how to learn anything faster? hacks

[everything]

I'm curious if you deliberately use any techniques you think speed up your learning of anything (could be body skills like MA, could be purely mental).

Sure there is deliberate practice, repetition, review, 10,000 hours, Cornell notes, speed reading (really don't think this works for me), exercise, nutrition, sleep, using your subconscious, but what specifically seems to work to help you learn ANYTHING faster? I mean like the 4 hour workweek 80/20 rule stuff. I read about speed-reading but that doesn't really do it for me so far. I am trying to learn quite a lot of programming and math and that really requires learning by doing, not just reading. But to the extent that reading helps, I guess speed-reading sounds attractive. Seems like that might help more for concepts and conversations.

[Steve James]

I read about speed-reading but that doesn't really do it for me so far.

f yu cn rd ths yu cn spd rd

[Michael]

Put yourself in a situation where you're getting your ass kicked constantly until you learn how to deal with problems you never previously faced. For some people, this induces speed learning.

[jimmy]

I've had a lot of success at learning new subjects by creating visual mnemonics and drawing them in permanent marker on my hands, wrists, and forearms (front and back for all). You end up looking like an idiot to everyone around you, but it lets you review and conceptualize information repeatedly throughout the day, whether in brief glances here and there, or for more extended periods during moments of reverie, etc.

Some food for thought...

Introduction to Memory Techniques
Art of Memory
Visual Mnemonics: Six Keys to a Good Visual Prompt
List of Visual Mnemonics
Digital “Computers” 1450-1750: Memory and Calculating on the Fingers and Hands
Visual Vs. Verbal Mnemonic Techniques

[Steve James]

I've complained in classes for years that students are required to learn but aren't really taught how. Very few schools, if any, teach memorization techniques (sometimes because they don't consider memorization as learning). Most universities offer study centers and tutors, and some offer techniques for studying, but imo that's not the same as learning. I've found that the best way to learn is to incorporate as many senses as you can into the process. Whatever it is, I think writing what it is with your hand, saying it aloud, and hearing it will always help more than just looking. If it's a doing thing, the same applies.

Reading fast is a matter of concentration and practice. The best "trick" is not to verbalize what you read while you're reading. If you do, you will only be able to read as fast as you can speak, not as fast as you can see.

[Peacedog]

+1 on the Ars Memoria. I've seen this "fix" several people who were labeled as borderline retarded over the years and transform their academic performance to the point that at least one was forced to take academic tests by himself while being monitored by two teachers.

Look up the works of Tim Ferris. Accelerated learning is a major interest of his and he has a strategic approach to this that has worked for a few people I've known.

[Bao]

Put yourself in a situation where you're getting your ass kicked constantly until you learn how to deal with problems you never previously faced. For some people, this induces speed learning.

Like reading an instruction book about how to deactivate bombs while the clock is ticking.
Or reading a flight manual when the pilots have passed out and the plane is about to crash.



I agree that pressure tend to get you to focus on what is the most important and skip what's not.

[RickMatz]

Put yourself in a situation where you're getting your ass kicked constantly until you learn how to deal with problems you never previously faced. For some people, this induces speed learning.

Not now, Kato!

[greytowhite]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new ... 180949320/

[TrainingDummy]

+1 on the Ars Memoria..

Any suggestions on classical texts?

I'm familiar with most modern "superlearning" techniques, but would be very interested in the theory from a religious/ occult training viewpoint.

[Peacedog]

TD,

I've actually found the classical texts to be too verbose and obscure to be that useful.

The best book I've found is, surprisingly, written by a PhD named Kenneth Higbee entitled Your Memory: How it Works. It is recently in print again and available on Kindle as well. I provided a link below.

It contains all of the major techniques in use by memory competitors and explains how to practice them without a lot of the sensational crap in the more pop culture oriented books.

As for the application to esoteric, it is pretty simple. The more ritual involved systems pretty much require the use of the Ars Memoria on some level as some of the solo rituals can compromise upwards of 30 pages of text. Memorizing this thru the brute force method is simply inefficient.

Other techniques, like the memory palace, can result in a kind of out of body projection when properly utilized as well.

Working with any of the Ars Memoria increases what we call mental energy in Hermetics and feeds back to reinforce the will.

Best of luck,

Peacedog

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Memory-How- ... bee+memory

[TrainingDummy]

To answer the OP:

The basic thing that I use constantly was a series of techniques from my meditation teacher to rest ones consciousness above the head and learn to think in a way that was increasingly abstracted and intuitive (gnoetic). This was supposed to increase your raw IQ over time, but I've never seen good evidence of before-after IQ testing. It isn't an easy thing to pull out of the system and teach as an independent technique and typically takes five years of preparatory meditation work.

The easiest material to learn to think in an increasingly abstracted and condensed manner is speed reading. I use speed reading mainly to gain a holistic understanding of a subject; to allow me to broadly organise it in my mind, start asking questions of the material and develop mind maps. I can then drill into the material with more context and focus. Where ever possible I try to use the material in every study session, through an assignment or a review test.

[everything]

TD, thanks. So speed reading is for the first pass (before deepening your understanding)? So it's mainly for intellectual pursuits and not so much practical knowledge (computer programming, martial arts, sports, etc.), or do you somehow apply speed reading to that sort of knowledge/skill, too? Thanks for everyone's answers.

[TrainingDummy]

TD, thanks. So speed reading is for the first pass (before deepening your understanding)?

Yes, for me personally speed reading is for the first pass and then I do it again at the end of a study session. The middle part is for organising the material in a condensed format through imagery (mind maps and mnemonic visualisation) and then doing some sort of self test, exercise, assignment etc.

So it's mainly for intellectual pursuits and not so much practical knowledge (computer programming, martial arts, sports, etc.), or do you somehow apply speed reading to that sort of knowledge/skill, too?

Personally its different answers for different pursuits:

Computer programming - I work in information security and am doing a in digital forensics. Programming for me is being able to find the same "packed" states of consciousness as speed-reading and programming from there. It's roughly equivalent to a flow state where the mind is quiet and you just DO stuff. You really have to know your platform, language and the problem to get the no-mind states though, which depends on the type of work you do.

Martial arts/ sports - For performance I have no additional material beyonds what is usually covered on RSF and sports psychology. Train movements in isolation, then add pressure and complexity until you can do them without thinking. Movement\ exercise as part of a spiritual training I might have something to say, but then its not really a hack and is contextualised by the tradition that you're studying.

[everything]

thanks again TD.

how do you (anyone) think watching video helps with learning a new (MA or other) movement? any way to try to speed up that learning process?

btw, on a tangent, I am more in the camp that taijiquan can give one some basic skills rather quickly and those "abstract" principles help with learning other movement activities, but that to really be good (the graduate school analogy) does take quite a long time. I suppose I'm in that camp for any subject. There are almost always certain keys that are clear to some people and not at all clear to many people. A lot (most?) of the Tim Ferriss "deconstruct master performers" stuff is essentially looking for 80/20 rules everywhere. I suppose that's the super abstract answer to my own questions on this thread. But each topic has some different 80/20. I was listening to a podcast about how unintuitive start-ups are and how downhill skiing is similar. So people need to be told the counter-intuitive 80/20 rules and motions.