Hello listeners! In today’s interview we talk with Scott Young, a Canadian author who has recently published a book on ultra learning, defined as “intense self-education”: it can be seen as a great alternative to Universities and formal studies or as a power tool to widen the range of skills we have at our disposal. Scott has learned in 1 year the MIT 4-years computer science program and achieved other remarkable goals, so he’s talking from his own experience and will share some great insights with us that can be very useful within the context of FI. Enjoy!

We also talk about:

• Purposes for ultralearning
• Ultralearn a sport
• How many projects?
• The role of motivation
• Ultralearning with other people
• Implications in the hiring process

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Ultralearning as a tool to speed up the path to FI

Scott has completed a number of challenging learning projects like the MIT Challenge or the Year Without English: in order to identify what defines ultralearning and how it can be used, he has interviewed a number of people who achieved learning tasks in a self-directed way and in a short and intense period of time – people who do things differently and gain better results. This can be done for many purposes, mainly education – opening up a whole range of alternatives to formal studies that can be better suited to our learning process. Considering that many people start their FI journey with a phase of intense learning in the economic area, we can easily understand how ultralearning can become a powerful tool to speed up this process.

The principles of ultralearning

Ultralearning presents itself as an alternative to structured methods, so it’s difficult to give a definition of it in those terms: it’s much better to define a set of core principles that identify the common features of all the different ways in which ultralearning can actually be put to work. Scott gives a quick review of the principles he has identified: metalearning, focus, directness, drill, retrieval, feedback, intuition, experimentation. Each one sheds new light on the learning process, potentially unleashing resources we wouldn’t be able to use in full in a conventional context.

Time management for ultralearning

Finding the time for learning new skills is sometimes the hardest part, but most important is a correct time management that can help optimize resources and make the best out of the time we can dedicate. Scott talks about three main schemes to approach an ultralearning program: part-time, sabbaticals and retooling learning time. Actually, we can almost always find the time and resources to ultralearn new skills.

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Links

• Scott’s website
• Ultralearning
• Daniel Willingham’s website