Learning To Learn [Efficient Learning]: The Principles
Tags: productivity, todayilearned, codenewbie
Published: 2021-01-02 00:39:25

Hello Fellow Codenewbies 👋

First of all, Happy New Year 2021! 🎉
I'm wishing you all a much better year this year 🙏

I've finished [Learning to Learn [Efficient Learning]: Zero to Mastery](https://www.udemy.com/course/learning-to-learn-efficient-learning-zero-to-mastery/), a course by Andrei Neagoie on Udemy, to close the year 2020.
I took this course because I want to understand what it takes to learn effectively and see if what I've done so far in my learning is effective enough and what to improve.

This course is divided into several parts:

1. The Principles
2. The Lies
3. The Pillars
4. The Science
5. The Techniques

I will write this topic as a series.

**Note:**
The 🗝 icon is the **takeaway note** of each part.

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# The Principles
It's about *changing our mindset* to look at the world differently, from something that we don't have control over to something that we have control over. 

## Learning vs. Winning The System

Most people measure success from what they have achieved, not from the knowledge they retain from learning.

🗝 We need to shift our thinking from winning a system (such as do whatever it takes to get a good grade at school without really knowing what we've learned) to actual long-term learning, retaining the things that we've learned.

## What Is Success?

Measurement of success is subjective to everyone. 
But *smart is not equal to success*.

🗝 ***Drive and persistence*** lead to success.
To succeed, we need to take risks and make mistakes.

## The Obstacle

When we learn something, we most definitely will encounter obstacles. And there would be times when we think that we're not good (*imposter syndrome*) in what we're doing.

But ***everybody*** was once a beginner who knew little or nothing.

🗝 It's time to shift our mindset to, "There are obstacles, but they will not stop me from moving forward!"

## The Dip

*A brutal truth*: Some people will never be good at something. People can try hard, but sometimes the path might be the wrong pursuit. Not everybody can be an NBA player, even if they want to.

[Seth Godin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dip) talks about this in his book, "The Dip."
> "Bad advice. Winners quit all the time. **They just quit the right stuff at the right time**."

With our limited time in life, we need to *figure out what to pursue with our existing skills and the skills we can develop*. 

🗝 We need to acknowledge if what we're doing is or isn't for us, know when to stick, or quit, turn around and pick the right path.

## Compound Learning

🗝 Shift our focus from cramming as much information in massive learning sessions a day into small chunks.

> "Improve by 1% a day, and in 70 days, you're twice as good."
-- Alan Weiss, Ph.D.

***Make small learning sessions every single day***.

## Failures Don't Count

🗝 People know us as who we are today. They don't care about the failures that we had in the past.

When we don't do well in something and feel like we don't accomplish anything, we actually learn to do better and get closer to our goal.

## Choice vs. Chore

🗝 Shift our focus that learning is a *choice* and not a *chore*.

We can take a break from learning or decide that we only want to learn 20 minutes a day. The *choice* is ours, and it's not a *must* (chore).
We want to enjoy the process for the long run, not get burnout and quit.

## It's All In The Frame

Humans used frames to change perspectives (from negative to positive).
🗝 We need to have a beginner's mindset and not a beginner's attitude.

❌ Beginner's **attitude**: 
- "I'm not good enough. Others are better than me." 
- "I'll never get there."

✔ Beginner's **mindset**:
- "I'm not there *yet*."
- "Other people are better than me, so *I'll learn from them to get there*."

## Pareto Principle

[Pareto Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle#Other_applications) is also known as **80/20 rule**.

🗝 To master something, we need to figure out the critical skills (the 20%) that we need to develop to give us a bigger result (the 80%).

## Skill Stacking

Instead of being good in one thing, we want to be good in multiple specialties and combine them to make us more valuable.
For example, combining programming with business or communication skills.

🗝 The key is to have and combine skills that work together, but also variate enough to make us stand up.

## Happiness Factors

Find and write down the things that make us happy, then monitor our happiness factors every few months.

🗝 Being happy will help us enjoy our learning and be okay with the obstacles we encounter.

## Productivity Time

🗝 At what time in the day are we most productive?
In the mornings? In the afternoons? At nights? Around what time?

Find our most productive times in a day and structure our learning in those zones to achieve good results.

## Self Learning Paradigm

🗝 To become a self-learner and an efficient learner, we need to decide that this is the path we want to take. And we need to motivate ourselves every day (*personal autonomy*).

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Thank you for reading!
Last but not least, you can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AdiatiAyu). Let's connect! 😊