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Apply the Ten Principles of Skill Acquisition
10 Clear principles to improve the efficiency of your skill acquisition:
- Choose a lovable project
- Focus your energy on one skill at a time
- Define your target performance level
- Deconstruct the skill into sub skills
- Obtain critical tools
- Eliminate barriers to practice
- Make dedicated time for practice
- Create fast feedback loops
- Practice by the clock in short bursts
- Emphasize quantity and speed.
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Introduction
- The First 20 Hours is about rapid skill acquisition: picking up new skills as quickly as possible. You can go from knowing nothing to performing well in a very short period.
- It could take 20 hours or less.
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Prioritize Quantity & Speed By Practicing in Short Bursts
- Practice in brief bursts. Shorten your working periods so you can avoid working on difficult or tedious activities for extended periods. Such activities can be draining and often lead to inefficiency.
- When you first start learning th...
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Use Smaller Steps & Acquire The Tools You Need
- As well as choosing your skill level, you also have to use smaller steps. Break your chosen skills down into bite-sized pieces that you can tackle one by one. You don't attempt to down an entire meal in one bite, and you shouldn't try to learn a skill in one swing.
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"Pick one, and only one, new skill you wish to acquire. Put all of your spare focus and energy into acquiring that skill and place other skills on temporary hold."
JOSH KAUFMAN
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"The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears"
JOSH KAUFMAN
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Let's run through some top tips to help you with your learning process:
- Focus on one skill at a time
- Get the right tools for the job
- Remove distractions from your environment and address the fears
- Prioritize quantity and speed over quality ...
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"Skill is the result of deliberate consistent practice, and in early-stage practice, quantity and speed trump absolute quality. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you'll acquire the skill"
JOSH KAUFMAN
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Lean Your Chosen Skill by Focusing Your Energy
- There are probably many skills you'd like to acquire. But the first step of rapid skill acquisition is choosing to focus on one. Start by making a list of all the skills you're interested in, and pick the one most exciting to you right now. This excitement will help ...
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"Skill acquisition requires practicing the skill in question. It requires significant periods of sustained, focused concentration. It requires creativity, flexibility and the freedom to set your own standard of success.
JOSH KAUFMAN
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Choose your Skill
- Deciding how proficient you want to become at your chosen skill is the third principle in rapid skill acquisition. This is called your "Target Performance Level". It's important because if you can envision the end goal, it'll be easier to get there. Decide what level...
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Limit Distractions
- When learning a skill, there will always be barriers that interfere with your learning process. So, consider any emotional roadblocks that may stand in your path, like fear or self-doubt. Remove any distractions, like a phone that might ring. Create a distraction les...
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"If you want to get good at anything where real life performance matters, you have to practice that skill in context. Study by itself, is never enough."
JOSH KAUFMAN
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Use Rapid Skill Acquisition to Learn Within 20 Hours
- You probably have a skill you have always wanted to learn. May be it's playing the piano, doing well on the tennis court, or becoming conversational in French. It's never too late to learn your chosen skill. One of the most common regrets is not pursing give up befor...
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Give Yourself Time to Practice
- In today's world, people are busier than ever. So, if you want to learn a new skill, you need to make time to practice. Identify other activities in your life that you aren't fond of, and work to cut those out. Fill that time with practicing your new skill. Your goal...
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In Summary, to acquire a skill quickly
- Decide exactly what you want to be able to do, and to what level
- Deconstruct a skill into the smallest possible subskills
- Learn enough about each sub-skill to able to practice intelligently and self-c...
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Apply the 10 Major Principles of Effective Learning
- Practice in 20 minute bursts so that you can focus all your energy on your chosen learning task. These bursts should involve deliberate and consistent practices.
- The faster and more often you practice the quicker you'll acquire the s...
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The First 20 Hours focuses on the idea that you can become relatively good at anything within 20 hours.
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