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What is metalarning and how do I learn
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how to learn better?
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>> DSS
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deconstruction, selection, sequencing,
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stakes, deconstruction, which is taking
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a
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fairly ambiguous goal like learn to swim
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or learn Japanese. None of those are
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actually very descriptive.
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Deconstructing any one of those is
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breaking it down into constituent parts.
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You can do that very effectively with
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the help of an expert. For instance, I
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mean, if you want to find a silver
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medalist from the Olympics two Olympics
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ago, you can probably get on a Zoom call
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with them for
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$100 an hour, maybe $50 an hour. Like,
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you do have access to world-class
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talent. They would help you figure out,
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all right, there all these different
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possible components. The next part,
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which is selection, Prao's law. So,
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you're picking the 20% that will give
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you 80% of what you want. Let's just use
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language learning in that case. You can
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very easily find word frequency lists
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for any given language. Hundreds of
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thousands of words you could learn. But
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with the most frequently used 1500,
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you can get to reasonable conversational
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fluency in almost any language in 8 to
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12 weeks without question if you
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approach it methodically. But you need
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the right material first. The next S is
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sequencing. Putting it in the right
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order. This is the magic sauce that gets
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lost a lot which is what is a logical
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sequence for learning any given skill.
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What do you practice first? So in the
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case of swimming for instance forget
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about breathing like you need to figure
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out like getting comfortable putting
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your head under water etc etc. Last S
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stands for stakes which means
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incentives. So how do you ensure that
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you will do actually what it is you say
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you're committing to doing? If more
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information were the answer we'd all be
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billionaires with six pack abs. So
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information is clearly not sufficient.
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It's necessary but not sufficient.
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Incentives drive behavior change, right?
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You could give uh 500 bucks to a friend
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or 100 bucks, whatever. Does that the
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amount doesn't really matter. And if you
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don't do what you say you're going to
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do, they donate it to like your most
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hated political candidate in your name.
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Right? That's another one that I've seen
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work really well. If people expect some
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kind of like linear incremental
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progress, it just ain't going to happen.
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And so most people quit before they hit
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any real inflection points. That's it.
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That DSS,
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deconstruction, selection, sequencing,
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stakes. And if you just check those
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boxes moving that order,
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uh your ability to learn will hockey
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stick in a really meaningful way.
