The first 20 hours -- how to learn anything | Josh Kaufman | TEDxCSU

Becoming a Parent The speaker shares his experience of becoming a parent and how it completely changes one's life. He talks about the challenges of learning to be a parent, such as dressing the child, and balancing work with parenting responsibilities.

"I am never going to have free time ever again" "Week eight" into parenthood brings sleep deprivation and the realization that there may not be any more free time in the future. The speaker expresses concern about not being able to pursue his passion for learning new things without sufficient free time.

Seeking Solutions: Learning How We Learn To find ways to continue learning despite limited free time, the speaker turns to research on effective learning methods. He explores books and websites that discuss acquiring new skills quickly.

The Myth of 10,000 Hours After extensive reading on skill acquisition, including popularized notions like '10,000 hours,' which suggests significant practice is required for mastery; however,the video ends before revealing what he discovered through his research.

"The 10,000 hour rule" is a popular concept that suggests it takes this amount of time to become an expert in any field. However, this idea has been misinterpreted and exaggerated over time. The original research by K. Anders Ericsson focused on expert-level performance in competitive fields such as sports and music. He found that deliberate practice for around 10,000 hours was common among top performers in these areas. But the message got distorted when Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers: The Story of Success" popularized the notion without clarifying its context or limitations.

"The learning curve" refers to the process of acquiring new skills and improving performance over time. Research studies show that when individuals start a new task, they initially struggle and take a long time to complete it. However, with practice, their performance improves significantly. This early stage of improvement is fast and efficient. Eventually, there comes a point where further progress becomes more challenging and takes longer to achieve."

"20 hours" is all it takes to go from knowing nothing about a skill to becoming proficient. Whether it's learning a language, drawing, or even juggling flaming chainsaws, dedicating focused and deliberate practice for just 20 hours can yield astounding results. This translates to approximately 45 minutes of daily practice over the course of a month.

Accumulating 20 hours of practice is achievable even with occasional breaks. However, it's important to have a method in place for optimal results. Simply spending 20 hours randomly won't lead to significant improvements. Instead, practicing intelligently and efficiently is key.

Deconstructing Skills To effectively learn a skill, you need to deconstruct it into smaller pieces. By breaking down the skill and identifying its essential components, you can focus on practicing the most important parts first. This approach allows for quicker improvement in performance.

"Learn Enough" Principle "Learn enough" principle emphasizes the importance of self-correction in learning. Instead of getting overwhelmed by numerous resources, gather three to five relevant sources that provide sufficient knowledge for practice without becoming a form of procrastination.

To improve your learning, it is important to self-correct and self-edit as you practice. This helps you become better at recognizing mistakes and making adjustments. Additionally, removing distractions such as television and the internet can help create a focused environment for effective practice.

Practicing for at least 20 hours increases the likelihood of actually sitting down and practicing. Most skills have a frustration barrier, where feeling incompetent can be discouraging. By committing to practice for 20 hours, you can overcome this initial frustration and stick with it long enough to see progress.

The speaker shares their desire to learn how to play the ukulele and decides to put in 20 hours of practice. They emphasize the importance of having an ukulele and getting it ready for practice, including attaching strings and tuning.

"How to play songs" discusses the process of learning and playing songs on the ukulele. The speaker initially felt overwhelmed by the numerous chords in a chord book but soon realized that most songs only use four or five chords repeatedly. They discovered a medley of pop songs by Axis of Awesome, which revealed that knowing just four chords (G, D, Em, and C) allows one to play almost any pop song from the past five decades. Excited about this discovery, they decided to learn their first song using these four chords.

"Gangnam Style" is a popular song that I love. It reminds me of amazing times and the feeling of being in love.

"The major barrier to learning something new is not intellectual, it's emotional. Feeling stupid in the beginning of learning anything new can be discouraging. However, by putting in just 20 hours into any skill or interest, you can overcome this barrier and start enjoying the process."