Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott H. Young

3.93 AVERAGE

janetsavill's review against another edition

2.0
This is a decent place to start in the "learn how to learn" genre but it felt pretty shallow.

This book relies heavily on stories to make the author's point so I was disappointed to find a lot of repetition in the stories chosen from other work: I'm pretty sure I read the story about the chess champion in "Peak" and about Benjamin Franklin learning to write in one of Cal Newport's books.

The good news is that there is a lot of very good books, writers and researchers referenced so you can use it as a launch point for learning how to learn.
caitlinsacasas's profile picture

caitlinsacasas's review

4.5
informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

point_blank's review

DID NOT FINISH: 0%
I'm sure the advice in here is useful to someone and it is decent enough as a little motivation booster but I found the book incredibly repetitive and of too little substance to continue. You're probably better off reading a summary or the author's blog.

sputnik2057's review

5.0
hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

aridmj780's review against another edition

3.5
slow-paced

wllm_'s review

4.0
informative inspiring reflective slow-paced
megan_reads_daily's profile picture

megan_reads_daily's review against another edition

5.0
informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
I’m looking forward to implementing the strategies mentioned in this book. I highly recommend reading Ultralearning if you are interested in improving the way you acquire and retain knowledge and skills.

moneytree's review

5.0
challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
Oh this is a book for the nerds… and the jocks and those who truly want to succeed at anything they do. 

I’ve taken the time to do some meta learning for a project in which I’d become a security engineer. I’ve created phases for a 9 months project and I’m already learning SO much. 

I’ve learned :

- how to learn
- how I want to learn / what type of media I best learn from
-what’s a realistic timeline for me to learn 
-how to figure out a way to measure my skills
- how to experiment 
- how to challenge myself at every step

There’s so much lore in this book than I could ever write in a review, and I am so grateful that I just so happened to see a YouTube video about it. I’m keeping the book just for the outlines and inspiration it provides to take on projects that I have been scared to do , including starting my YouTube channel lol
sam_reeves's profile picture

sam_reeves's review against another edition

5.0
About five minutes ago, I finished Ultralearning by Scott H. Young. As you might have guessed from the title, it is a book about accelerated learning. I've read many, many of these kinds of books. Most are gimmicks or rehashings of easily Google-able information about mnemonics. This book doesn't show you any get-smart-quick techniques. It culminates practices from history's geniuses and Young's own experiments. Most of the strategies will take time, but I can't imagine a better method for learning. I am actually starting my first project today.

alfonz_y's review

4.25
challenging informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced