Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life – I’ve been thinking a lot about what is the best way to learn about history. Reading this book has persuaded me that reading a few biographies, which limit the discussion to a single figure and point of reference, may be easier than more comprehensive sources. This book covers the […]

The common view of learning is that some subjects are clearly harder than others. Quantum mechanics is a lot harder than, say, learning state capitals. This idea points to some domains of knowledge as being intrinsically harder than others. A related idea, being that if some ideas are intrinsically harder than others, and some people […]

Recently, I introduced the concept of ultralearning—deep, intense self-education. This kind of learning is characterized by grappling with deep concepts and hard practice. My bigger learning projects have used this approach out of necessity. If you’re trying to learn something like differential equations or Chinese characters in a short period of time, those constraints make […]