How To Learn Anything Faster | Tina Huang

0:00When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Fall has never looked or tasted this good. Sweet Greens Fall Harvest Menu is back with seasonal favorites dressed to impress and made to be devoured. Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed brussels, and crave worthy flavors in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate, and roasted bacon brussel side. The season's most desirable menu has returned to sweet green. It's entering Fall's best dressed. Make your move. Order on the sweet green app.

1:01This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents. But choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love, and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes. This video is sponsored by Brilliant. But more about the later in the video. Hey guys, how's it going? Welcome back to another video. So in this video, I'm going to talk about how to learn things faster, which is a skill that I have honed over the years as I went from pre-med and pharmacology to bong for medics to computer science, slash software engineering, and then finally to data science. Because I jumped around so much during my career, it really forced me to learn things very quickly. Just so that I can keep up, get a job, and like knock at fire on the job. So in this video, I'm going to talk about my top systems and tips to learn things faster,

2:02and so that you can actually remember the things that you learn and apply them in the real world. It is not however cramming, because if you did that, you would just learn things at a very shallow level, and then probably forget everything anyway. But here we want to learn things properly, but quickly. Before we get started, I also need to give a shout out and a lot of credit to ultra-learning, as well as learning how to learn. A lot of my techniques are based off the concepts that they talk about in these resources, so I highly recommend you check them out. So I'll link in the description. Alright, let's go. Technique number one to learn things faster is to have a compass and a map. What I mean by this is first, you need to have a goal destination, and then you spend some time building up your map on how to get there. Let's talk about the goal first. I find that a lot of people learn stuff without having a goal. They're just like, I want to learn SQL. I want to learn Python. I want to learn guitar, like something like that. They just want to learn a really broad skill, but without any particular goal in mind. So the issue with this is that if you don't have a goal in mind, how do you know where it is that you should be heading? That's the equivalent of just randomly running around and hoping that one day you arrive at

3:04this mysterious place where you have now mastered SQL, or you have now mastered Japanese, or something like that. That's pretty vague, isn't it? And how do you even know that you actually learned it? So instead, you should have a specific goal in mind. For example, I want to learn Python so I can build a web app. I want to learn SQL so that I can get a job, or I want to learn Japanese so that I can watch more anime and become a true otaku. And after you determine your goal, then you should make a map for yourself. So do some research on what's the best way of learning this skill. This is Quoba Isaac Newton, which is if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulder of giants. You should take advantage of the people who learned the skill before you and figure out what's the best way of approaching this. And then construct a map that is most efficient to take you to a place where you want to be. Do some of them from research and don't go about reinventing the wheel again. For example, I wanted to learn SQL so I can get a data science job. So my destination was passing the interview, being able to ace the interview questions that we're going to be asked. So with that in mind, I said, I'm constructing my map. I broke down a different component that I would need to learn in order to ace that interview.

4:07And this is what the help of subreddits towards data science and different articles to figure out what are the things that I need to learn. In this way, I have a clear goal in mind and all the steps that I need to do in order to go towards that goal. I would know to steer myself straight forward and not be distracted by different rabbit holes or different tangents that would make my learning slower. So in other words, you should be like Naruto who clearly knew that he wanted to be Hokage. And then he diligently studied the past of the other Hokage's so that he was able to follow in their footsteps. Number two technique to learn things faster is straight to the bullseye. This basically means that whatever it is that you're trying to master, you should practice that as closely as possible. Don't daily daily learning things that are only tangential were not necessary at all. For example, when I was learning SQL for that data science interview, I did not go and read an entire book about SQL and then do like a course on SQL or do like practice problems that have multiple choice, which is completely different for what my interview questions would be like. Instead, I practice real SQL interview questions.

5:09And specifically, the questions that were being asked for the specific position at the specific company that I was interviewing for. What I did was I went through Glassdoor and literally wrote down all the different questions that were being asked and then did them with the priority of the ones that showed up the most. I also did these questions in this style that was as close to the interview as possible. So I wasn't like looking up syntax, were like writing pseudocode that didn't actually work. I was like very strict with myself and followed procedures of exactly what would happen during my interview. And this was the shortest path because I was practicing exactly what it was that I wanted to master straight to the bullseye. This in total took me 11 days starting from absolutely nothing to being able to pass my interview. By the way, if you're interested in my SQL for data science interviews guys with 10 realistic mock interviews, you can check it out in the descriptions. So before we move on to the next tip, I want to address a little bit why it is that people generally go on this longer path, like this indirect path. And that's because during it directly is so much harder, so much more frustrating, and you also have to face the reality very clearly that you aptly suck at the skill.

6:09It's so much easier just earning stars in a course, like passively consuming information. We're like, you know, doing multiple choice questions that are not at all reflective of reality because it's easier. But this is a huge waste of time and you really need to start working on things directly if you want to learn things faster. Like if you want to be a Sasuke, you need to keep fighting Sasuke. Not fight a bunch of easy people, so it makes you feel better and think that you're progressing. The third technique for learning things faster is by strengthening the weakest link. Have you guys heard of the saying that the chain is as strong as its weakest link? So in order to strengthen the chain as a whole, you need to strengthen that weakest part. For example, when I was learning to make YouTube videos, I was making video after video. And my goal at that time was to create a video that had a thousand views, like a thousand people wanted to watch that video. As I practiced making videos, I quickly realized that my weakest link was my editing. My scripting skills, my speaking skills, my titles and thumbnails, they were not the best, but they were all right. But my editing was absolutely atrocious. So I doubled down exactly on that area. I took parts of an editing course and then also looked at a lot of YouTube videos that

7:12I liked and noticed how it is that they did their editing and then transferred that to what I was doing. I also learned to be much more efficient and be able to cut down my whole editing time by like 20-30%. By doubling down on the editing portion, I was able to learn more quickly on how to produce a good video and reach my... When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at ND.com slash podcast. That's ND.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is the job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Fall has never looked or tasted this good. Sweet Greens Fall Harvest Menu is back with seasonal favorites dressed to impress and made to be devoured. Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed brussels and crave worthy flavors

8:15in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate and roasted bacon brussels side. The season's most desirable menu has returned to sweet green. It's entering Fall's best dressed. Make your move. Order on the sweet green app. This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents. But choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks. Now made with no artificial dyes. A goal of getting a thousand views faster. So in the future, it's good to do the entire skill, but also start picking out where it is that you're weakest at and then just really focusing on that to maximize your efforts. Like if you keep challenging Sasuke and you keep losing over and over again, it's probably because you have poor chakra control and you're just kind of like excluding all the nine

9:15hills powers and not being able to focus it precisely so that it attacks Sasuke strategically. Now let's talk a little bit about today's sponsor, Brilliant. Brilliant is an interactive online platform that teaches you fun hands-on lessons in math, science, computer science for all abilities and levels. The key word here is interactive because the best way to learn is by actually doing it yourself. Brilliant teaches you to problem solve and gives clear intuitive ways to approach questions. The brilliant platform itself actually has a lot of these different techniques and tips that we talked about today. It takes right into that platform so it helps you learn STEM subjects much quicker. In particular right now for me, I'm learning about blockchain and taking an applied course in blockchain, but I'm also supplementing it with Brilliant's cryptocurrency course because it goes in so much more depth about the math behind the technology. You can get started for free and join in millions of people who are already learning on Brilliant. Head on over to the link over here and also in description. The first 200 people who sign up using my link will get 20% off the annual membership. Right, back to the video. My fourth tip on how to learn things faster is to view notes as a framework.

10:20I know so many people who spend like ages and ages perfecting their notes, writing them beautifully, copying diagrams, painstakingly, color coding, everything. And sorry to break it to you, very beautiful. I truly appreciate the inspiration, but that is not at all efficient and you're wasting so much time doing that. In my opinion, notes have two purposes. The first one is to keep yourself concentrated so your mind doesn't wander off when you're learning something. And the second is to create a framework of references. I made a video which I'll link over here somewhere about how exactly I take notes, the entire full system. Basically, I take notes of the structure or the framework of how information is being organized. And then I put references in that framework so I can quickly look up things when I need more details about it. I don't sit there and try to write down all the details because we're into information age guys. Like we don't need to remember every single little detail. You can just look it up. What I'm really learning here is the high level understanding. And like what are the terms that you're even looking up? Like what are the concepts that you need to find more details on?

11:21Within the framework, I also often write down page numbers or like specific places to reference so that in the future, I can always go back to that material. I'll give you guys an example. Like I'm currently learning about the blockchain and it's pretty technical course where you actually have to implement your own personal blockchain. And there was a section called consensus mechanisms. So I did not go and write down every single consensus mechanism and the write down exactly how every single thing works. You know, instead I just wrote down, for example, consensus mechanism proof of stake. And I wrote very briefly, it's invalidation that is proportional to holdings. And then another consensus mechanism is proof of work, which then I briefly wrote, makes use of significant effort in my name. And because I'd brought on these two terms and quickly what they mean, I can quickly just go and Google it when I want to know the details. The fifth technique for how to learn things faster is retrieval. Take a look at this graph. It is called the forgetting curve. You're learning a lot of the stuff. And then you're basically forgetting most of it. And then you have to relearn again in the future. But where are you not? There is a good way of combating this called retrieval. And retrieval is just a fancy way of saying of testing yourself and being able to answer

12:24questions with your own words. For example, my undergrad when I was studying pharmacology, there were so many drug pathways that we had to memorize. I swear I was like 200 drug pathways or something like that. It was just ridiculous. I was so easy to forget because there were so many steps in between as well. So what I did was that after reviewing each of these drug mechanisms, I wouldn't force myself to say the entire mechanism from memory. And then only if I just absolutely cannot figure out a step, then I would look at the answers. And by doing that, I was able to retain the information so much better. In fact, I still remember a lot of these drug pathways. They're like ingrained in my brain now. The reason why this works is that every time by judging the information from your brain cells, you're actually strengthening the connections between the neurons, the brain cells that are encoding that information into your brain. And as stronger it is, then the more likely it is that you'll remember. And there's a lot of scientific evidence for this. Like look at this graph over here. If you do retrieval, it makes a huge difference on the forgetting curve. And you don't have to sit there and relearn stuff and waste time. For those of you who understand things better in our root of terms, it's like making sure

13:26that you don't forget your russangun so you should keep throwing your russangun at sasuke and everybody around you. The sixth technique to learn things faster is to solicit feedback. Feedback is often scary and it hurts your feelings, but feedback is a gift. It helps you identify where exactly it is that you need to focus on because sometimes it's really hard to see them yourself. The book, ultra learning categories, feedback can do three different categories. Outcome based, informational and correctional. To illustrate these, let's take an example in which you code a thing, but the thing does not work. And you are very sad. Outcome feedback is basically you have a really shitty interpreter that only tells you that your thing doesn't work. I mean, it's good to know that it doesn't work, but it's not very helpful because you don't know where it is that you should even be looking at so that you can try to make it work. Second time, a feedback is informational. This is a modern day in compiler. It would tell you which lines it is that it thinks it's causing issues, but it will not tell you how to fix these issues. This is better than outcome based because at least you now know where it is that you should be looking at. The third time, a feedback, which is also the best type of feedback, is correctional feedback.

14:27You can start having a friend who can point out why it is that it's not working and also offer suggestions for how to fix it. Or like I guess if you don't have any friends, a relatively good substitute is that you copy paste the error, put it in the stack overflow, hopefully someone there has a solution, and you can learn how to fix it and maybe even how to optimize things further. So through your learning process, if you want to learn things faster, solicit feedback as much as you can, especially correctional if you can, but even correctional and outcome based can be useful. Trust me, it can fast track you so much and it can help you save so much time. Go find your Chewriah. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

15:28Fall has never looked or tasted this good. Sweet Greens Fall Harvest Menu is back with seasonal favorites dressed to impress and made to be devoured. Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed brussels, and crave worthy flavors in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate, and roasted bacon brussels side. The season's most desirable menu has returned to sweet green, featuring Fall's best dressed. Make your move, order on the sweet green app. This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. The next technique in order to learn things faster is experimentation.

16:31The experimentation is the difference between good and great. When you're learning things, the best mindset is by trying to understand that concept deeply, and you do this by experimenting and playing around with the thing you're trying to learn. This method may seem like it would actually waste more time, but not at all. You're able to develop intuition and a deeper understanding of that skill. So when you have to solve complex problems, you're able to do so faster. This is a technique where habit a lot of famous people do like Alvarine's Thine, Nicholas Tesla, and Feynman with his Feynman technique. An example of when I use this technique is, for example, I'm learning how to code in a new language. I actually purposely break parts of that code to understand how it is that it functions. And I also always try to come up with multiple solutions to the problem that I'm facing. And I think this has helped me a lot in gaining a deeper understanding and mastering the skill faster in the long run. Like for example, when I was studying computer science in my master's degree, dynamic programming was a concept that was really hard for me to wrap my head around. So in order to understand it better, what I would do is take the DP equation and start

17:32changing parts of it, trying to understand how each component fit into each other in the entire logic. So I would also try to tackle the problem using different DP solutions as well as non-DP solutions to understand better the differences between them. Overall, this helped a lot in my grass with DP. Find on a Rudo reference to drive home the point. Say you want to master Kagya Bonshin no Jitsu in order to learn and master the technique better, you should start experimenting and doing different variations of it. For example, alternating the different amount of shadow clones you have or doing sexy Jitsu. This helps you really master the skill and comes in quite handy sometimes. Alright, that's all I have for you guys today. I hope this video was helpful. Let me know which of these techniques that you use personally, where which ones you think would be the most helpful for you. And I'll see you guys in the next video with livestream. Fall has never looked or tasted this good. Sweet Greens Fall Harvest Menu is back with seasonal favorites dressed to impress and

18:37made to be devoured. Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed brussels, and crave worthy flavors in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate, and roasted bacon brussel side. The season's most desirable menu has returned to sweet green, featuring Fall's best dress. Make your move. Order on the sweet green app. If you heard that McDonald's spicy chicken McNuggets made with spicy tempura and a blend of aged cayenne are back. Remember to grab a few extra napkins. Bottom up up up up up up up. For a limited time at participating McDonald's. When you shop pick up at Fred Meyer, you can expect the savings you love and fresh groceries selected just for you. Our associates are committed to getting every detail right. Carefully hand picking your items, checking for quality and freshness and packing your order with care. Because bringing you fresh, quality groceries is what we do best. And right now, enjoy $30 off your first online order of $75 or more.

19:38Restrictions apply, seasite for details. Fred Meyer. Fresh for everyone. Get business done with the new American Express Graphite Business Cash Unlimited card. With unlimited 2% cashback on all eligible purchases. Unlimited 5% cashback on flights and prepaid hotels, booked through American Express Travel Online and a flexible spending capacity that can grow with your business. You'll have the confidence to keep building. Apply today and earn a welcome offer of $1,500 cashback. After you spend $50,000 in qualifying purchases on your new card within the first six months of card membership. Terms apply. Learn more at go.com. Flash Graphite. Close your eyes, exhale. Fill your body relax, let go of whatever you're carrying today. While I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. Get them delivered free from 1-800 contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And free. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

20:421-800-contacts. I'm not giving up. I am showing the building. The final season of FX is the bear. Restaurant is flooded. Everything's either going to be okay or not. We are outgunned and we are outmanned but we have each other. FX is the bear. The final season. All episodes now streaming on Disney+.