The critical skill you never learned in school
The critical skill you never learned in school
Avthar's Weekly Wisdom #64 (09/26/2021)
Hi friends,
🔥 I’m Avthar, a South African technology entrepreneur and learning enthusiast based in New York City. This digital letter is where I share practical wisdom about self-mastery, entrepreneurship, health and happiness, all to help you live better.
My guarantee is that you’ll discover one thing that will help you change your life in every edition. As a reminder, you can find all previous editions of this newsletter in the archive. And you can find more of my writings at avthar.com.
Welcome to the 22 learners, thinkers and doers who’ve joined since last week’s edition! I’m grateful to have you here!
Here’s what I want to share with you this week:
My new essay on the critical skill you never learned in school
The power of being yourself
Why the carnivore, keto, paleo and macro diets work
The critical skill you never learned in school: Learning how to learn
We can all agree that our education system needs to be improved. But what would be the most impactful improvement that we could make? Adding classes on taxes and investing? Entrepreneurship? Public speaking?
To help all humans actualize their potential, I believe what’s needed is a shift away from emphasizing specific material and toward the process of learning, empowering people not just with knowledge of maths, economics or physics, but with the skill of learning how to learn and an understanding of how they learn best.
Today, I’m excited to share a new long form essay on that exact topic, a topic I’m absolutely obsessed with: Learning how to learn.
Read on to learn what “Learning how to learn” is, how it transformed my life and how it can do the same for you, no matter if you’re a student, working professional or entrepreneur…
➡️ The critical skill you never learned in school: Learning how to learn
Here’s an excerpt from the essay:
4.How can you learn how to learn?
Preparing for life-long learning and teaching yourself things can be scary. While the process might sound difficult, notice that you already do it when you learn how to play a new video game, learn how to use a new device or play a new new sport. The same principles can be translated into learning any skill.
Rather than prescribe the process of learning I’ve developed for myself, I want to leave you with a treasure chest of resources for you to use as you continue (or begin) your learning journey, so that you can learn in the ways that best suit your strengths and personality. These resources on learning, memory and study skills have helped me and I hope they help lay the foundation of life-long learning for you:
Books, videos and PDFs to continue your Learning How to Learn Journey:
Learning How to Learn: Online Course by Barbara Oakley and Terrance Sejnowski
“Buzan’s Study Skills” by Tony Buzan (Free Slides)
“The 4 Hour Chef” by Tim Ferriss (Read the chapter on Meta-learning)
“Accelerated Learning Techniques” by Brian Tracey
The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman
“A Mind for Numbers” by Barbara Oakley (see also Author Interview and Author TED Talk)
“Learning How to Learn” by Barbara Oakley and Terrance Sejnowski
“Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning” by Brown, Roediger and McDaniel
“Moonwalking with Einstein” by Joshua Foer
“The Art of Learning” by Josh Waitzkin (See also these resources, this interview with author and The Ultimate Guide to Josh Waitzkin)
“The Brain that Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge
“Ultralearning” by Scott Young
➡️ Continue reading the full essay
Tweet of the week
First from me, on appreciating yourself outside of your job:
Second from David Sinclair, the Australian biologist and aging researcher:
Video of the week
Why the Carnivore, Keto and Macro Diets Work
The Strongfit Podcast is one of my favorite podcasts about health, fitness and wellness. This is one of their best episodes, where they discuss the pros and cons of various diets today (e.g carnivore, paleo, keto, counting macros etc). What I like most about this episode is how they ground the discussion in principles of nutrition and neuroscience, viewing each diet as objectively as possible, rather than getting caught up in the diet tribe wars.
🙏 Thank you again for reading and for your support! I wish you a week of happiness, success and peace!
With gratitude,
Avthar