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.
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Jan Wiklund
Or, as Ha-Joon Chang said about the different ways of looking at economics “On no account drink only one ingredient – liable to lead to tunnel vision, arrogance and possibly brain death” (Economics: The user’s guide, 2014). He actually names and describes nine varieties or “peepholes”.
Jack
Nice article.
My approach is similar but more succinct.
I read incessantly for comprehension and retention followed by as much contemplative thought I can muster in the hope of gaining profound knowledge in the process.
It is a thirst I seek to quench every day of my life.
When I do it well, it sates my soul…and makes my face turn up in a becoming smile…and despite the incalculable tragedies this world inflicts upon all the inhabitants of this garden we have been given, I still manage a smile every day…
Ian Welsh
Jack,
absolutely! The thrill of understanding or intellectual discovery is a huge high. “A-ha!”
Do consider giving discussion or a bit of writing a try, I find they do really help clarify and expand.
Joan
Great article! I liked the part about motivation and how you learn something eagerly if you like or love the topic. This was how I wound up studying a dead language and getting proficient enough I could read it. The poetry in this language was so lovely and my mind was able to rest in such beautiful places while reading. Learning the modern form of the language also took a lot of time, and rewarded me when I could travel there and finally have complete conversations with native speakers and generally accomplish anything I needed to.
This was early enough that the economic ramifications of spending time on this rather than a more employable skill hadn’t hit me yet. I miss those days and it’ll be the thing I make room for once I’m finally (if ever) financially stable.
bruce wilder
For all the praise given the supposed “scientific method”, there is surprisingly little attention given in learning to methods of simple trial.
Go, look, see. Simple observation.
Make a list. What are the possibilities? Is there a principle of categorization that exhausts the possibilities?
Make another list. What came first? Second? What principle orders the sequence? What principle orders development or deterioration?
Build a model. Draw a diagram. Sketch a picture. Make a map.
Test your model. If you write, edit. If you calculate, check the result. If you draw, look for missing details. If you cook, taste.
Do the exercises. Do the problem set. Practice the movements. Perform. Perform under critical observation.
Teach. Train someone else. Correct. Criticize someone else’s performance.
Identify the fundamentals. Dig into definitions. Read the footnotes. Read the encyclopedia or reference standard.
Learn the history. Go back to original sources, first authors. What problems were the pioneers, the inventors trying to solve? What did the textbook writers clarify? What did they obscure?
Learn variations. Learn another way. Learn another instrument. Learn an alternative method or theory.
Investigate conventional standards of evaluation and the institutions of conventional evaluation. Look for dissent and rebellion. Judge the judgments. Judge the criteria of judgment.
Eric Anderson
Thanks Ian. Shared this with my eight year old. It’s going in the reading list and will be revisited with him from time to time.
Jorge
I strongly recommend hand-writing on paper whatever it is you find truly important. The cranial activity involved has been proven to “inscribe” quite effectively into long-term memory, more effectively than listening to words and maybe stopping to cogitate upon them.
I had the gift of perfect factual memory as a child, and did not learn to take notes until college. At that point, the habit was tough to build.