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How To Learn Complex Skills So Fast It Feels ILLEGAL — Transcript

by Justin Sung · 3,066 words · 443 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00there are four stages of learning any
0:02complex skill that you need to know and
0:04there are four corresponding actions
0:07that you have to take to be able to
0:09learn that skill effectively when we do
0:12the right actions for the right stage
0:14we're able to progress through that
0:16stage very quickly this is what fast
0:19trcks our ability to learn skills
0:21unfortunately most people are doing
0:23actions at stage three when they're only
0:25at stage two and when there's this
0:27misalignment it creates Wast of time
0:31frustration stress and ultimately you
0:33will not be able to master pretty much
0:35any complex skill this is where the rail
0:39framework comes in to make sure that we
0:41are aligned and mastering new skills as
0:44effectively as possible by using this
0:45framework my ability to coach students
0:48on how to study and learn more
0:49effectively has become about five or six
0:53times faster than before what used to
0:55take me 2 years to train now only takes
0:59me two or 3 months and I've personally
1:02used this framework to learn pretty much
1:05every new skill I've picked up over the
1:07last 10 years from studying to public
1:10speaking dancing archery photography
1:13even using nunchucks in fact actually
1:16let me show you I I don't break anything
1:18uh as I do this let's give it a
1:22[Music]
1:23go literally just hit my light
1:33nothing destroyed uh and yes FYI that is
1:36a skill that serves absolutely no
1:38purpose in my life but the best part is
1:40that this framework is actually really
1:44really easy to use by the end of this
1:45video you'll learn how to use rail to
1:48learn any new complex skill but first we
1:51actually have to understand the
1:52scientific principle behind why some
1:55skills are even harder to learn than
1:58other skills in the first place so when
2:00I was 15 I watched this video on how to
2:02tie
2:04shoelaces really
2:06quickly and I practiced this skill for
2:10like 5 minutes and I learned how to do
2:12it but learning to tie a shoelace is
2:15very different from learning to play an
2:17instrument or learning to code or most
2:19other complex skills and one of the
2:22things that makes a complex skill
2:24complex is this thing called the latent
2:28learning period latent learning was
2:30first described in the 1930s by this
2:32American psychologist called Edward
2:34Tolman and it basically talks about when
2:36there is no immediate reinforcement
2:39while you are learning the skill for
2:41example if I'm learning something simple
2:42like tying my shoelaces then there's no
2:44real latent learning period I'm getting
2:46immediate feedback on whether the shoes
2:48were tied up well or not but as soon as
2:50we enter into any even moderately
2:53complex skill the latent learning period
2:55stretches out much longer for example if
2:57you're learn to play chess you might
2:58spend lots of time weeks even just
3:01learning the rules and how to move which
3:03piece and figuring out the strategy but
3:06until you really play a game and get
3:08some real experience you're not going to
3:10know where your mistakes are and how to
3:12actually improve and so there's a long
3:14time between the learning and then the
3:17getting feedback on the learning that's
3:19the latent learning period and for
3:21skills like learning how to study you
3:23might not get feedback on how good your
3:26new study technique is for weeks or
3:28months until actually get an exam result
3:31and during that time you might have done
3:34hundreds of other things that all affect
3:36the outcome it's pretty much impossible
3:39to know what was the reason you got the
3:41result that you did and therefore what
3:43you need to change to improve and every
3:46skill especially complex skills take
3:48trial and error and experimentation to
3:51improve but we waste a lot of time
3:55triing things and making errors over and
3:58over again sort of aimlessly but if we
4:01can answer just one question it can
4:04massively increase our ability to learn
4:07any complex skill and that question is
4:11am I moving in the right direction
4:14because even if we don't know the
4:16fastest most direct line to learn a
4:19skill if we have guidelines that tell us
4:21whenever we're potentially deviating off
4:24track then we know that our experiments
4:26and our efforts are going to eventually
4:28get us toward towards the goal rather
4:30than just wandering around aimlessly for
4:33years and we can answer this question of
4:36am I moving in the right direction with
4:38the rail framework here's how it works
4:40in the first stage of learning any
4:43complex skill we're pretty clueless we
4:46have no idea where to start we don't
4:48know how to think about it we don't even
4:49know what questions to ask because we
4:51don't know enough to even ask questions
4:53and this is a huge problem because it
4:55means we don't know where to put our
4:57effort and attention because I'm a
4:58learning coach I'm going to use learning
5:00to learn as an example most people have
5:02no idea really where to start increasing
5:05their learning efficiency and they come
5:06in with a bunch of misconceptions about
5:08learning like just thinking that more
5:10hours studying is the key to success and
5:12even in my training program that I can
5:14study where people are actually trying
5:16to upgrade their studying techniques it
5:18is not uncommon for me to see someone
5:21skip a technique because they don't
5:23think it's important or relevant for
5:24them when actually it might be literally
5:28the most important thing that they could
5:31possibly be working on we don't know
5:33what we don't know and trying to improve
5:36anything without knowing where to direct
5:39our effort is the biggest time waste of
5:42all but this is the first stage of
5:44learning a new skill it is the r of rail
5:47and it stands for
5:50relevance because improving at this
5:53stage means understanding what is
5:56relevant for you and what is worth
5:58caring about so how do you know you're
5:59at the relevance stage number one you'll
6:01feel generally lost and confused about
6:04where to begin you either can't think of
6:07many things to work on or experiment
6:09with or there seem to be so many things
6:13to work on and experiment with that it's
6:15overwhelming AKA we don't know what to
6:17care about yet you'll know you're making
6:19progress through this relevance stage
6:22when you start realizing more variables
6:24to think and care about and things that
6:27seemed irrelevant before now become
6:30relevant for learning to learn these
6:32variables might be things like
6:34understanding what creates Active
6:36Learning or being able to assess your
6:38cognitive load or learning about
6:40different orders of learning or
6:42understanding how encoding affects
6:43retrieval so as you progress through the
6:45relevance stage you're not actually
6:47getting any better at the skill like you
6:50can't do it properly yet and you're
6:52certainly not getting any results for it
6:54but you are still progressing and that's
6:58the key so how do we make this progress
7:00well the actions that help you progress
7:02through the relevance stage are number
7:04one exploration and two challenging
7:07exploration means that we're spending
7:09time to understand the skill talk to
7:12people that are already good at it what
7:13do they say you should be thinking about
7:16and caring about get a diverse range of
7:18opinions spend some time to learn more
7:20about the theory what are the other
7:22variables that you should be thinking
7:24about challenging means that we're being
7:27open-minded and challenging our own
7:29beliefs or assumptions like I mentioned
7:31with learning to learn a lot of people
7:33think that a certain technique is what
7:35they need to get better but in reality
7:38what's really holding them back might be
7:40another variable that they haven't
7:42considered or don't think is very
7:43important like the way that they're
7:44practicing or how they're managing their
7:46time and the only way that we can really
7:48find out what matters is to be
7:50open-minded to the idea that what we
7:53think is important right now might not
7:57be correct now learning to learn is one
8:00of the most important skills that you
8:02can Master because it makes learning
8:04everything else in your life much easier
8:06however it is probably one of the most
8:08challenging skills to learn because it
8:10is an incredibly long latent learning
8:13period and seeing people trying to learn
8:15to learn and struggling and stressing
8:18because they don't know where to start
8:20is not only really sad but it's very
8:22frustrating for me because it is so much
8:26easier when you know what to care about
8:29so to help you with this I've created a
8:32free learning system health check quiz
8:35for you it's a free quiz that you can
8:37take that will evaluate your learning
8:39system and score you out of a 100 but
8:42more importantly you'll get a
8:43personalized report that will give you
8:44which components you're doing well on
8:46and then which parts that are holding
8:48you back from being a learning Master
8:50now for learning to learn this quiz
8:52should probably get you almost to the
8:55end of stage one of rail and it only
8:58takes like 10 minutes FYI it took me
9:02like 2 years to get to the end of stage
9:04one uh because I had no one to teach me
9:07and I was literally spending like
9:08thousands of hours reading research
9:10papers and thinking about the way that I
9:12learned for some people they never reach
9:15the end of stage one for their entire
9:17lives but you can now skip all that I've
9:18got the link to the quiz in the
9:20description below so anyway we're now at
9:21the end of stage one relevance we know
9:24what to care about we know what the
9:26variables are what now well this is the
9:29part in skill acquisition research which
9:31is called the plateau period it's often
9:34the part where most people give up in
9:36the second stage of learning a skill we
9:38are trying to perform the skill but we
9:41are consistently failing sometimes we
9:43know why we failed and sometimes we
9:45don't we continuously make mistakes and
9:47we don't seem to be making any clear
9:49progress this is why it's called the
9:50plateau period it's frustrating and
9:52demotivating and so this is when a lot
9:55of people will give up but not if you
9:59know the framework because the second
10:00stage is the awareness
10:03stage as in we're becoming more aware of
10:07our mistakes and the key sign that
10:09you're in this stage is that you are
10:11trying and making mistakes hopefully
10:14lots of mistakes think of it like a
10:16checklist let's say to learn a skill
10:18correctly you need to make a 100
10:21mistakes in order to finally be able to
10:23do it correctly for the first time in
10:25that case progress is about making as
10:28many of those mistakes as quickly as
10:31possible so making mistakes doesn't feel
10:33good but it is helpful and necessary
10:37once you know how to overcome the
10:39mistakes doing it correctly happens by
10:42default a lot of people go through my
10:44program hold off on practicing new
10:46techniques because they're afraid of
10:48making mistakes and getting it wrong
10:50they can spend days or even weeks just
10:53thinking about it and asking questions
10:55to try to avoid every possible mistake
10:57they can think of and then by the time
10:58it comes to give it a go the head is so
11:01full of things to try to avoid that they
11:03become overwhelmed and paralyzed on the
11:06other hand people who recognize the
11:08value of learning from mistakes can give
11:10things a go and pick up a new skill
11:12within days so as you progress through
11:14the awareness stage again you're still
11:17not doing it correctly yet and you're
11:19still not seeing good results but you
11:22are progressing by becoming more aware
11:24of the mistakes you tend to make so how
11:26can you progress through the awareness
11:28stage more quickly the two actions here
11:30are experimentation and reflection
11:32experimentation is about trying to
11:35perform the skill correctly and probably
11:37making mistakes reflection is about
11:38thinking what those mistakes were and
11:41why you made them we can then try a new
11:43experiment based on that reflection to
11:45try to overcome that mistake if it was a
11:47repeated mistake that you already knew
11:49about you think well what am I missing
11:52what's the variable that I haven't
11:54considered and if you don't even know
11:55what your mistake was in the first place
11:57you need to get feedback from someone
11:59who who does know and everyone needs
12:01feedback even the highest performing
12:03athletes in the world have coaches to
12:05give them feedback like I said we don't
12:07know what we don't know awareness is
12:09about knowing more things so that we can
12:11overcome them and it's hard to gain
12:13awareness when you're going through it
12:14alone so as you move through this second
12:17stage of awareness we are making less
12:20and less mistakes and at a certain point
12:22there are no more mistakes we're making
12:25this is the sign that we're nearing the
12:26end of stage two now you might think at
12:29this point we're done we've learned the
12:31skill we're not making any mistakes time
12:33to move on with my life but
12:34unfortunately not we're now only
12:37entering into stage three of four and
12:40stage three is another point at which
12:42many people tend to give up now before
12:44we get into stage three it's important
12:46to know why rail even works and it's
12:50because it's derived from another widely
12:52studied model called the four stages of
12:55competence in this original model the
12:57stages are called un conscious
12:59incompetence conscious incompetence
13:01conscious competence and unconscious
13:04competence and I love this model and I
13:06even teach it in my program but the
13:08reason I'm teaching you rail is because
13:10the four stages of competence is very
13:12dense and there are a lot of nuances
13:14it's also a little abstract and it
13:16doesn't actually tell you what you need
13:17to do to progress through the stages the
13:20reason I developed rail is so that you'd
13:22have something that's a little more
13:24practical especially for stage three and
13:27that's because stage three can be even
13:29more demotivating than stage two if you
13:32don't have rail so at stage three we
13:34finally overcome our mistakes we've
13:37learned how to do the skill correctly
13:40however it takes a lot of effort we're
13:43not very consistent and it's pretty slow
13:46and that's because it's a brand new
13:48skill because it's brand new it's slower
13:51and takes more effort than our previous
13:53habits and how we used to do things and
13:54in the early part of stage three our
13:57consistency is so bad that out of 10
13:59attempts we might only get it correct
14:02two or three times which is why stage
14:04three is called
14:06iteration and you know you're in stage
14:08three when you've been able to perform
14:09the technique correctly at least one or
14:12two times and you're not discovering any
14:15new mistakes but you're struggling to
14:17overcome all of them every time you know
14:20you're progressing through stage three
14:22when with each cycle or iteration you
14:25feel that your consistency is improving
14:28and you're able to do the technique
14:30correctly a higher percentage of the
14:32time you're starting to feel that it's
14:34becoming easier to do it and it requires
14:37less effort and you're getting faster as
14:39well and it must be in that order if you
14:43try to go faster when you don't have the
14:45consistency and accuracy yet you're just
14:47going to be increasing your error rate
14:49this is a common reason for demotivation
14:51and why people might give up at this
14:53stage so to progress through this stage
14:55more quickly we want to take these two
14:57actions which is varied practice and
15:00adjust so varied practice isn't just
15:03performing the skill again and again
15:04it's actually about performing the skill
15:06in different levels of challenge
15:07different context and different
15:09conditions if you're learning a new
15:10study technique you want to apply it to
15:13lots of different subjects with
15:15different volumes of workload through
15:17different mediums and different
15:18difficulties it just means you're
15:20observing how your consistency changes
15:23in each of these different contexts and
15:25levels of difficulty adjusting involves
15:27fine-tuning your technique so that you
15:30can maintain your consistency even when
15:32the situation isn't optimal for example
15:35how do you adjust your technique for
15:36different subjects or for when you're
15:38tired or when you don't have as much
15:40time to study again I'm using study
15:41techniques as an example here but you
15:43can use this for literally any other
15:44skill and after enough iterations you'll
15:46notice that you're able to perform the
15:48skill with a high level of consistency
15:51with a low level of effort and you're
15:53able to do it very fast this means
15:55you've entered the final stage of rail
15:58and it's when when your new skill has
16:00become a new habit it's just as easy as
16:03any other habit and in fact it actually
16:04takes effort to do it differently at
16:07this stage the actions to take are not
16:08so much about improving the technique
16:10but about refining it to make it better
16:13if it needs to be and regularly using it
16:16because if you don't use it enough you
16:18will lose it this is a phenomenon called
16:21skill Decay and it can happen for any
16:23skill that's neglected and it causes us
16:25to slip down into the earlier stages of
16:28rail and because stage four is about
16:31keeping your skills for life it is
16:34called the lifelong stage so you can now
16:37use ra to figure out what stage you're
16:39in see whether the actions You' have
16:41been taking to learn a new complex skill
16:44have been aligned for the stage you're
16:46at and start taking the right action to
16:49progress you to the next stage more
16:50quickly and if you're wanting to get a
16:51head start on the rail framework for one
16:54of the most complex and important skills
16:56that you can ever learn AKA learning to
16:58learn then make sure to check out that
17:00free learning system health check quiz
17:03Linked In the description below as usual
17:05thank you for watching and I'll see you
17:06in the next one

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