Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career

by Scott H. Young

Drill 4: The Magnifying Glass Method

Drill 5: Prerequisite Chaining

Chapter VIII Principle 5 Retrieval Test to Learn

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More difficult retrieval leads to better learning, provided the act of retrieval is itself successful.

Tactic 1: Flash Cards

Tactic 2: Free Recall

Tactic 3: The Question-Book Method

Tactic 4: Self-Generated Challenges

Tactic 5: Closed-Book Learning

Chapter IX Principle 6 Feedback Don’t Dodge the Punches

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James A. Kulik and Chen-Lin C. Kulik review the literature on feedback timing and suggest that “Applied studies using actual classroom quizzes and real learning materials have usually found immediate feedback to be more effective than delay.”

Tactic 1: Noise Cancellation

Tactic 2: Hitting the Difficulty Sweet Spot

Tactic 3: Metafeedback

Tactic 4: High-Intensity, Rapid Feedback

Chapter X Principle 7 Retention Don’t Fill a Leaky Bucket

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Physicians with more experience are generally believed to have accumulated knowledge and skills during years in practice and therefore to deliver high-quality care. However, evidence suggests that there is an inverse relationship between the number of years that a physician has been in practice and the quality of care that the physician provides.

Memory Mechanism 1—Spacing: Repeat to Remember

spaced-repetition systems (SRS) as a tool for trying to retain the most knowledge with the least effort.

Memory Mechanism 2—Proceduralization: Automatic Will Endure

Memory Mechanism 3—Overlearning: Practice Beyond Perfect

Memory Mechanism 4—Mnemonics: A Picture Retains a Thousand Words

Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.

Chapter XI Principle 8 Intuition Dig Deep Before Building Up

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Rule 1: Don’t Give Up on Hard Problems Easily

Rule 2: Prove Things to Understand Them

Rule 3: Always Start with a Concrete Example

Rule 4: Don’t Fool Yourself

The Feynman Technique

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Write down the concept or problem you want to understand at the top of a piece of paper. In the space below, explain the idea as if you had to teach it to someone else. If it’s a concept, ask yourself how you would convey the idea to someone who has never heard of it before. If it’s a problem, explain how to solve it and—crucially—why that solution procedure makes sense to you. When you get stuck, meaning your understanding fails to provide a clear answer, go back to your book, notes, teacher, or reference material to find the answer.

Application 1: For Things You Don’t Understand at All

Application 2: For Problems You Can’t Seem to Solve

Application 3: For Expanding Your Intuition

Chapter XII Principle 9 Experimentation Explore Outside Your Comfort Zone

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Experimentation Is the Key to Mastery

Three Types of Experimentation

Experimenting with Learning Resources

Experimenting with Technique

Experimenting with Style

How to Experiment

Tactic 1: Copy, Then Create

Tactic 2: Compare Methods Side-by-Side

Tactic 3: Introduce New Constraints

Tactic 4: Find Your Superpower in the Hybrid of Unrelated Skills

Tactic 5: Explore the Extremes

Chapter XIII Your First Ultralearning Project

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Step 1: Do Your Research

What topic you’re going to learn and its approximate scope.

The primary resources you’re going to use.

A benchmark for how others have successfully learned this skill or subject.