[davidgrenier]

This is a zero-bullshit course. I completed it in about a week an a half (definitely not a lot of work) and it's drastically changed the way I look at learning and my perspective about the difficulty of earning new skills.

My pace on reading programming books for instance has gone down such that it takes about 2-3 times it would normally take to go through the material, however the difference is unmistakable with respect to how much I know the material. It took me 2-3 years of additional work experience to be at a comparable level in other topics.

[b_emery]

So you read through the books more slowly, practicing, and recalling the material? Can you elaborate on your process now?

[davidgrenier]

I work several subjects in parallel (three books currently). I go through each chapter twice. Once to understand the material then moving on to another book.

When I come back to the former book I go through the chapter again creating Anki cards for anything notable. The sheer amount of material I notice I had completely forgotten on the second reading is astounding.

I go through the Anki cards daily, in the morning I cover the material created from two of my books. In the evening I go through the third book (which I deem more valuable in a deep sense/abstract).

I have yet to have solid a strategy on chunk-building (as the course pushes you to do), however I can still see some bigger units emerge with time.

[jamestimmins]

Can you elaborate on why it's valuable to go through different books in parallel? My goal has always been to do one thing at a time, so the idea that the opposite if beneficial is interesting.

[davidgrenier]

The course emphasizes how memory works, you would think that to remember things you have to write the information well-enough in it so it sticks. But in reality, the information has been there the first time around the issue for the brain is finding the information like locating a product in a large warehouse.

It is the process of recall that makes things stick to memory as opposed to repeated memorization. Working on several subjects at a time spaces out sessions and prevents the illusion that you have access to the knowledge you worked for when in fact you don't.

[jamestimmins]

Very interesting. Thanks for the info. I honestly haven't given much thought to how much I recall; I figured that I remembered what I remembered and that was that. Perhaps that should receive more attention.

[poppingtonic]

These two blog posts by K. Eric Drexler explain why this is important. It's related to learning subjects you have no familiarity with.

[1] http://metamodern.com/2009/05/27/how-to-learn-about-everythi...

[2] http://metamodern.com/2009/05/17/how-to-understand-everythin...

[b_emery]

Thanks very much

[tchaffee]

Can confirm. I'm a fast learner, and this course made noticeable improvements in my learning speed and ability to memorize.

[maxwellfoley]

Based on that endorsement, I'm going to have to check it out for sure. Thanks!