As CEO of Investa, I need to learn things fast, as in really fast. With how the tech start-up world goes, I really need to step up my learning capability, not just in speed, but in depth.
Honestly, based from my experiences — all your past qualifications or skills play just a small role in your success in real life. What matters really is how hungry you are to keep on growing.
I think almost 80% of what I am applying today — in trading and in business — I’ve picked up along the way, not back when I was in school, not back when I was in institutional brokerages.
I was looking to study certain technical concepts (a craft that is totally new to me.) As I was doing some research, I found this book called Ultralearning by Scott Young
One main principle of this book is that for you to really remember something, you need to actively put an effort towards recalling all the things you’ve learned after a certain session/lesson.
They suggest that after consuming something, instantly write on a blank page everything that you’ve learned from the book or class. Knowing that I’d be doing this, this instantly boosted my intent to know the details of the book.
I thought, wow, just by doing that 5–10 minute quick write-up I was able to come up with a good enough article/summary already. And maybe other people can benefit from this too. So I’ll be doing this habitually in most of the things that I learn about.
So here we go, here’s my first open notes. Here’s what I’ve learned from Ultralearning:
The book introduced me concepts that would make me an effective learner
First is meta-learning, study how information is structured in the craft that I want to learn — this will allow me to strategize how I am gonna attack a certain topic. Don’t just follow basic protocols or curriculum, see how the best are learning something, then adopt what you think will work.
Direct Focus — be deliberate about your learning, don’t just go on auto-pilot mode. Make sure that when you are really present when consuming something. Recall is important, every time you study something, actively recall and question yourself so that you can see the applications of the concepts asap.
Learning by doing — one of the best forms of learning is just by engaging into small projects or basically in the sports world, is what we call “practice”. You truly will appreciate the concepts that you’ve studied once you’ve seen their use cases and have explored different angles and styles with them.
Intuition — once you’ve mastered the simple concepts and have gotten the foundation, that’s where you can start to be natural at attacking complex ideas. This is what most people call “intuition”, you will be able to creatively solve different problems once you have mastery.
Strategic Experimentation is key — Learn how the best are doing one thing, you can practice their approach, but then once you’ve gotten the hang of it, it’s time to innovate. you can also combine different worlds and concepts and you may be surprised that you will come up with powerful ideas.
Effective feedback — in order to push your limits you really need to aim for potential failure points so you can get feedback that will truly nurture you as a person. Also, the best form of feedback is corrective.
Memorization — set out spaced repetition systems, which will allow you to constantly recall and review concepts that you have studied. Frequency will help, don’t space them out too long between one another. Also, the best form of memorization is by constantly doing something. This is the method where you will be able to learn something by heart.
Summary:
These are the main key points that I got from the book Ultralearning. Very relevant book as of the moment, as I need to ramp up my learning depth and pace. End of it all, it’s about active and deliberate practice. Just like with how you get better as an athlete, you need to be aware of not just what you learn but also how you practice.
With perfect practice comes near perfection. By being deliberately focused and by actively experimenting different methods, you will be an ultra-learner.
I hope this helped. I’ll definitely apply these concepts in my learning journey. :)
By the way, on a side note, we are hiring in Investa. We’re looking for a solid Financial Controller (CPA), and a few Developers. See the details here: www.investagrams.com/careers