What techniques do you use to learn something new?

7 comments

1. Reading.

2. Are we talking knowledge about Sanskrit literature or changing the oil on your car? Because the “explaining a small physical task” YouTube is the most helpful and wholesome corner of YouTube.

3. Google. I type in a keyword or two and start reading.

4. You compare it to existing knowledge. “It’s *like* x.”

5. I’m an overthinker, so i familiarize myself not with how to do it but why it works the way it does. That way i can not only deduce things i may have forgotten, but also deduce new things or recognize gaps in my knowledge (“this shouldn’t be able to work this way but it clearly does, so i’m missing an important detail”)

   It’s probably the most painful way to learn but also the most valuable.

   When it comes to made up things like languages or something, i just repeat until it sticks. Which it usually doesn’t.

6. I’m not sure what you mean by anchoring knowledge. Knowledge is knowledge – you take it in or not.

   I might need some practical experience depending on what I’m taking in but usually just research the subject and apply what I already know to it.

   It’s something I have to do often in my job – I might be interested in a company whose industry sector I know nothing about, and I need to know enough to actually bet company money on it.

7. Adaptability, creativity, confidence.