Keywords:: PermanentNote makePublic shared
Reference:: R: Peak by Andres Ericsson
You can say you learned something only if you can apply what you have learned. By apply I mean to translate the new information into creation—the creation of new ideas (thinking), new skills (acting), or new art (feeling).
However, most of us don't learn anything from the books we read. How many times have you read something and have not been able to explain in your own words two or three main concepts from the book? If you can't do that, creation is impossible because you have no material to create from.
Why is that? Why do we almost never learn anything from books?
It's because we didn't evolve to learn from passive sources of knowledge like books/seminars/courses/articles/podcasts/etc. We evolved to learn from doing.
Think about it, the mentioned mediums of knowledge are around for only couple of centuries, some for a couple of years, which is a second in our 150,000 year long evolutionary history as a species.
How did we learn then if there were no books, no articles, no lectures, and so on?
We observed the ones with the skill and knowledge we wanted to posses and tried to replicate it. There was no other way around it, there weren't any other sources of knowledge than the ones who possessed it and those who saw them—we didn't record shit.
The same is true today. Ask a programmer how they learned to code and almost certainly you'll hear that they learned almost everything from writing code (i.e., action)—not from reading about it. The same will be true for physicians, marketers, investors, and so on—they'll tell you that they learned most from practice—not from reading books (books were but mean to practice).
So, if you want to learn—i.e., be able to create—from books, you need to find ways to apply the knowledge.
From that perspective, learning is both the means and the end. You learn to create and by creating you learn. That's one of the most virtuous cycles available.
But when books don't compel action, how do you make the "jump" from book to creation?
As said in the beginning, to create you need to at least be able to express the book's ideas in your own words —and writing is the best way to achieve that. Writing gives ideas clarity and tangibility (especially if you combine it with first principles thinking or the Feynman technique). Clarity because to be able to write about something you must explain it in your own words, which requires connecting it to what you already know. Tangibility because when you put things on paper (or monitor screen) you can finally see your thoughts. This lays the foundation to start putting knowledge into action
Next, you need to translate the book's insights into action. Ask yourself, how can you implement the ideas from the book in your life? A great way is to follow a process that lays down the specific steps to implement the knowledge. Project: Processized
Relevant notes (PN: )
P: Get a hold of hard subjects before implementing (Processized): what do do if the subject is to complicated
PN: Writing is the best facilitator for thinking: Writing is an activity that helps internalize new concepts.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: doing strips books of their misconceptions.
P: Errors are fundamental to learning: doing almost always results in errors and mistakes which trigger neuroplasticity.
P: Don't assume – test: putting theories into action helps us avoid validate if the knowledge is true or not
For the same reason most effective learning comes from doing, most effective teaching comes from showing.
This means that you have to find other ways of learning. This comes down to figuring out to learn by yourself. And learning from doing is one of the most effective methods of learning. P: Most effective learning comes from doing | Processized