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Board Studios Inc, PO Box 3465, Hoboken, NJ 07030 t: 347.871.4453 | e: [email protected] | w: boardstudios.com Internal Information Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott Young THE BIG IDEA The big idea behind Scott Young’s “Ultralearning” is that school teaches you a lot of theory that’s super relevant if you want to become a PhD student, but doesn’t help you with real- world skills. Instead of relying on schools, courses, or mentors, there IS A way to actually learn EXACTLY what you need in order to accomplish your goals… and it’s much faster too! KEY MESSAGE First, decide on your goal. “I want to learn Mandarin” is too vague. Because if you simply want to be able to hold a conversation in Mandarin, then you don’t need to waste any time learning the characters, right? Next, create a METALEARNING MAP, which is a list of: One- the concepts you need to understand. Two- the facts or building blocks you need to memorize, like rules or verbs and conjugation. And three- the processes you need to practice in order to improve, such as Mandarin tones or drafting architectural drawings. Then, design DRILLS to ingrain each element on your MAP. Think of it as exercises to help you isolate a specific muscle, or skill you want to learn. If you’re learning how to draw faces, maybe you just draw the key features and overlay them on reference photos to learn exactly what mistakes you made. Finally, commit to OVERLEARN by practicing at a higher level. Take your stated goal and think “what’s the next level?” Exposing yourself to a higher level will help you NAIL your performance. It’s similar to how they’ve found that students who take Calculus right after Algebra in fact retain much more Algebra knowledge.
