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Ultralearning & Self Help

Ultralearning

I recently read Ultralearning. I thought it was good, despite the fact that it didn’t teach me anything. To some extent, it’s because I’ve spent a while ‘learning how to learn’ already, so it’d be reasonable to expect that the typical reader might be able to glean something new from it. But most of the advice can be stowed away as trite. I can summarise the book in a sentence: dedicate yourself to a goal, throw yourself in at the deep end, and if/when you come unstuck, drill the pieces that you’re struggling with the most, then get back to it. And yet, it’s 200 pages. None of it is particularly insightful, or arranged in a novel fashion.

Its bundled stories also don’t hit interesting notes when they’re removed from the sweep of the book. Some samples: Feynman was able to do things intuitively because he worked really hard on his fundamentals and never stopped working hard to understand things (~10 pages). There is a guy who can learn languages really fast and his method involves throwing himself in the deep end. And so on.

And yet, I’d recommend it to I also think that if you're jumping into 'Learning How to Learn', it's a good primer on best practices - but the true value is in its feel. I’ve come away from the book with a real sense of motivation. It may be temporary, but it’s been consistent over the last two weeks. Given some fairly major exams at the end of this month (at time of writing), I’m grateful - the odds of them going well have increased.

Why? There’s an element of being reminded of effective learning techniques, but that’s secondary to the way that the book reminds you. Lord willing, the first two paragraphs of this article haven’t sent you on your way with a spring in your step, and both desires and concrete plans to know more If they have, feel free to shoot me $5; it's a little discount on the book itself. My prose is clipped and cagey, steeped in reservation. Nothing about it suggests that you can’t do it - if anything it suggests that you should be able to effortlessly, significantly more effortlessly than would be the case in real life - and even more cleanly than It's actually very upfront about the idea that a lot of it will suck, but never wavers from the point that it's worth it. But it’s not even vaguely motivational - if anything it’s a put down. It’s so easy and so obvious that you should already be able to do it. Of course, it’s not. It requires a lot of momentum to do any of this - and momentum is what the book’s selling.

Ultralearning makes it clear that it’s a leap, but that you can do it. But you can only do it if you believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself and keep your head in the game, though, you will get what you want. Every single sentence sits in place to further the idea that learning quickly and effectively is for you. That going to the deep end makes you a badass. That it’s Cringe means 'bad and also explicitly low status' if you're reading this in a time period after 2019-21. I don't think anyone has vocally expressed a desire to be badass since ~1998. for doing it. And, if you’re procrastination prone but think of yourself as someone who could be doing a bit more - it says it in your voice!

All of this requires space: there’s a reason that despite me covering 99% of the book in a single run on sentence, the thing itself runs long. The sentences smother you. You need pace to run into the anecdotes without rolling your eyes. Reading it in one session isn’t likely, so you’re going to be able to re-up on this over multiple. It’s spaced repetition, but for a feeling - something an informationally identical blog post can’t provide.

And in general?

This pretty much generalises to the entire genre:

All of these are at least a hundred sides. All of them basically say nothing new, but A limited defence of the Secret is another thing entirely - I reckon it's definitely not going to be in the voice of anyone who's reading me. The latter two are nice little books. are worthwhile reads. Elephant in the Brain was https://mobile.twitter.com/yashkaf/status/1287751669284044803 Anyone could have delivered the content, almost anyone could’ve done it faster, but the books all capture a certain energy. The Secret offers rewards, and couches everything in a mysticism to appeal to people who like their spirituality layered on thick. Elephant in the Brain really wants its message in aspie hands, and comfortably speaks their language. Finite and Infinite Games is going to hit right for slightly pretentious fellas that just wanna enjoy life a little bit more; its heavy-handed metaphors tend to shift into a direction for someone slightly lost.

And they have tangible benefits. Hope, transmitted in your voice, alongside a bit of useful advice, sticks in the brain in the way some singular truth won’t. Sometimes, it’ll be there for two weeks, sometimes longer. But the key thing is, as long a person’s ability to control their own mind isn’t perfect, self-help provides the tools to embed vibes when they’re needed most.