This is the 9th edition but actually the 10th email I’ve sent out, including the intro. It’s been fun choosing topics and really thinking hard about them to come up with something I think people will relate to or find interesting. My favorite editions, and the ones that get the most comments and replies, are when I explore a topic based on my experiences and try to understand why things are the way they are. I have definitely had a lot of good mentors but I do consider myself a quick learner, so in this letter, I want to explore why I think I can learn things quickly and how I built that mindset.
- Building a Good Foundation
A lot of what I try to learn relates to sports and physical activity, but I believe these ideas apply to other skills as well. For instance, I recently took up chess. If you’re interested, I’ve been watching a great YouTube series called “Building Habits” by a chess grandmaster. It’s the first thing I wanted to mention when talking about becoming a quick learner: building a good foundation and understanding the fundamentals before trying to get advanced, even if it takes a little longer at first.
Since I was a kid playing sports, I’ve focused on the fundamentals without getting too distracted by advanced techniques. I think this mindset comes from a few specific coaches I had growing up. I had great coaches in baseball, basketball, and lacrosse, but I believe my football coaches played a key role in developing this mentality. Perhaps it’s because much of football practice is focused on the fundamentals of how to tackle safely. But I think a few of the coaches I had growing up playing for the Monterey Jets were just really great coaches and I got lucky being on their team. If they ever see this, thanks, coaches!
Spending extra time building a solid foundation pays off because once you understand the fundamentals and develop good habits, learning more advanced things becomes easier—you don’t have as many things to think about. A good example is having good footwork in sports. If you’ve built good habits, you won’t even need to think about it; your body will just know the right thing to do. Continuing with chess as an analogy for non-sports-related skills: if you understand general concepts in chess, you’ll likely find yourself in more manageable positions. Another example might be in art. If you understand color theory, shading, perspective, and other foundational concepts, you’ll likely be able to create a good piece. Even learning your multiplication tables is a good example of how learning the basics can speed up your learning.
- Learn from People Slightly Better Than You
Another way I’ve learned things quickly is by finding someone who is better than me—but only slightly better. I touched on this in a previous letter about competitiveness, but learning from someone who is slightly better than you is one of the quickest ways to improve. The reason you want someone slightly better rather than much better is that they’ve just learned what you’re trying to learn and can probably explain it more effectively.
Someone with 10 years more experience than you might know a lot more, but they may not remember how they learned a skill 10 years ago and might struggle to teach it. On the other hand, someone just a couple of years ahead of you will remember the struggles you’re facing and the advice that helped them, which they can pass on to you. There are exceptions, and you can certainly learn from people with much more experience, but my advice is to use both types of people as resources to speed up your learning. For example, I learn a lot from coworkers who are a couple of years ahead of me when it comes to technical things, but for long-term career advice, I’ve received the best guidance from people with significantly more experience.
- Continuously Try to Learn New Things
Lastly, one key to learning things quickly is continuously trying to learn new skills. In high school, I decided to learn parkour and freerunning. An important step for most tricks was properly setting up your jump. For a front flip, for example, you want to use a technique called blocking, which helps you translate horizontal momentum into more height. When I later learned that a similar approach is used in volleyball, that skill transferred over really well and I was able to kind of do it without thinking. I also found switching from baseball to lacrosse relatively easy because of the similar hand-eye coordination required. In situations like these where you’ve done something similar before, you can build on what you already know rather than start from scratch. Sometimes, you’ll find that really random things translate over. One that comes to mind is how spreading the filling of cinnamon rolls evenly is very similar to spreading resin on a surfboard during the lamination step.
Summary
Based on my experience, here are three pieces of advice I’d give to someone trying to learn something new:
- Spend extra time focusing on the fundamentals.
- Learn from people who are a couple of steps ahead of you.
- Keep learning new things because, over time, the skills will translate.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what has helped you learn new things and whether you agree or disagree with my advice. Feel free to reply on social media, email ([email protected]), or use this anonymous form!