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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
All nonfiction March: Book 2
I've always found it easy to acquire new skills; I don't why I'm reading this. I just wanna see what the author has to offer in this book. I have low expectations, though.
..........
2.5 stars
Not really useful
I've always found it easy to acquire new skills; I don't why I'm reading this. I just wanna see what the author has to offer in this book. I have low expectations, though.
..........
2.5 stars
Not really useful
It's essentially a set of essays showing how the author learned various things. The principles are interesting and seem to have a logic to them but a lot of it is very dependent on knowing how you as an individual learns. Some of the essays are not relevant to me but are intended to provide insights into how the author applies his principle on his own life.
This book is about rapid skills acquisition. It is fun to read how Kaufman learned how to program a web application, play the Ukelele, learn the game of Go and windsurf. However, there is no earth-shattering information in this book.
Rapid skills acquisition is about deconstructing the skills you want to learn into smaller skill sub-sets, practicing the most important subsets first and sticking with the skill you are trying to learn for at least 20 hours.
The most useful advice in the book: practice motor skills within 2-4 hours of going to sleep and a reminder that rapid skill acquisition is mostly about making the time to learn the skill. If you can't set aside 60-90 minutes per day to learn a new skill, then you are not going to learn it.
Rapid skills acquisition is about deconstructing the skills you want to learn into smaller skill sub-sets, practicing the most important subsets first and sticking with the skill you are trying to learn for at least 20 hours.
The most useful advice in the book: practice motor skills within 2-4 hours of going to sleep and a reminder that rapid skill acquisition is mostly about making the time to learn the skill. If you can't set aside 60-90 minutes per day to learn a new skill, then you are not going to learn it.
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.