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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
I expected to hate this, but it was surprisingly good. Yes, it's incredibly shallow, and almost entirely about the author's own experiences, and, yes, the examples are painfully detailed at times ... but somehow it works, and gives a plausible outline of how much it's possible to pick up in 20 hours of deliberate learning (Spoiler: much less than enough to consider yourself skilled, but much more than most people expect).
Remember the rule that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill? In this book, Josh Kaufman is making the case that it only takes 20 to be decent at a skill, a much more manageable number. The first 40 pages are devoted to explaining how to use the first 20 hours to learn something, and then the rest of the book are examples of how he broke down a variety of skills to learn the basics in those 20 hours, including yoga, programming, touch typing, go, ukulele and windsurfing.
It was an interesting read for me, but I realized a few pages in - like all procrastinators - I probably already know how to do this, but actually doing it is a whole other matter. I was hoping learning how to learn something in 20 hours would motivate me to just do it, but it seems it's not to be. Someday, hopefully.
It was an interesting read for me, but I realized a few pages in - like all procrastinators - I probably already know how to do this, but actually doing it is a whole other matter. I was hoping learning how to learn something in 20 hours would motivate me to just do it, but it seems it's not to be. Someday, hopefully.
Many skills can be learned to a sufficient level with 20 hours of focused, strategic effort. In order to do so: deconstruct it into the smallest possible subskills, learn enough about each subskill to be able to practice effectively and self-correct, remove any physical, mental, or emotional barriers, practice the most important subskills for at least 20 hours.
Just read the first three chapters, everything else is fluff.