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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
After the first 3 chapters it's details about the author acquiring the skills; yoga, programming, touch typing, playing Go (a strategy game), playing ukelele and wind surfing. Which had the potential of illustrating how his theory/checklist of rapid skill acquisition works in practice.. But it's just sooooooo unnecessarily long winded.
This book would benefit from a buuunch of editing.
This book would benefit from a buuunch of editing.
So the book has 8 chapters or so, and 3 of them are about theory, while the remaining 5 are concrete examples of how the author used the techniques he exposed in the earlier chapters.
Knowing that, I found the book great. Good tools to learn fast, and at least one of the skills he learned is something I also want to learn — lucky draw.
Only four starts because I skipped quite some bits of three different chapters because I had no interest in learning details about the game go, ukulele, etc.
Knowing I didn't have to pay for the book (Audible credits), I'm happy with the investment, but if I had to actually pay 15€ for the content, I'm not sure I'd have been happy. Tip: the kindle edition costs less than 10€.
Especially valuable if you're interested in learning how to touch type, windsurf, program, play go and play ukulele. The website also has quite a lot of ressources, which helps having an overview. I think it's first20hours.com :)
Knowing that, I found the book great. Good tools to learn fast, and at least one of the skills he learned is something I also want to learn — lucky draw.
Only four starts because I skipped quite some bits of three different chapters because I had no interest in learning details about the game go, ukulele, etc.
Knowing I didn't have to pay for the book (Audible credits), I'm happy with the investment, but if I had to actually pay 15€ for the content, I'm not sure I'd have been happy. Tip: the kindle edition costs less than 10€.
Especially valuable if you're interested in learning how to touch type, windsurf, program, play go and play ukulele. The website also has quite a lot of ressources, which helps having an overview. I think it's first20hours.com :)
Should be a titled: "The First 20 Hours: How the Author Learned (The Basics of) a Few Things... Fast"
Gets 3 stars for introducing me to the idea that you can achieve a decent level of performance in something in the first 20 hours of dedicated practice.
Unfortunately it's otherwise a 2 star book, mostly padded with rambling accounts of the author's adventures in learning different things. Some of these were more interesting than others, but there wasn't much here that helps the reader figure out how to apply these concepts to their own learning goals.
Gets 3 stars for introducing me to the idea that you can achieve a decent level of performance in something in the first 20 hours of dedicated practice.
Unfortunately it's otherwise a 2 star book, mostly padded with rambling accounts of the author's adventures in learning different things. Some of these were more interesting than others, but there wasn't much here that helps the reader figure out how to apply these concepts to their own learning goals.
Abandoned after the 3rd chapter. Not what I was expecting. It's more like a journal on how the author learned some skills, rather than a meta-analysis on how to learn. I learned about yoga history more than I wanted to know and gave up when he started programming (I'm a programmer myself).
I would recommend you just read the first two sections of the book and if any of the 5 examples are relevant to you, maybe those too. Consider it done.
Although I find the first few chapters inspiring and surprisingly practical, the rest of the book bores with unnecessarily minute descriptions of how the author himself applied the skills, for example, in learning yoga and ukulele. Then again, if you are interested in any of the skills Kaufman tried out, you're in for a treat.
This book really let me down, as far as the content goes. The very beginning of the book addresses /how/ to learn new skills, while the rest of book focuses on individual skills, and how to learn them.
A crisp, well-written explanation of rapid skill acquisition that any learning junkie will find incredibly useful.
On the strength of the first three chapters alone, I've been recommending it to anyone who'll listen, but there's a wealth of additional data in the six case studies where the author used himself as guinea pig to test his theories. (They are, in case you've not read it elsewhere yet: yoga; a programming language; a non-QWERTY touch-typing system; an ancient Chinese strategy game called "Go"; the ukulele; and windsurfing.) Where are the likely roadblocks in learning a new language vs. acquiring a new physical skill? How can you use the principles to overcome them? What overarching lessons can you take away from each endeavor you take on?
As a chronic abandoner of projects, I'm delighted to have this book to apply to my next one—either ukulele or sign painting, because (alas), I am told in no uncertain terms that whichever I choose, things will go better if I focus on it wholeheartedly. The good news is that it won't take 10,000 hours to get good enough for either strumming or printing to become enjoyable; if I can discipline myself to do an hour of focused practice each day, I'll have time to get to both, even if it takes me double the 20 hours.
Full disclosure: this review is based on an advance reader's copy of the book, sent by the author, who is a personal friend. That said, I cannot be bought! At least, not for the price of a free book! (Hell, I won't even finish reading a lot of the free books I receive. I mean, have you seen what passes for editing these days?)
On the strength of the first three chapters alone, I've been recommending it to anyone who'll listen, but there's a wealth of additional data in the six case studies where the author used himself as guinea pig to test his theories. (They are, in case you've not read it elsewhere yet: yoga; a programming language; a non-QWERTY touch-typing system; an ancient Chinese strategy game called "Go"; the ukulele; and windsurfing.) Where are the likely roadblocks in learning a new language vs. acquiring a new physical skill? How can you use the principles to overcome them? What overarching lessons can you take away from each endeavor you take on?
As a chronic abandoner of projects, I'm delighted to have this book to apply to my next one—either ukulele or sign painting, because (alas), I am told in no uncertain terms that whichever I choose, things will go better if I focus on it wholeheartedly. The good news is that it won't take 10,000 hours to get good enough for either strumming or printing to become enjoyable; if I can discipline myself to do an hour of focused practice each day, I'll have time to get to both, even if it takes me double the 20 hours.
Full disclosure: this review is based on an advance reader's copy of the book, sent by the author, who is a personal friend. That said, I cannot be bought! At least, not for the price of a free book! (Hell, I won't even finish reading a lot of the free books I receive. I mean, have you seen what passes for editing these days?)
2.4 it was good, but the main ideas of the book is in the first 40 pages max. Rest is just Josh applying the approach to different things.
[a:Josh Kaufman|4409125|Josh Kaufman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1309447929p2/4409125.jpg] successfully captured my interest and attention in his book [b:The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything...Fast|16158493|The First 20 Hours How to Learn Anything...Fast|Josh Kaufman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364771935s/16158493.jpg|21998909]. Josh is a kindred spirit; we share the same city, we're both active, we're both dads, we have an interest in technology and writing, and we even have like minds when it comes to our hobbies and interests:
I pick up hobbies and interests in the same way as Josh, but sometimes I'd find myself overloaded. I was taking on too much, too fast. For example, last year, I managed to complete my scuba certification, summit about a dozen peaks, hike over 500 miles total, work toward my sky-diving license, and run about 10 km every weekday. It was fun, it was intense, but it was crazy. I crashed hard.
It took a literal bicycle crash to make me realize that I had taken on too much. I was spreading myself thin and not reaching what Josh calls the "target performance level" in many of my interests. I managed to keep my life-priorities always in order, but my hobbies had started to become work.
The First 20 Hours presents some great approaches to "rapid skill acquisition", something I'd always done -- not with intention nor focus. Josh provides a framework that the reader can use to focus in on a skill and reach a desired level of achievement quickly.
I came away from reading the book with a lot of good advice in mind, most especially: "Pick one, and only one, new skill you wish to acquire. Put all of your spare focus and energy into acquiring that skill, and place other skills on temporary hold." If you find yourself interested in picking up a new skill, I encourage you to read Josh's book and give his rapid skill acquisition advice a try. Afterall, "World-class mastery may take ten thousand hours of focused effort, but developing the capacity to perform well enough for your own purposes usually requires far less of an investment."
Personally, I’ve always had a “Renaissance man” sort of temperament: there are hundreds of things I want to learn at any given moment, in hundreds of different areas. -- Josh Kaufman, The First 20 Hours.
I pick up hobbies and interests in the same way as Josh, but sometimes I'd find myself overloaded. I was taking on too much, too fast. For example, last year, I managed to complete my scuba certification, summit about a dozen peaks, hike over 500 miles total, work toward my sky-diving license, and run about 10 km every weekday. It was fun, it was intense, but it was crazy. I crashed hard.
It took a literal bicycle crash to make me realize that I had taken on too much. I was spreading myself thin and not reaching what Josh calls the "target performance level" in many of my interests. I managed to keep my life-priorities always in order, but my hobbies had started to become work.
The First 20 Hours presents some great approaches to "rapid skill acquisition", something I'd always done -- not with intention nor focus. Josh provides a framework that the reader can use to focus in on a skill and reach a desired level of achievement quickly.
I came away from reading the book with a lot of good advice in mind, most especially: "Pick one, and only one, new skill you wish to acquire. Put all of your spare focus and energy into acquiring that skill, and place other skills on temporary hold." If you find yourself interested in picking up a new skill, I encourage you to read Josh's book and give his rapid skill acquisition advice a try. Afterall, "World-class mastery may take ten thousand hours of focused effort, but developing the capacity to perform well enough for your own purposes usually requires far less of an investment."