Use These 4 Principles to Learn Anything Quickly
It was 2008 and everyone was clicking away on their BlackBerrys in a fancy corporate meeting room. Amazon was not a particularly desirable stock to own just yet and America had Twilight fever. I was 19 years old and had somehow wormed my way into a summer internship at a Fortune 100 company. The hiring manager had just said something that caught my attention:
At the end of your 3 months here, you will give a presentation to the VP of Engineering
These words kept ringing in my ears.
I didn’t know what imposter syndrome was at the time, but I had a big case of it. There were only 12 weeks to find my footing, understand how my team operated, the exact projects they were working on, and somehow add massive value. I needed to learn everything I could quickly if I had any hope of not looking like an idiot in front of the VP.
Thankfully I put together a decent enough presentation at the end of that summer to be invited back and do it again the following year. And the year after that. Each time in a different team where I had to figure out the fastest way to add value over and over again.
As I was muddling my way through these 3-month internships I was identifying key principles and techniques to learn just about anything quickly.
In this article, I will share with you the 4 major principles I use on a daily basis to learn anything quickly when time is limited.
1. The Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle is a natural and socio-economic phenomenon stating that 20% of the inputs generate 80% of the outputs, and because of this, it’s also known as the 80/20 rule. The more you look for it, the more you find it in all corners of life.
A few cities hold most of the population. The rich few hold most of the total sum wealth. A few of your clients generate most of the sales.
This principle helps you understand that very rarely do your inputs and outputs operate in a linear manner. Giving one unit of effort will not always yield one unit of result.
Learning a new skill, or learning how to succeed in a new job, operates on the same principle. Your goal should not be to master and understand all aspects of it, but rather identify the key factors (20% of all available factors per the Pareto Principle) that will yield 80% of your results.
Here are a few ways I utilized this during my internship:
- I identified which people in the office were the most approachable and knowledgeable and went to them for questions and help instead of asking everyone on the team
- I identified the high runner products and hot projects people were talking about and sought to understand them in-depth. I did not seek to understand every single product or project during my time there.
- Of all the assignments given to me, I hit the important ones first by deciding which ones were the most critical and time-sensitive. I made sure those were completed on time even it meant delaying the less critical deadlines.
Expedite your learning curve by identifying the few key inputs that will generate the most results.
2. The Dunning-Kruger Effect
In a 2014 study participants were asked to self-assess their knowledge of a shared second language. In addition to the self-assessment, they were all given a standardized test that scored their abilities to compare against the scores they gave themselves.
What the researchers found is that speakers at the low end of the comprehension scales tended to overestimate their performance, while speakers at the high end of the scale underestimated it. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people with low knowledge of a concept or process overestimate their knowledge. The unfortunate reality is that we are all subject to this phenomenon: I mistakenly thought building my personal website would take an afternoon…it’s still an ongoing project to this day.
And because we all suffer from this cognitive bias, we all experience the harsh dip in confidence once we dip our toes into the water. It is inevitable. One of the most important things you can do when attempting to learn anything quickly is to expect the dip.
This steep drop in confidence we all experience is enough to drive most people away from learning a new skill. They are content to live their lives without pushing past this barrier and learning anything new.
Once you expect the drop in confidence and have the foresight to realize it will always be more difficult than you incorrectly assume, you will reduce the intensity of the aversion you feel towards it. And you will intrinsically develop the grit to push through the hardest parts.
Expect and embrace the dip in confidence you experience when you learn anything new.
3. Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law is an anecdotal management principle stating that work expands to fit its allocated time. It was first identified in 1955 by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British historian, and author. While not a formal scientific hypothesis, we have all experienced this in some form or another.
This is glaringly obvious in meetings at work. Most companies will schedule meetings in 30-minute blocks of time. And just like each book you read takes a different amount of time to finish, each slide deck we present at these meetings should also take a different amount of time to finish. And yet they all seem to finish right around the 30-minute increment we blocked off.
We do this subconsciously ourselves. In college, I gave myself a huge head start on projects and assignments thinking I could really dive into the topic and provide a high-quality end result. And this was true, it worked out for me.
But when I started taking on more responsibility at work, with more aggressive deadlines, I was forced to reduce that lead time. This terrified me at first because I felt like I wouldn’t be able to complete the project within the allocated deadline with the quality I desired.
Not so. Even with less time on the table, I will still able to complete my tasks (often with some time to spare) and with a high level of quality. This was incredibly empowering once I realized this. I had subconsciously given myself additional time as a safety pad all these years. But instead of using all that time wisely, I would get sidetracked, or distracted, and slowly make my way through the project or task when I could have been powering through it much faster.
If you want to learn anything quickly, give yourself less time to complete the required tasks.
4. Learn Anything Quickly using The Feynman Technique
This technique is named after the famous scientist Richard Feynman who was renowned for his ability to simplify and explain complex ideas to his students. This technique reinforces the mountains of information you’ll encounter as you’re learning a new skill, and also identifies the gaps in your knowledge you would have otherwise been blind to.
It is a simple 4 step process:
Step 1 — Study
Study the source material and seek to understand. Watch youtube videos, read medium articles. You know the drill.
Step 2 — Teach
This part is key. You must teach and articulate to an audience. It can be a real audience, or imaginary (I sometimes use my dog). Articulating will force the concepts in your heads into logical and real statements. Doing so will make you realize the gaps in your knowledge.
Step 3 — Fill in the Gaps
Go back to the source material and fill in the voids of your knowledge.
Step 4 — Simplify
Ask yourself — can you concisely explain the crucial elements of what you have just learned? If not, repeat from Step 1 again.
Identify the gaps in your knowledge by teaching others.
Key Takeaways
Using these 4 universal techniques will greatly increase your ability to learn any new skill or process quickly.
- The Pareto Principle: Expedite your learning curve by identifying the few key inputs that will generate the most results.
- The Dunning-Kruger Effect: Expect and embrace the dip in confidence you experience when you learn anything new.
- Parkinson’s Law: If you want to learn anything quickly, give yourself less time to complete the required tasks.
- The Feynman Technique: Identify the gaps in your knowledge by teaching others.
Hey there, thanks for reading all the way to the end! I’m an engineer solving real problems with real people. I write articles on productivity, decision making, motivation, and more. Join my subscriber list and learn along with me.
