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7 MUST-KNOW
STRATEGIES
TO LEARN ANYTHING FASTER
by Scott Young
by Scott Young
© 2016
7 MUST-KNOW
STRATEGIES
TO LEARN ANYTHING FASTER
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why Ultralearning? 4
My Projects 6
MIT Challenge 7
Year Without English 9
Portrait Drawing Challenge 11
Beyond 13
Learning Principles That Work 14
Project Design 15
Training Focus and Productivity 16
Active vs Passive Learning 17
Feedback Cycles 18
Spacing Effect 20
Depth of Processing 21
Overlearning 22
Using Ultralearning 23
For School 24
For Career 25
For Life 26
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Learning is the foundation for success in nearly every aspect of life.
First you start in school.
Clearly learning matters here – learning well allows you to get
good grades, get accepted to the best schools and graduate
without the grind. Then you start work. Learning becomes a
path to improvement – it gives you valuable skills so you can
be a leader instead of just another cog in the system.
Learning matters for your health.
You need to learn what to eat, how to work out and how to
maintain good habits. Learning matters for your relationships.
Learning how people are, the best way to build connections
and deepen them. Learning defines how you see yourself in
the world, your sense of purpose in life and meaning.
Given that learning underlies so much of life, why not start
with learning how to learn better?
Ultralearning is my approach to learning things well.
There’s no one exact method for ultralearning, but there are
some common principles amongst all ultralearners:
1. Self-education. Even if you’re in school, a self-education
mindset puts you in the driver’s seat, controlling how and
WHY ULTRALEARNING?
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what you learn. Ultralearners don’t passively absorb edu-
cation, they create it.
2. Deep focus. Ultralearning isn’t a passive task. It demands
hard, intense focus. The rewards for this effort, however,
are large and it allows ultralearners to quickly develop
skills that other people spend years unable to get a grasp
on.
3. Scientifically informed. Ultralearners don’t treat learning
as a mystery. Instead, they use the best available under-
standing of the science of memory and skill-aquisition to
use an approach that makes learning anything a step-by-
step process.
Ultralearning takes many forms, and the best way to recog-
nize it is to first see some examples, so I’ll start by sharing my
ultralearning projects, then move to explaining how you can
start your own.
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MY PROJECTS
Over the years, I’ve worked on multiple ultralearning proj-ects. Chances are you’re reading this well after I wrote this
book, in which case I’ve probably completed new projects since
writing this book. Each is different, but there are strategies
common to all of them.
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This project was to learn MIT’s 4-year computer science undergrad degree in 12 months, by passing the final exams
and doing the programming projects. It often meant learning
a full-semester class like calculus or linear algebra in as little
as five days.
TECHNIQUES USED:...
