The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn (course review)

you know when you're a little kid and you you ask those questions what would your superpower be I used to love that question I used to love thinking about different things could I fly could I breathe underwater could I turn invisible like they were so my favorite conversations as a kid I'm actually still now right like so scrap there being a little kid if you could have a superpower it could be anything leave a comment below and we'll compare superpowers but now that I'm a little bit older I think if I was asked if I was asked that same question now right have you seen the movie limitless with Bradley Cooper that's one of my favorite movies and what's what's what's the premise of the movie I mean he takes takes a pill NZT which allows him to his mind capacity essentially limitless and so if I think if someone asked me right now what would my superpower be over soon Powell would be learning how to learn and that's the that's the topic of obvious video right because first of all a quick quick shout-out to Coursera amazing platform that that I've used several times over and will continue to use in the future for online learning they reached out and wanted to know if I wanted to try out the learning how to learn course which come on I'll show you the screen let's just let's just let's just dive straight into and have a look it's learning how to learn using powerful mental models to help you master tough subjects and I like I like to learn things that help me with other things whether it be health because health you know I mean to help health is the force multiplier of life or communication right because then you can partner communication with any other skill but I think the ultimate meta skill right the ultimate skill that you can apply to literally everything else is learning how to learn if you know how to learn something you can you can use that to to learn whatever you want right the possibilities are limitless so we'll check out this the about the course look how many ratings it's got it's got 40,000 right this a lot that means at least 40,000 people have done it's probably probably 10 times that because how often people do ratings so first of all there's part one which is what is learning or actually it's about 12 hours so relatively short we have 3 hours of video three hours exercise throughout bonus material chunking is week two week three is procrastination memory and week four is Renaissance learning and unlocking your potential all right so four weeks apparently to do it but I'm going to attempt to do it in one day so what you'll see in this video is I'm gonna jump straight into I'm literally gonna sign up now do the course and then hold I'll tell you what my favorite parts were about it but if you want to try it out before even watching this video there's there's a link below you can sign up there and uh let's learn how to loan shall we oh did you just mention the Pomodoro you know how much I love Pomodoro's if you're not sure what it is google it but I'll get I'll get onto that at after either I've gone through this I've got to keep focus right after all this is learning how to learn but share that - the Pomodoro Technique we're back in a sec [Music] oh yeah we passed the first section what is learning we got what do we get I think we got we've got one of the questions wrong but we're going to get into week two which I believe chunking the essentials all right sweet and uh one of the things that week one was that um sleep is really helpful for lying it's probably gonna take a nap and then we'll get back into week two Alex up 25-minute timer oh we're back Alexa stop the timer you know one of the things I like to do after getting up from a nap or even even getting up in the morning like when you're feeling a bit lethargic is to to get your body back into motion let's do some form of quick movement and my favorite at the moment is jumping jacks but you could do push-ups or whatever 20 jumping jacks gets the body back into flowing so you're not letting that with logic stay all right 20 now let's get in the pot - hey [Music] I finished week two this course is amazing and I know I said at the start of the video I wanted to to go through the whole thing and then summarize it all at the end once I finished all of them and go through in part but I think I've able to take away from this is the concept of recall so I'm gonna go through my three favorite things of week two relatively quickly too to try and think of or to try and submit the information in my brain right so so first of all week two was about chunking well my favorite three parts of chunking recall in there's a German word I am I am strolling or ein EST e w ng I believe the first one is chunking will suits the idea of chunking or chunking is taking taking the mental models or mental concepts of a particular topic and bring them together in like a neat little package think about it like this if you're learning programming you don't learn the whole language in one hit you learn the concepts of programming say something like for loops or if statements or different types of variables and then you work out how you can put those together in a program so that's the idea of chunking but you can relate that not just a programming but to any different concept and then the second one a second favorite was recall which is what I'm doing now and that that's a brilliant concept I think so so what's recall well it's rather than rereading say you see you're going through a textbook right rather than rereading or going back through it once you've read the page that or the chapter that you're most interested in put it down and then try to recall the information or recall the key concepts like what I'm doing now right I've literally just finished the lectures and I'm trying to think in my own words and explain to you what I just learned so chunking recalling - I really like to recall now something I need to work on instead of just going back over the same material I need to just set it down and go okay here's what I think I just learned and then go back and check that the final one was the German when iron stolen I'm stopping I'm probably saying it wrong right if there's any German viewers please let me know if I'm if I'm pronouncing this right RL but essentially it's the concept of mindset I believe in German it may mean mindset if not the word the definition doesn't entirely matter but I just relate it to the concept of mindset and what does that mean well I'm strong the way the way Barbara describes it the way it's described and learning how to learn is that Einstein is the concept of a previous mindset holding you back from doing something new the analogy is science science advances after every funeral and what does that mean well it means that and all the scientists has passed away and so they're they're older ways of doing things makes room for new scientists and their newer thoughts of doing things so one way to try and to combat that right is to to not let your your older older ways of thinking hold you back from thinking of new ideas right so not being afraid to make mistakes so they're my three favorites from week two I'm gonna get into part three [Music] [Music] just finished week three and it just got really dark in here I think it's about the storm and so on let's get some lat so for the final project I'm not sure if the final project seems like it's in the end of week three rather than the end of week four the final project I have to create something to share what I've learned in this which i think is brilliant I have to create something that shares what I've learned in this course of this video and the article you can probably find in the in the description if it's if it's they've ever written it by now I probably have it can be my submission so we're gonna we're going to skip over this this final submission part and then finish the final videos in part 4 and then then we'll be done remai scence renascence learning and unlocking your potential not sure what renascence is but we'll get into it [Music] oh yeah we passed final exam except the cotton we got one little MultiChoice right at the top here probably another one wrong somewhere somewhere else but that doesn't matter I'm applying for protection going to progress where I and that's it then we've got some a bunch of different reading reading options heaps of different interviews that we can do with with a bunch of different people most of them headphones on what wasn't even listening to anything I was just having them on to cancel the noise and be focused a bunch of different resources that we can go through but I was just looking to go through the videos I'm gonna check out gonna pick and mix some of the other interviews with with people that I'm most interested in the virtue the verdict already is that I recommend it however we're going to jump into some some of my favorite parts from each part but we're gonna do that tomorrow after I sleep on it and it gets absorbed and all the toxins get washed away in my brain and the new new neural pathways get get created so we'll see you tomorrow tomorrow's actually in about 3 to 1 you can skip the rest of this video because I went through my notes like all of these notes look at my theories right look how much I have like just a whole bunch there was so much so much there but the one thing that I took away the most was if you want to improve your learning it's to remove the amount of hair you have so that thoughts can easily enter your brain so that's why I wouldn't got a haircut this morning and fixed and fix my learning problems no I'm kidding we'll get into it it's nothing to do with that but I actually do get a haircut Anahata sleep so part one started off with what is learning one of my first favorite parts of part one was the concept of focused versus diffused mind States now what's the difference between those two well the analogy they used in the course was a focus mind if you imagine a flashlight a focused mind is like that flashlight shooting a single beam of light onto a very small point but the light is very bright whereas a diffused line state is if you have that same flashlight but change the setting on it and if it's shown a lot of light but it went out wide however it wasn't as tense is that that one single beam of life and now where's the value in that well professor Oakley said that the best learning happens at the crossover of those two mine states and I I definitely agree now focused you might be in debt studying something it might be literally going through a textbook taking notes or reading something or or working on a programming challenge something of the likes of that like it's really focused on on a single task whereas a diffuse mind you might be taking a walk or going for a shower all right not really not really thinking about anything in particular but just leaving your mind open to different thoughts to come in now where's the benefit in the crossover of that well have you ever been focused on something and then got stuck and then you went for a walk or took a break of something and and suddenly you've magically thought of the answer or even if you didn't consciously think of the answer the next time you came back to the problem you're working on it was somehow there so that's your diffused mind right not being focused on any one particular task working in the background to solve the problem that the focused mind was working on before and this happens a lot with sleep which is why I took a nap yesterday I took a sleeper for recording this video was to my focus mind was was concentrating on doing the course or yesterday but when I took a sleep when I when I slept overnight for my diffused mind so not thinking of anything at all lying in bed was going over the things I've learned and was able to compact those so that was that was definitely a valuable point for in in my eyes my second favorite takeaway of part one what he's learning was different ways to deal with procrastination now you also saw me yesterday when I took this leap I said oh I set a timer Alexa it's 25 minute timer why was the technique I use and what was mentioned in the video and I was really stoked because I actually use a technique that was already mentioned in the video it's a Pomodoro Technique and it's a simple concept you set a timer on on any device that you that you want to be using so I could I could set one right now I'm pretty sure I have one running on I don't want to say it on the waxer back here so you can set a timer and foot I don't know if you can see that but anyway there's a 25 minute timer there I mean you set for whatever time scale you want and for that before while the time is running you don't do anything other than the single tasks you set yourself so that's one way to deal with procrastination so there were my two favorite takeaways from part part one part two was already at this the start of the video yeah we'd structure I know but just to quickly summarize the main points in that we're chunking so grouping grouping similar concepts together so say at one certain time of the day you you tick off your hardest tasks another time you do similar tasks like maybe respond to email and then another task maybe in the afternoon you stick to the math problems of what you're trying to work on part three was about procrastination and memory now we already covered procrastination or a little bit of procrastination in part one now I think this was deliberate of the course course founders right to to put similar concepts or teach in the first part an overview of of all the concepts but then in each section after subsequent lecture my part 2 part 3 part 4 was to dive deeper into each of them the course is beautifully laid out for this way much better laid out in this video but the the second way they dive into procrastination was was in the habit form if you break a habit down or the habit of procrastination or really any habit there's there's four steps you got the cue the routine the reward and then the belief now the cue if you eliminate the cue it destroys the other three so what is a Q so Q might be you get a text message on your phone I don't have my phone here because of course I've removed the cute so you might be your phone vibrates you get a text message from a friend then the reward is so step one the Q text message on the phone step two the reward is you looking at that text message you get that good feeling like you get that plate of dopamine because your friends talking to you then the routine right step three is you you suddenly start to check your phone right you go through it because you've just got that reward you form that routine of checking the other notifications on your phone and then for it's the belief that that you're once you check your phone you've you've got distracted and now you're spending more time when your phone and you now believe that you're a person who's easily distracted so those those three steps right the reward the routine the belief can all be eliminated by removing the Q all right so the thing that causes that causes those steps to happen so you can put your phone in your draw or you can install like some sort of website blocker on your browser or something like that or my favorite one is this simple back to the back to the Pomodoro timer set a timer and just just tell yourself this is this is the belief right the belief that that you're a person who doesn't get distracted and set yourself a time and to say hey I'm not doing anything apart from this task during this time after that I can reward myself like that's the important part reward yourself with maybe you you check you check your phone for five minutes or something like that but then get back into setting another timer my second favourite part of part three was the concept of setting a task list now I do this every day I've even got got a whiteboard with with things that I want to do during the day now where's the value in that the course says to set it the night before I do mine in the morning I suppose you could do it the night before this is really whatever suits you so I get up in the morning the way I consolidate all the thoughts about what I have to do is I simply write them down and if something else comes up I'd write it down so it gets out of get out of my working Emery that's a big concept that was introduced in the in the course as well as working memory you can only really hold four things at a time so that's that's where the value comes from of setting yourself a task this the night before or in the morning or just whenever something pops into your mind is that when you write it down you remove it from your working memory and now it's solidified on paper or or something else or some kind of task app that you have I like paper because I like physically writing things down there's something really satisfactory about being able to check something off or cross it off not not as much when you just tap it on a screen but when you write things down set yourself a task this removes removes that item from working memory so you can free that up through those four slots you really only have four slots you can think of four different things at a time after that it just just whistles away and I think even for myself I think for us pushing it I'm probably two maybe one I like to try and think of one thing at a time so there were my two favorite things from part three is procrastination from the habit point of view remove the cue you cut away the habit and set yourself a task list of the the half dozen or so things that that you want to get done for the next day the night before and free up your working memory part four was about well the title was renascence learning which I'm not entirely sure what that meant but release on slurring and unlocking your potential and one of my favorite takeaways from it was exercise now it's kind of ironic that yesterday in between part three and part four I mean completing part three and part four I did a workout in the backyard and the doctor who was on there doctor dr. Terrence smudged out and Amrit dr. Terrence says now ski I think I'm pronouncing that right apologies doctor if I'm not but what he said was that exercise was one of the most powerful performance-enhancing drugs that you can you can give the brain I mean this is a person who's studied neurobiology or neuroscience for their entire life and has an in-depth knowledge of of all kinds of different neuro chemicals and he's saying that exercise is a part of his daily life when when he wants to try and learn something and one of the reasons I don't know the exact reason but I can imagine because I'd love to exercise right and I think it's valuable if you want to learn anything it's a good good way to take a break it's another form of using the diffused mind so exercising you may not necessarily be be focused on on one particular task maybe you're going for a run or something and of course you have to focus on the run or a walk but you still you still got this diffused morning you're still letting thoughts or in so the supercharge your learning maybe you could use exercise as a way to break up different periods of study so for example what I like to do is I might do an hour or two of study or or work and then go for a 10-minute walk and then I'll just repeat that process a couple of times until the end of the day and that brings me into my final favorite thing of part 4 and the final my final favorite thing of the course is that there's no need for genius envy if you see an expert in any field it's likely well it's unlikely that they that that's happened overnight at any overnight success you see has ten years of work behind them and all you really see is that that last little that last little action that that all of a sudden makes makes them seem like an overnight success and all the although honest ones although honest people will tell you that right it's about putting in that effort over a number of years and then they give they give the story of Charles Darwin you might have heard of him he kind of thought of the theory of evolution which which changed the entire dynamic of the science of biology and and just the perspective of how we view the world right Charles Darwin was a poor student he opt out of school and his father was incredibly disappointed with him and then he went on a on a voyage around the around the world as a naturist just exploring nature but with a child like mine and so he's seeing the world as though it's all anew and so he's taking in he's not letting that that i instr long get kid advantage of him right that old way of thinking Holt hold back a new way of thinking him with that with that mindset of always looking at the world through the child's child's mind and and their combination of different things and going for nature walks I mean they even gave the example of they showed the foot path of where Charles Darwin would take walk so there's another genius who takes advantage of the fact that exercise is one of the best things that you can do for for learning something so the lesson we can take away from people like Charles Darwin is is back to the point before is that there's no need for the genius Envy all the all the the great people that you look up to the academics of business people the the people who seem like they know so much it's all come from time right everyone has to start somewhere everyone has to to to go through challenges and practice learning different things so that's enough that's enough from from me and my favorite parts I think if you want to explore more of the course you can jump down into the link below there's there's so much more that I've missed out on here and if you want like kind of a a more concise version of what you've seen in this video don't forget there's an article that I that I wrote summarizing a few points that that we've mentioned in here and that that weren't mentioned in here but taking taking ownership of of your learning is one of the most important undertakings that you can ever take right and I think that if you want the ultimate skill that the ultimate superpower it's learning how to learn so go ahead take the course try it out see what you think I think you'll find some value in that because at the end of the day if you want to apply the skill of learning how to learn you can apply it anywhere special thanks to two Coursera for sponsoring this video I love using Coursera this course is just one of the examples of the amazing stuff they have on there but I think it's time I've reached my finish time for today and that's why I've came to come to this spot right this is one of my favorite spots to just sit let my diffuse mind take over and think about not think about anything and let there let the let the waves roll in into my brain like thoughts that analogy really didn't make sense or maybe it did maybe it kind of didn't but I need to let my diffuse mind take over I'm gonna go watch the sunset probably probably down you see I'm gonna go down there and watch it you want to come [Music] [Music]

Channel: Daniel Bourke

Views: 50,456

Keywords: coursera learning how to learn, learning how to learn on coursera, review of learning how to learn course on coursera, review of learning how to learn, how to learn to how to learn, coursera course review, daniel bourke, mrdbourke, coursera, LHTL course, barbara oakley, mental models for learning, class central

Id: 2DUxjcVtcdI

Length: 25min 13sec (1513 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 03 2019