How to Learn So Fast People Assume You're Naturally Gifted — Transcript

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1. 0:00As a learning coach, there is one
2. 0:02strategy that I see only the best
3. 0:05learners use. In fact, it's so powerful
4. 0:07that if I see someone using this
5. 0:08strategy, I know that they're going to
6. 0:11become a very efficient learner. And if
7. 0:13someone is not using this,
8. 0:15>> [music]
9. 0:15>> there's almost no chance. And while I
10. 0:16don't think there's anything as a best
11. 0:19learning strategy for every single
12. 0:20context, if I could only teach one
13. 0:23strategy to use for the rest of your
14. 0:25life that allows you to learn faster and
15. 0:27outperform 99% of people you'll ever run
16. 0:30into, it would be this. And the good
17. 0:32thing is, it's very easy. I call this
18. 0:34the confusion compass. Let's say you're
19. 0:36learning something for the first time.
20. 0:38How do you know you're learning it well?
21. 0:39Well, normally, if you're learning
22. 0:41something well and you're good at
23. 0:42learning, then [music] it feels simple.
24. 0:45You understand it, it feels manageable,
25. 0:48it makes sense in your head, you're not
26. 0:50filled with confusion. Whereas, if
27. 0:52you're not learning something very well,
28. 0:53[music]
29. 0:54then you're always confused and it feels
30. 0:56overwhelming. Right? Wrong. [music]
31. 0:59Learning should be confusing. But,
32. 1:02confusion doesn't feel good. And so,
33. 1:05here's what happens. Anytime we learn
34. 1:07any type of new information, whether
35. 1:08that's upskilling for work, whether
36. 1:10that's studying for an exam, anytime new
37. 1:12knowledge comes [music] in, your brain
38. 1:13is just trying to figure out, what does
39. 1:15this mean? What do I do with this? From
40. 1:18your brain's perspective, it's just
41. 1:20data. It is just data coming in, but it
42. 1:23doesn't know where to put that data. And
43. 1:25your brain asking, what should I do with
44. 1:29this? Where do I put it? Where do I
45. 1:31store it? How do I organize it? That
46. 1:33creates the feeling of confusion.
47. 1:37Confusion is the symptom of learning. If
48. 1:40you feel confusion, your brain is trying
49. 1:42to figure it out. If you don't feel
50. 1:43confusion, your brain is not figuring
51. 1:46anything out. And so, the analogy I give
52. 1:47is like a police detective trying to
53. 1:49solve a murder mystery. There's all
54. 1:51these clues that are up on the board,
55. 1:53the photo of the the car, uh the body of
56. 1:56the murder victim, and they're looking
57. 1:58at the spot, and they're trying to see
58. 1:59how the pieces all connect together.
59. 2:01They're trying to solve the mystery.
60. 2:03They're confused. They're thinking.
61. 2:04They're not sure what the answer is. And
62. 2:06in their brain, they're highly active.
63. 2:08They don't know how the dots connect,
64. 2:11but they're trying to connect them
65. 2:13anyway. And that is exactly how it
66. 2:15should feel when you're learning
67. 2:16something new. But the issue is, and
68. 2:18this is where most people waste hours,
69. 2:20days, months even, is that when they
70. 2:22feel this emotion of confusion, they
71. 2:26just leave it there. It stays
72. 2:28an emotion.
73. 2:30And we can't do anything with that. We
74. 2:31can't do anything with just feeling
75. 2:34confused. And so instead of just sitting
76. 2:36there feeling confused, feeling
77. 2:38overwhelmed for hours, days, months,
78. 2:41all we're going to do is use this
79. 2:42confusion compass technique to turn this
80. 2:45into a targeted learning strategy. So,
81. 2:48once we feel this emotion of confusion,
82. 2:50all you're going to do is ask yourself
83. 2:52questions.
84. 2:54These are the questions that, if you had
85. 2:56the answers to, you think it would help
86. 2:59you be less confused. Write those
87. 3:02questions down. Make a list, and then
88. 3:04just go and answer them. That is, as
89. 3:07simple as it sounds, an entire learning
90. 3:09strategy, and it is insanely effective.
91. 3:12So, give you some examples. Let's say
92. 3:13I'm a software developer, and a new
93. 3:15library has come out that I might be
94. 3:17using at work. I open up the
95. 3:18documentation, I read through the
96. 3:20website, and as I'm reading, I feel like
97. 3:22my eyes are glazing over. I'm getting
98. 3:25bored. I'm potentially falling asleep.
99. 3:27I'm not feeling any confusion
100. 3:29whatsoever. That's your first red flag.
101. 3:31That means that you're not trying to
102. 3:34connect the dots. So, if you're not
103. 3:36feeling any confusion, we need to engage
104. 3:38in the process that triggers that
105. 3:40confusion. And one of the easiest types
106. 3:42of questions that you can ask yourself
107. 3:43to trigger that confusion is to put that
108. 3:46learning in the context of the reason
109. 3:48you're learning it. So, So learning
110. 3:50about this new software library because
111. 3:51you're trying to apply it at a project,
112. 3:53ask yourself, how does this help me with
113. 3:56the work that I'm doing? What are the
114. 3:58implications on my work? And once you
115. 4:00start thinking about those implications,
116. 4:02naturally, you start feeling a little
117. 4:04bit more confused because you're looking
118. 4:06at this library and you're realizing
119. 4:08it's very similar to another library
120. 4:10that you're using. It's saying that
121. 4:11there's all these benefits, but you're
122. 4:13not really sure why it's so much better
123. 4:15than all the other alternatives. You're
124. 4:16meant to insert it as part of your
125. 4:18workflow, but you're not really sure how
126. 4:20it would fit into your workflow. You're
127. 4:22confused about how you're meant to work
128. 4:24with this new knowledge, work with this
129. 4:25new library. So you turn that confusion,
130. 4:28which is great now that you feel, into
131. 4:31questions. How does this library compare
132. 4:34to this library? What are the benefits
133. 4:36of it? How am I meant to implement this?
134. 4:39What are the challenges to implementing
135. 4:41it? How long is it going to take? How
136. 4:42much is it going to cost? What
137. 4:44complexity is there? Maybe the reason
138. 4:45you're confused is that you can't really
139. 4:47visualize it. So the question you would
140. 4:49ask is, what are some use cases or
141. 4:51examples that show how it has been
142. 4:53implemented? This is the confusion
143. 4:55compass technique. And now by creating a
144. 4:57clean list of questions, there are two
145. 5:00benefits. First of all, in turning that
146. 5:02confusion into questions, you're forcing
147. 5:05yourself to examine the gaps in your
148. 5:06knowledge. That alone helps your brain
149. 5:09focus in and learn more efficiently.
150. 5:11Number two, you now have a targeted list
151. 5:14of questions that if you were to answer,
152. 5:16help you be less confused. And this
153. 5:18process repeats. As you answer those
154. 5:20questions, you may be confused by the
155. 5:22answers that you find and those trigger
156. 5:24even further questions. And it is simply
157. 5:26this process of being confused, asking
158. 5:30questions, and answering those questions
159. 5:32that creates the cycle of learning. And
160. 5:35the faster you're able to engage in that
161. 5:36cycle, the faster you can learn. The
162. 5:38major issue is not that people don't
163. 5:41understand what they're reading or
164. 5:42consuming. It's not that it takes them
165. 5:44so long to find the answer. It's that
166. 5:46they don't even know what answers they
167. 5:49need. They say generally confused and
168. 5:52assume that if I just keep reading
169. 5:55through this documentation, if I just
170. 5:56spend another couple hours on it, I will
171. 5:59eventually figure it out. But if you do
172. 6:01that, you just become more overwhelmed.
173. 6:03Because mentally, what's going on is
174. 6:06that when you ask questions, you start
175. 6:09connecting things together in a way that
176. 6:11makes sense. But if you're not asking
177. 6:13these targeted questions, and you're
178. 6:15just reading more hoping that it's going
179. 6:17to give you enlightenment, all you're
180. 6:19doing is adding more and more data. All
181. 6:24you're doing is creating more points
182. 6:26that are
183. 6:28disconnected. There are more things to
184. 6:29be confused about. And when this
185. 6:31happens, is when you go from just merely
186. 6:33feeling confused to now feeling properly
187. 6:37overwhelmed. And although I've given you
188. 6:38an example with software, this works for
189. 6:40any body of knowledge, cuz it's just how
190. 6:42the human brain works. I use a strategy
191. 6:44for when I'm learning about business,
192. 6:45marketing, content creation, uh
193. 6:48medicine, AI, learning science, and
194. 6:51almost every effective learning strategy
195. 6:53that exists uses this cycle in some way.
196. 6:56And as a learning coach who has coached
197. 6:58thousands of people for almost 15 years,
198. 7:01I can tell that if someone is not able
199. 7:04to embrace confusion, trigger confusion,
200. 7:08and turn that confusion into questions,
201. 7:10there's not really any point teaching
202. 7:12them any other learning strategies,
203. 7:13because this is the thing that is going
204. 7:15to block them. Now, the confusion
205. 7:17compass is an example of a technique
206. 7:19that is incredibly simple to perform,
207. 7:21but it gives you a lot of bang for buck.
208. 7:23And that's really what learning
209. 7:24efficiency is about. It's not about
210. 7:26having uh an entire suite of connected
211. 7:29apps that are perfectly tuned to exactly
212. 7:31what you need on every single day. It's
213. 7:33about having simple strategies that just
214. 7:36work. And if you want to learn some more
215. 7:39simple strategies that just work, a
216. 7:41great place to start would be my free
217. 7:43weekly newsletter. These are fairly
218. 7:45short emails that I write up myself, 3
219. 7:47to 5 minutes each with a practical
220. 7:48takeaway at the bottom. Emailed to you
221. 7:50for free every week. They're the things
222. 7:52that took me 15 years of trial and error
223. 7:55to learn, which I want you to learn in 5
224. 7:58minutes. So, if you're interested and
225. 7:59you want to learn more, I'll leave a
226. 8:00link in the description below for you to
227. 8:01sign up. You can unsubscribe at any time
228. 8:03if you don't like it. If you're
229. 8:04interested in what I think is maybe the
230. 8:07second best learning strategy that you
231. 8:10can learn after the Confusing Compasses,
232. 8:12then check out this video here where I
233. 8:14walk through my system for thinking on
234. 8:16paper, one of the most life-changing
235. 8:18skills that you can learn. Guys, thanks
236. 8:20so much for watching, and I'll see you
237. 8:21next time.