{"id":1280,"date":"2009-12-11T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2018-04-04T02:42:30","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T09:42:30","slug":"friday-links-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/11\/friday-links-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Links"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Web<\/h2>\n

Fluent in Three Months<\/a> – This is the blog of Benny Lewis, international vagabond, octolinguist and all-round interesting guy. The blog explores his current goal of going from zero language skill to fluency in three months. My prediction: Benny will be joining the A-list of bloggers soon, if his writing continues as it does today.<\/p>\n

Are You a Guitar Player or Club Owner?<\/a> – Cal Newport explains the difference between hard focus and frenzied work:<\/p>\n

Learning to play bluegrass guitar is not a lot of fun. This being said, however, it\u2019s also not that demanding on your life: its daily time requirements are reasonable and it generates no stress. Furthermore, the effort will eventually provide big rewards, such as the experience of passing around the lead with a group of talented bluegrass musicians.<\/p>\n

Compare this goal with the related pursuit of running the music club<\/em> where such musicians play. Unlike learning the guitar, running a club is infamously demanding: It requires long, exhausting hours, and injects unhealthy amounts of stress into your life.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, the rewards don\u2019t compare to those experienced by the admired musicians entrancing the crowd.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the important point: most people are more comfortable becoming a club owner, even though the guitar player enjoys less stress and more rewards.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the Archives<\/h2>\n

Aggressive Learning<\/a> – “If you want to succeed, pick an easy target. If you want to improve, pick an impossibly hard target. Success in a goal and improvement are often opposite paths, so if you aren\u2019t clear on which you\u2019re trying to pursue, you may end up failing at both.”<\/p>\n

Update for Learning on Steroids<\/h2>\n

For those of you who just dropped by, in early January, I will be launching a new program designed to help people implement rapid learning tactics in their life. Reading is easy, but action is what matters.<\/p>\n

In addition to the holistic learning tactics<\/a> that have been an ever-popular topic on this website, I’m also going to be including experts I’ve recruited to offer their own methods:<\/p>\n