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How To Learn Anything With Josh Kaufman

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In one of my favorite TED presentations, Josh Kaufman talks about the amazing ability of humans to aquire a new skill in a calculated time of less than 20 hours. He also evidently  explains the the misconception of the original 10,000 hour rule of learning something new. After completing his research he discovers that the 10,000 hour rule was developed after studying professional athletes and world class performers. He uses Malcolm Gladwell’s book called “Outliars, The Story of Success” to talk about the book’s idea on the 10,000 hour rule and compares to the game of telephone on how the idea of “it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert” was altered to “it takes 10,000 hours to learn something”. This dramatic change of meaning is false and has people confused in the amount of time it takes to aquire any new skill.

The main idea still stands in where the more you practice the better you will become. But the confusion lies when you ask how long it takes to be fairly good at it from being grossly incompetant. Josh Kaufman through his own experince states it only takes 20 hours of deliberate focus and concentration. His first tip is to deconstruct the skill and break it apart so that you focus on the most important assests. His second approach is to learn enough so that you can self correct and notice your mistakes. The third way is to remove the distractions the will prevent you from sitting down and doing work.The fourth and final step is to be comitted and stick to practicing for 20 hours.

In this presentation he shows his new skill of playing the ukulele which he learned in 20 hours. He tells the people to make sure they have the tools they need in order to practice and learn to do the prep work before actually practicing. In his case he had to learn how to put on the strings of the ukulele before he could even start playing. By playing the instrument at the end, he fulfilled his deserved credibility and convinced the audience of the minimum 20 hour limit of studying and concentration to one narrow subject.

MO THE MIND-READER

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There are many things that Mo has kept secret from the public, such as his unique abilities that give him a distinctive edge when he speaks or presents in front of an audience. After the many requests from the people, Mo is willing to share his secret with the rest of the world.

At the age of six was when it became visible that Mo was not like the other kids in his class. He would not speak a word for days, but would have his eyes locked on the teacher and would not turn for even the slightest noise or interruption. He began listening so much that his memory grew to be remarkable. He wouldn’t speak much, but one thing he did say was that “listening through ears is simple but to listen through the eyes is real talent.” He would live with this quote and became so good at practicing what he preached that he could hear you without you saying a word. He used say that “a person with such a loud body didn’t need to speak a single word.” In other words what he meant to say was that someone whose body language was so visibly animated didn’t need to speak a word to get his point across.

In high school Mo developed his power of reading minds. He would just need to have direct eye contact with someone to determine how they fell about him or what they are thinking about. When giving presentations, Mo took full advantage of this ability and used it to its fullest capability. He would begin his presentation and scan the room to see how the audience responds even before they have a chance to give any feedback. It took practice but Mo became so good that he would talk in a certain way so that most members in the audience would be satisfied. During interviews, is when it worked the best. That was because when Mo would begin his interview he would already know what kind of response the employer would give and if he impressed him well enough to earn the position. His elevator pitch has become so authentic that employers would hire him on the spot.

With his many advantages came weaknesses. One weakness Mo still suffers with today is being overly meticulous. In the beginning teachers and friends would tell him its good but after it became so hard to move forward without having every little detail perfect, Mo realized he needed to learn to make mistakes and eventually learn from them.