Learning Effectively and Efficiently
The
journey through life never stops, until we die. We are constantly
learning and using new beliefs, principles, habits, and systems —
consciously and unconsciously to improve our lives.
Deliberate
learning accelerates the learning process. When you choose what to
focus on instead of unconsciously picking up life skills as grow, you
can expedite the learning process.
Besides
helping to bolster your career, learning a new skill, a better
productive system, a new technology, a foreign language, or an advanced
skill can help you take full control of your life and where it’s
heading. Now, more than ever, it pays to adopt the mindset of a
life-long learner.
Your
ability to learn better and faster can improve your prospects in life.
Learning anything faster can give your a greater edge in career and make
you more competitive. Your effort and dedication to learning can also
expand your intelligence.
If
you are aiming to master anything quickly, you can learn from Albert
Einstein and Richard Feynman — two of the world’s most influential
physicists. They offer practical advice you can use to accelerate your
learning.
Albert Einstein: Learn to Enjoy the Learning Process
Einstein’s
discoveries revolutionised our understanding of the universe. According
to Einstein, improving your intellectual capacity should be fun and
enjoyable — happy learners are quick learners.
In 1915, after completing a two-page masterpiece that catapulted him into historical glory —the theory of general relativity, he wrote a letter to his 11-year-old son (Hans Albert) who was learning the piano and said:
I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal…
The
idea of enjoying what you learn can be hard to grasp, especially when
you are trying to master a difficult subject. But it shouldn’t be so
hard to learn and have fun at the same time.
To
learn anything faster or better, choose topics you will enjoy — if you
have control over what you are learning. Make the learning relevant. You
should be able to answer the question “Why Am I learning this?” at any
point.
If
you have to learn something as a requirement to accelerate your career,
use strategies that can make the process enjoyable. Example, if
learning to code is doesn’t feel like fun, use the process to build
something you care about.
You
could also connect your actions with progress — track your progress and
visualise it. Progress itself is inherently rewarding. You can also
create an environment that can help you find flow:
“the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”
During
flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment and a total
involvement with life. The more you can enjoy what you are learning, the
faster you’re likely to master it.
Einstein
might have changed our perception of the universe but remember that he
did it by enjoying his work and finding flow in the process. So, next
time you choose to learn anything, find a fun way to learn it.
Richard Feynman Technique: Teach Others
Known
as the “Great Explainer,” Richard Feynman was revered for his ability
to explain complex and dense topics like quantum physics to virtually
anybody in simple and intuitive ways. He won the Nobel Prize for his
work in quantum mechanics.
Richard
Feynman always wanted to know more, to learn more. He once said, “I was
born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here
and there.”
His approach to accelerating learning (The Feynman Technique) — explaining or teaching what you learn to others can help you learn better and retain more of what you learn. The Feynman Technique is laid out in James Gleick’s biography, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. Brain Pickings quotes his biographer James Gleich:
“He favoured no skill above any other, he taught himself how to play drums, to give massages, to tell stories, to pick up women in bars, considering all these to be crafts with learnable rules…”
According
to Feynman, the true hallmark of genius is the ability to explain
things simply — so simple, in fact, that you could explain it to an
eight-year-old.
Einstein agrees. He once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
For
thousands of years, people have known that the best way to understand a
concept is to explain it to someone else. “While we teach, we learn,”
said the Roman philosopher Seneca.
According to research,
learners retain a greater percentage of what they learn when they
explain/teach the concept to someone else, or use it immediately.
Your
ideas will never be more effective than your ability to make others
grasp them. When you share, you remember better. It challenges your
understanding and forces you to think better.
So,
if nothing else, teach others for your own sake. Whatever you choose to
learn, you could teach others by starting a blog, a podcast or a video
channel. You’ll reap the benefits in your own learning progress.
“Not
only is the Feynman Technique a wonderful recipe for learning, but it’s
also a window into a different way of thinking that allows you to tear
ideas apart and reconstruct them from the ground up,” writes Shane Parish.
You
may not be a scientist but Feynman’s approach to learning is useful and
applicable in anything we want to learn. Teaching others what you learn
is one of the fastest ways to acquire and retain knowledge. The
ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to transfer it to
another.
If
you want to master even the simplest skills, ideas and topics, learn to
enjoy the process of learning and whilst you are having fun, make time
to teach others what you know.
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