Learn Like a Pro - By Tan Yew Wei

8/8/2019 Learn Like a Pro - By Tan Yew Wei

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You know how sometimes we put so much effort into learning something new,

and yet get NO results...

Share Freely Credit Tan Yew Wei yewguitar.com & yewhealth.com Page 1 of 30


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LEARN LIKE A PRO

By Tan Yew Wei

....what I'm going to tell you in this 30 page guide purely about learning, is how

to embrace certain methods and mindsets that will allow ANYONE to improve

their mastery of any knowledge or skill set.

What makes me a Professional in Learning? Well, Everyone is! But only to theextent of your own learning.

As a result, you will see examples that may not pertain to you, and will need to

adjust accordingly.

It is merely a guide, offering some suggestions. The decision is on you to follow

and implement the suggestions in this guide. Let's get started!



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WHAT THIS BOOK CONTAINSIn this guide, I will cover:

The Problem in Learning: Time invested vs Measured Outcome

The 2 Difcult Decisions Everyone must make: Admitting You can do Better and

Experimenting with Yourself

The 2 Principles of Experimentation:

Quantifying/Qualifying Progress

Run Multiple Experiments, Throw Away what's broken but give things time

to work

The 2 Principles of Optimized Learning

Learning in Your Most Optimal State

Exploiting the Subconscious Mind

Retrieving & Using the Right Resources

Learning Broadly from First Principles

End Notes + DO IT NOW

All in 30 pages...(including this page and those before it)



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THE PROBLEM

For many people, learning is like facing a brick wall. It's too high anobstacle to climb, and too solid to break through.

Or perhaps it is a steep slope, leaving you wondering how to climb

and not knowing what to expect. Other times, it is a slope complete

with spiked pit and amethrower.

We are faced with 4 options:

Give up

Just Try Harder using thesame methods

Consult a Teacher

Use New Methods

You're not going to just give up, and trying harder just hurts too much. Let's

try the other two options. I Personally love a good teacher, and will vouch for

the effectiveness of having one.



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There is one problem though: People learn differently.Some people are visual learners, others are auditory (hearing) or even

kinesthetic (touch). A good example is with piano playing. Some players 'feel'

the keys, others can read off a score very well. Yet others 'hear' the music in

their heads before playing it. More often than not we use all our senses, but are

biased towards 1 or 2.

However, most teachers teach based upon 1 or 2 senses, and these may not

be those which you strongly grasp. Hence, sub-optimal learning is the result.

There are 3 take home points:1. Good Teachers are those who can teach in a way congruent with the way their

student interacts with the world

2. You cannot count on a teacher who is good at teaching one type of student

being always good at teaching another3. You are hence your own best teacher, especially since at the end of it all, you

are the one who needs to make sense of the knowledge/skill



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MY JOB, YOUR JOB

My job is to get you to DECIDE. To decide to do two very difcult things.

The rst thing is to decide to change the way you learn.

The second thing is to decide to invest the time to try different things, to

experiment, and nd out what works best for you.

To do the above isn't hard work. It takes less than a second to actually make

the decision.

It is difcult, because it means forsaking something that worked for us in the

past, that isn't working now. T

o break the comfort of falling back on old

strategies and trying something new, something that won't guarantee results,

but has the possibility of rewarding generously, is difcult work.

If you think you can commit to those 2 decisions, read on...



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THE THINGS THAT YOU WILL NEED

Something which you want to get better at

A regular time period which you can invest into it

The discipline to follow through with your efforts and to work hard

The willingness to keep a log of your activities this can be paper, notebook, or

a even a text le on your computer. The purpose is to have a feedback

mechanism for you to look back upon and adjust your future actions based on

the knowledge of your past

The willingness to act upon that feedback

Now that everything is in check, let's ofcially begin.



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THIS IS BROKEN!

We all know who's to blame for thecurrent economic slump.....and are quick

to point ngers

We all know that calling for mom isn't

going to get the ower pot xed....and

instead we pity the meek little girl

But something is broken and needs xing. Making excuses

isn't going to x things.

So Here's the Take Home Message:

If you are not getting the results you want from your efforts in an endeavor,

admit that it is your sole responsibility, and take action to change, starting

from the process.



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EXPERIMENT

And that's where we need to experiment...

The fundamental question we need to answer is: What needs to be xed and

how do we go about xing it?

Very often, we don't know what needs to be xed and thus cannot say how to

x it.

---We may know that we lack the motivation to study, and don't know why, but cansense the dip in energy before it comes.

We may know that our golf swing is wrong, we're not sure why, but we can 'feel' theawkward follow-through.

We may know that our guitar technique lacks synchronicity, we don't know why, butcan tell the awkwardness in the finger positioning.



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EXPERIMENT

But you know yourself. You know how you think and feel, and should use thatto your advantage.

You know that after lunch you feel sluggish and don't feel like studying, but can

more easily muster the willpower just before meals...

You know that you worry too much about the follow-through, so you focus on

the ground, visualize, and not worry too much about the stroke at all...

You know that your ngers seem stiff when fretting the guitar. Your right hand

picking speed is ne, but the left hand can't seem to catch up, you then try

curling your ngers more and trying again...

The one thing all these have in common, is that the learner tries out multiple

approaches to the subject, based upon prior knowledge of ones capabilities and

nuances in learning, to further progress until feedback becomes negative.



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PRINCIPLES OF EXPERIMENTATION

Any Experiment Has:

An Aim

The Purpose of the entire experiment.

A Hypothesis

The results you expect to achieve from the experiment

Variables + Results

The tweaks to make and the consequences that result

Evaluation + Discussion of Results

What do the results tell you? Was it a success? How could it be better?



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SAMPLE EXPERIMENT PLANNING TEMPLATE

AIM: To score better in math (insert any task/skill/endeavor)

HYPOTHESIS: By increasing math practice to 2 hours a session, and practicing

every other day from 5am-7am, it will be possible to increase math test grades

from a B to an A+ (Based upon self-assessment of your habits, energy levels,

personality, etc)

VARIABLES: Time of day, length of session, time between sessions (or any

other thing you want to test)



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Play with variables. However, one Principle has always seemed to work:

Search for the extremes...

Try studying in the morning...then at

night

Try cramming your work...then try a

relaxed schedule

Try 20 minute work sessions...then try

4 hour sessions

Before you nally settle on a happy medium...



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MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS

From These principles, 2 Actions Should be Taken....

The rst and most crucial step, Is to measure your progress.

An experiment will always have an responding variable, and the onus is on you

to Quantify or Qualify it.

The Fundamental Question is: Have I gotten better? If so, how did this

practically manifest itself?



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QUANTIFYING VS QUALIFYING

Progress in some skills is inherently hard to measure with others being easy.

For example, if you're lifting weights, progress is measured by lifting 105kg

when previously you could lift only 100kg. Similarly, an increase in Math scores

should tell you that you're improving (assuming the tests are pretty fair) These

skills can be QUANTIFIED, and progress tracking is straightforward.On the opposite spectrum, playing a piano piece has no specic unit ofmeasure, especially when trying to bring a piece from 'great' to 'outstanding'.

In many art forms, there isthat special something which top artists possess.Assessment is a hassle.

In these cases, the best method to track progress is to record your

performances (video, audio or other) and then review them. Ideally, show them

to an experienced artist in your eld. Very often, we don't see our mistakes,

especially because there's a mental 'performance' going on in our own head.



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BE PATIENT

Though progress in some skills is easy to quantify, wecan't rush progress.

Also realize that progress is often not linear.You may seesudden bursts of improvement, while at times progress

simply stagnates. The key is of course to track the overall

trend. You may experience weekly dips, but overall

progress should be measured on the time scale of months.

Different skills have different time scales when it comes to progress tracking.

Improvements in weightlifting may show up on the order of every fortnight,

while piano playing may only see noticeable progress after 1-2 months.

In any case, beyond the beginner stage, where rapid improvements are the

norm, the minimum period before progress shows up will be 2 WEEKS, not 2

DAYS. However, the best method by far is.....



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THE 30 DAY TRIAL

This isn't a new concept and has been around forawhile. However, it is one of the tried and tested

methodologies in almost any eld.

Three reasons to do a 30 day trial.

1. Things take time to work.

2. If something does work, it will be easy to follow up

with since after 30 days, you would have built up

some habits that are conducive to learning

3. The duration is long enough to know if something is working, and short enough

to discard it before bad habits form if it is not working

So set up an experiment, set the calendar for 30 days, and take it from there.



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RUN MULTIPLE EXPERIMENTS, FIX

WHAT'S BROKENDespite progress being slow, that's no reason for you

not to multitask.

I'm sure you have multiple skills that you want to

learn, and as such, each skill can warrant it's own

experiment.

The Great thing is that your experiments on one skill, say Learning German, can

tell you a lot about a related skill, say getting better at

From there, try to x what didn't go well. Look to the opposite side of the

spectrum and then feel your way through. This is not a precise science.

However, the law of averages and experience says that once you try enough

things (20 things, not 2 things), you should know where to go next.



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THE PRINCIPLES OF OPTIMISED

LEARNING

DEFINITION:

Optimized Learning is achieved when more learning takes place in a shorter

period of time as compared to before.

This leverages two factors:

- making use of subconscious learning- nding your best working state



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LEARNING 24 HOURS A DAY

This leverages the rst principle. Your conscious mind may not be able to workon many different things, but a part of your brain is constantly ticking, and thus

constantly rehearsing certain mental patterns.

The trick to leverage this is to give your brain consistent reminders. The great

thing is that this works for all types of skills.

You could carry a card around with your literature notes, taking a quick glanceevery hour, or visualize shooting free throws while on the bus home, or run

through piano scales on your desk during a boring class.

In any case, you want a trigger, one that can lead on to a complete mental

rehearsal of the skill at hand.



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THE SPACING EFFECT

However, cognitive skills, especially those related to the memorization of data,tend to benet from another side effect called the spacing effect.

What this basically means is that for a xed

period of practice, say 3 hours, splitting this 3

hours into 3 one hour sessions over 1 week is

going to lead to better retention of knowledge

than doing those 3 hours all at once.

For many, this can mean improving certain

skills like language prociency on very frequent

bouts of 20 minute practice sessions instead

of weekly lessons.

For more information, view my post on the spacing effect.

http://www.yewguitar.com/2009/08/14/the-spacing-effect-and-what-it-means-for-learning-any-cognitive-skill/http://www.yewguitar.com/2009/08/14/the-spacing-effect-and-what-it-means-for-learning-any-cognitive-skill/


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LEARNING WHEN YOU'RE LEARNING

However, our subconscious mind can also lead us astray. It wanders, and stops

us from focusing (and enjoying) the current task at hand.

I will emphasize the need to completely FOCUS for a period of time solely onthe subject of interest. This requires self discipline.

One method is to set a stopwatch for 15 minutes, and then for those 15minutes, you do nothing but the task at hand. Slowly increase this time to

however much you want. However, this is much easier when you are....



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LEARNING WHEN YOU LEARN BEST

Individual energy and motivationallevels vary. Even the most

energetic people have their peaks

and slumps.

In any event, the factors that affect

this arbitrary level of 'energy' are

many and diverse. Fortunately, theyare regular and periodic.

Hence, by constant observation and self-feedback, you should know when you

simply feel best and can learn/perform best. That isn't the difcult part.

What is difcult is to acknowledge these peaks and slumps, and consistently

perform during your peak times, and NOT try to do the same during your

slumps. So if you write best at 3am in the morning, write at 3am, not at 3pm!



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LEARNING THE RIGHT STUFF

Despite all the aforementioned techniques, there still is the issue of learningfrom the right body of knowledge.

In most cases, these principles apply:

Let other people make the mistakes for you. Start learning from consolidated bodies of knowledge. Participate in the relevant community. Learn from FIRST PRINCIPLES



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Some Questions that can follow are:

What is the nature of the skill I'm trying to learn? Is it a cognitive or

psychomotor skill or something else? What is the impact of this on the timeframe necessary for tangible progress to be observed?

Will a personal coach/mentor be necessary? Will one accelerate the learning to

a great degree to be worth the cost/compromise/time?

What are the barriers to learning this skill? What are the necessary costs?

How steep is the learning curve? What pre-requisite knowledge is required?

What specic areas need to be grasped to progress rapidly?

Are the resources available? Internet texts? Books? Internet

lessons? Forums?

What in my current body of skill/knowledge can I tap on to

enhance this learning?

What methods have other people tried and failed, or tried and

worked? How applicable are these to me?



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LEARNING EVERYTHING

Play Music, Paint Pictures, Solve Equations, Find out Universal Physical Truths,

Write Programs, Choreograph Stage Plays, Play Golf, Join a Football Club, and

the list goes on....

Why do this though?



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LEARNING EVERYTHING

By experiencing the learning path of differentkinds of activities and skills, we learn to think

and interact with the world in various ways.

These experiences form overlaps in our brain,

and we can use complementaryconcepts (like

approaching a chemical reaction as a math

equation) to aid in our understanding of thesubject.

However, we should always learn from rst principles. If you are a guitarist,

never stop practicing those scales. With chemistry, learn to think in terms of

the periodic table.

All abilities should branch out from the fundamental concepts of the skill. Thesefundamentals should be rigorously practiced regardless of skill level.



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ENDNOTES FOR THE NATURALLY

OPTIMISTICThink of the great new things that you will learn.

Think ofthe new creative insights you will gain.

Think of the time you will save that can be used for other pursuits.

Think ofthe positive aura you give to those around you, motivating themto do better as well.

Think of the new business opportunities now available to you with yournew skills

Think ofhow you could potentially CHANGETHEWORLD



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ENDNOTES FOR THE NATURALLY

CYNICALThink ofthe stuff you now don't need to worry about.

Think ofthe task you can clear without having to put in extra creativeeffort

Think ofthe extra time you didn't have to waste.

Think ofthe fact that you now don't have to look bad in front of yourpeers.

Think ofthe lagging competition and how easy it is to race ahead of them.

Think ofhow safe you will be.

Just keep thinking...



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You don't have to apply every single one of these principles (though I hope youdo), but can certainly benefit from applying some...

But when In Doubt...

SHOUT this phrase at yourselfuntil you get so fed up with yourself that youdecide to TAKE ACTION in your learning right away:


Learn Like a Pro - By Tan Yew Wei

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