Ian Welsh

Sometimes it seems like half my life was spent learning something new. The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve thought about how to learn, and I’m going to distill part of the process down for you. These methods are primarily about intellectual matters: mastering a subject, but are easily adapted to practical and creative skills.

The four steps are:

1) Study/Read.

2) Think about.

3) Discuss (something is to be learned from your superiors/equals and inferiors.)

4) Do (write in intellectual disciplines). You must try out what you learn to own it.

The first step is reading or going to lectures or watching someone else do the task you want to learn. In intellectual matters I suggest finding the shortest book on the subject to start. If it’s well written it will give you a map of the subject. That map may be wrong or oversimplified, but it is a start.

Once you’ve got that map, spend some time thinking about it. This means two things: get it to the point where you can run thru the entire map or model in your head, or speaking out loud. Then spend time examining the map: are there places where it seems incomplete or potentially wrong?

In the discussion stage find someone to discuss what you’ve learned with. They need to be interested and engaged, but the level of knowledge is less important. If they’re ignorant, you wind up teaching them, and that shows what you don’t know. If they know about as much as you, you can easily bounce off each other. And if they know much more than you, they can point out issues and suggest further reading and interesting questions you should ask.

If you have no one available to talk to, have an imaginary conversation. Daydream it. You can use someone you know (I often imagine past teachers) or you can imagine someone well known you’ve never met. What would Socrates or Plato or Kant say about this philosophical issue? What would Napoleon or Sun Tzu say about these military issues? What would the Buddha or Jesus say about this religious issue? What would Adam Smith, Marx or Keynes say about an economic issue? What would FDR, Thatcher, Stalin, Pericles or Deng do about this political/economic issue?

The discussion stage can be viewed as an extension of the thinking stage, except you’re getting someone else’s thinking: a different viewpoint than your own. You can talk to multiple people, or seek multiple imaginary perspectives from historical figures whose thinking you understand well. “What would X say about this?”

In the doing stage either teach what you’ve learned, or write something about it. Explainers are fine, so are argumentative pieces. Once you’ve finished, get feedback from your student and think about what you had trouble teaching, or put what you wrote aside, then read it a couple days later, ideally out loud. Ask yourself what you don’t understand yet, what doesn’t make sense, or what seems wrong.

Then read the next book or attend the next lecture or watch a practitioner performing. This recursion should be based on what you didn’t understand or problems you found or just what you’re curious to learn more about.

And then… think, and discuss, and do.

All thru this remember, you will only truly master what you love. This should be an enjoyable loop, even the frustration should encourage you as long as it comes with “I don’t get it, and I want to and I look forward to figuring it out.”

If you want to do particularly well, learn to express what you’ve learned fairly and strongly, BUT look for where it doesn’t work. Is there a place where the logic doesn’t flow, where it’s not coherent? Are there real world cases it would not predict or predict incorrectly? These anomalies tell you where to go next.

Don’t just look for where it doesn’t work, though, look for where it does. Few intellectual tools work in all circumstances. What’s it good for?

And as you learn, stack up models. “Neo-classical economics works for this, Marxism works for that. Keynesianism explains this well. Austrian economics….”

Then you wind up with a multi-faceted understanding and intellectual tools you know when and where to use, and and when not. That is very close to mastery.

This site is only viable due to reader donations. If you value it and can, please subscribe or donate.