Recently, I tried to introduce the idea of ultralearning: deep, aggressive self-education. Since I’ve been discussing it more frequently, I thought it would be useful to clarify more precisely what I mean by it. To the casual reader this may seem pedantic, but I’m hoping for the more frequent reader of this blog this will […]
Advice Reversals
One of the topics I like to explore on this blog is meta-advice. That is, advice about advice. I don’t think this is as silly and abstract as it might at first seem. After all, we’re constantly being bombarded with suggestions for how to work, live, study, exercise, eat, sleep, date, etc. I think there’s […]
What Should Your Goals Be?
Often I get emails asking me how to learn better or be more productive. I can’t always give a good response. Presumably, if my articles failed to satisfy that curiosity, I don’t know how much better advice I can give to a stranger via email. But, I at least understand that desire—I write a lot […]
Fluency vs Mastery: Can You Be Fluent Without Being Good?
One of the things that surprised me the most during the year without English, was how quickly it became fairly easy and natural to live your life completely in a new language. In Spain, for instance, after a month of speaking only Spanish, it didn’t feel much more effortful than speaking English. However, after just […]