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A review by dimayj
The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything...Fast by Josh Kaufman
3.0
This book is about rapid skill acquisition, in which author Josh Kaufman outlines methods and techniques to learn new skills in 20 hours. In this regard, the book is not about developing expert level performance in 20 hours, but about learning a new skill and breaking through what the author calls the “frustration barrier”.
In the first 3 chapters, the author presents the key ideas of the book. The first chapter introduces the process of rapid skill acquisition explaining the differences between skill acquisition and learning, training, and education. Some interesting concepts are covered as well such as mindset (growth vs fixed), Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule, and the neurophysiology of skill acquisition (including neuroplasticity).
The second and third chapters present 2 sets of principles; The 10 Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition (Chapter 2), and The 10 Principles of Effective Learning (Chapter 3). In these 2 chapters the author explains interesting concepts and techniques such as the “power law of practice”, the “learning curve”, immersion, mental models, mental hooks, inversion, spaced repetition, reinforcement learning, scaffolds, and checklists.
In chapters 4 to 9 the author attempts to put theory into practice by applying the strategies outlined in the first 3 chapters into learning 6 new skills; yoga, programming, touch typing, the game of Go, Ukulele, and windsurfing. But rather than expanding on the methods and concepts covered earlier and illustrating "how" to implement them, in these case studies the author details in great lengths the “what” of the skills he is learning, such as the ancient history of yoga, the history of the keyboard, and so on. Therefore, I ended up skimming through most of the examples as I wasn't getting much from the content.
Overall, the first 3 chapters constitute the meat of the book making it a worthwhile read.
In the first 3 chapters, the author presents the key ideas of the book. The first chapter introduces the process of rapid skill acquisition explaining the differences between skill acquisition and learning, training, and education. Some interesting concepts are covered as well such as mindset (growth vs fixed), Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule, and the neurophysiology of skill acquisition (including neuroplasticity).
The second and third chapters present 2 sets of principles; The 10 Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition (Chapter 2), and The 10 Principles of Effective Learning (Chapter 3). In these 2 chapters the author explains interesting concepts and techniques such as the “power law of practice”, the “learning curve”, immersion, mental models, mental hooks, inversion, spaced repetition, reinforcement learning, scaffolds, and checklists.
In chapters 4 to 9 the author attempts to put theory into practice by applying the strategies outlined in the first 3 chapters into learning 6 new skills; yoga, programming, touch typing, the game of Go, Ukulele, and windsurfing. But rather than expanding on the methods and concepts covered earlier and illustrating "how" to implement them, in these case studies the author details in great lengths the “what” of the skills he is learning, such as the ancient history of yoga, the history of the keyboard, and so on. Therefore, I ended up skimming through most of the examples as I wasn't getting much from the content.
Overall, the first 3 chapters constitute the meat of the book making it a worthwhile read.