The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast!

by Josh Kaufman

1. Choose a lovable project. Karl Popper was one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. He’s the guy who popularized the idea of scientific falsifiability. In layman’s terms, if you can’t potentially prove something wrong via observation or experiment, it’s not actually science. Popper said many wise things, but I think the following remark is among the wisest: “The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.” If you want a formula for living a satisfying, productive life, you can’t go wrong with that one. Rapid skill acquisition requires choosing a lovable problem or project. The more excited you are about the skill you want to acquire, the more quickly you’ll acquire it.