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 […]

Last week I introduced the concept of ultralearning: deep, aggressive self-education. This is the strategy that I used to learn hard subjects like differential equations or Mandarin Chinese in a short amount of time. This kind of self-education—epitomized by doing intense practice to learn hard subjects—isn’t a normal practice for most people. I believe that […]