by Scott Young
Stardew Valley (video game), 15
subject matter, mastery of, 100–101
Sujjayakorn, Panupol, 156
Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics, A (Carr), 121, 123
Tal, Mikhail, 234
talent, ultralearning and, 34–37
Tamu (username), 22
Tao, Terence, 34–35
task complexity, arousal and, 83–85
technology:
learning and, 5, 29–32
work and, 28–29
10 Percent Rule, 66–67, 68
Tersteeg, H. G., 198
Thorndike, Edward, 95–96
time slicing, 114–15
Toastmasters International, 42–45
topics, choosing of, 217–18
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 198
Traité de mécanique céleste (Laplace), 71, 72
transfer, 94–99
directness and, 97–101
failure of traditional education to achieve, 94–97
Tyson, Mike, 135
ultralearning, ultralearners, 9, 21
alternatives to, 228–32
careers and, see careers, ultralearning and
children and, 241–49
definition of, 25–26
ethos of, 49–50, 158
everyday application of, 23–24
fostering of, 249–54
instrumental vs. intrinsic projects in, 58–59
as life changing, 45–46
L. Polgár's strategy for, 242–49
mastery and, 100–101
obsessive intensity of, 26, 39, 133–34, 157, 158, 176, 202, 241
personal stories of, 2–24, 40–47, 51–55, 70–73, 87–89, 106–9, 119–21, 153–59, 177–81, 183–86, 193–94, 195–96, 197–98, 233–49, 255
principles of, xiii, 47–50, 245–49; see also specific principles
process of, 40–50
public speaking and, 41–46
reference groups and, 252–53
as self-directed, x, xiv, 25, 39, 49–50, 145, 231, 241
sense of self as expanded by, xiv–xv, 33–34
shared traits of, 22–23, 26, 33–34
as strategy, 25, 228
tactics of, 12, 21, 38, 47, 49
talent and, 34–37
time commitment and, 37–38
value of, 26–27, 39
ultralearning projects, 216–32
applying principles and measuring progress in, 221–24
effort required by, 216–17
instrumental vs. intrinsic, 58–59
maintaining knowledge gained through, 225–26
mastery of skills gained through, 227–28
relearning knowledge gained through, 227
research for, 217–19
reviewing results of, 224–25
scheduling time for, 219–21
work ethic of, x, 46
UltraSpeaking, 45
uncertainty, experimentation and, 213–15
understanding:
illusion of, 187–88, 190–91, 192
proving as path to, 186–88
Unschooled Mind, The (Gardner), 95
van Gogh, Vincent, 197–98, 200–203, 204–5, 206
video games, 12–15
Vitruvian Studio, 171
Watson, John, 233
Willingham, Daniel, 153
Winston, Diana, 83
Woodworth, Robert, 95–96
work, technology and, 28–29
work ethic, 46
World Championship of Public Speaking, 43–45, 104
World Chess Championship, 233–34
World Scrabble Championships, 153, 156
Woźniak, Piotr, 11
Yang, C. N., 186, 187
“Year Without English, The,” ix, 18–19, 263–65
Zenger, John H., 95
About the Author
Scott H. Young is a writer who undertakes interesting self-education projects, such as attempting to learn MIT’s four-year computer science curriculum in twelve months and learning four languages in one year. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
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Copyright
ultralearning. Copyright © 2019 by ScottHYoung.com Services Ltd. Foreword copyright © 2019 by James Clear. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
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Illustrations in Chapter I courtesy of the author
Illustrations in Chapter XI © Rebecca Lawson
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Digital Edition AUGUST 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-285274-8
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-285268-7
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* Credit for this quote has been given to a handful of people over the years, but I believe the earliest source is from 1882 when a student named Benjamin Brewster wrote in the Yale Literature Magazine, “I heard no more, for I was lost in self-reproach that I had been the victim of ‘vulgar error.’ But afterwards, a kind of haunting doubt came over me. What does his lucid explanation amount to but this, that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is?”
* Paul Graham, “How to Be an Expert in a Changing World,” December 2014, http://www.paulgraham.com/ecw.html?viewfullsite=1.
* Technically, the term ultralearning was first used by Cal Newport, in his headline to an article I wrote for his website about my recently completed MIT Challenge, which he titled “Mastering Linear Algebra in 10 Days: Astounding Experiments in Ultra-Learning.”
* The language of the speaker, it turned out, was a dialect of Hmong, spoken in parts of China, Vietnam, and Laos.
* For our purposes, the terms metalinguistic awareness and metalearning are interchangeable. The literature is replete with meta-terms (metaknowledge, metacognition, metamemory, meta-metacognition, etc.) that have related usages.
* Calls on the phone might also avoid unwanted side effects of face-to-face meetings. Women who have tried this method have told me that occasionally their interviewee misinterpret their desire for learning advice as a date.
* This time management method comes from an Italian manage
ment consultant, Francesco Cirillo. It is so named because pomodoro is Italian for “tomato,” and the timer he used was shaped like a tomato.
* Directness, as I’m writing about here, is closely related to the concept of transfer-appropriate processing, from psychological literature.
* In fairness to Duolingo, there are ways of using the app to get more direct forms of practice, but these tend to come only from repeatedly practicing the same lessons on the mobile version of the app.
* Modal logic is an extension of propositional logic, allowing you to express ideas such as “should,” “usually,” or “possibly.”
* It should be noted that not all researchers agree with the chunking model. K. Anders Ericsson, the psychologist behind deliberate practice, prefers an alternative model called “Long-Term Working Memory.” The differences are largely technical, and both models point to the idea of expertise being gained through extensive context-specific practice.
* Calling this the Feynman Technique was possibly unwise. It’s unclear if Feynman ever used this exact method, so I may have inadvertently given the technique an illustrious history it doesn’t possess. In addition, one of Feynman’s great contributions to physics was in the form of “Feynman Diagrams.” So, the Feynman Technique can lead to diagrams, although not necessarily Feynman Diagrams!
* This book, Raise a Genius!, originally appeared under the title Neveli zsenit! I’m indebted to the blogger Scott Alexander and his readers for sourcing a translation in English.
