice.
Make a routine and plan out how your objectives can be SMART within the specific time. Do something for 1 minute then 2 minutes. You can see my article on concentration if you struggle with this.
8. Create fast feedback loops.
“Fast feedback” means getting accurate information about how well you’re performing as quickly as possible. The longer it takes to get accurate feedback, the longer it will take to acquire the skill.” Project based learning and active recall can be the best way to have feedback.
9. Practice by the clock in short bursts.
If you practice by the clock you will get an understanding of how long it takes you to learn something. For example when I read case law at uni, how long will it take me to understand the key legal principles? This is great because you can then prioritise for the future.
10. Emphasise quantity and speed.
In the Art of Fear (2001)
“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.
His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an A, forty pounds a B, and so on. Those being graded on “quality,” however, needed to produce only one pot—albeit a perfect one—to get an A.
Well, come grading time a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work and learning from their mistakes, the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”
Practice over perfection is especially important when it comes to writing. It's easy to get caught up in making every sentence perfect, but this can often lead to writer's block and slow progress. Instead, focusing on consistent practice helps to improve your skills over time, and you can always revise and perfect your work later. Remember, the first draft is just that - a first draft. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be written.
