How to learn a new skill quickly

One of my favorite authors on accelerated learning is Josh Kaufman. I was therefore intrigued when Youtube suggested this interview with Kaufman to me when I opened the Youtube app today. Josh Kaufman is the author of The Personal MBA – Master the art of business,

Which has shaped my career. I think I have read that book at least three times, and I will definitely read it again. It has an enormous amount of information compressed into that book. If you want to learn a new skill, for example a language, then this video is going to give you some valuable tips on how to accelerate that process and break it down to small, incremental steps.

You can become really, really good at something, surprisingly good at something, in as little as 20 hours.

At 03:30, he debunks the “myth” that it takes 10.000 hours to get good at anything. Really, it does not apply to most of us at all.

Here are the steps in order:

1. Decide on the target proficiency level
2. Deconstruct the skill into subskills
3. Research the skill just enough to understand what to start with
4. Eliminate barriers to practice
5. Pre-commit to practicing for at least 20 hours

After watching the video, I purchased his audiobook (because I hardly ever find time to open those ink-on-paper books. My aspiration is to learn the programming language ruby on rails to the extent that I can code a simple application. What is your learning aspiration? Let me know in the comments field below!