Ultralearning, for Fun and Profit

September 21, 2019

I got back into Raleigh on Amtrak last night. This past week has seen me in Detroit for vacation, then Arlington, VA for a week of work at the home office. I wish I could say any of that was relaxing, but I’m exhausted. This morning I reconnected with my wife and recuperated from an indulgent time away, in which far too little sleep was had.

On the train last night, I was reading Ultralearning, a book from Scott H. Young, who I’ve been following for years. Although we’re around the same age, he was out there writing about learning and thinking better while I was still in college, over 10 years ago. His new book is great, and I recommend it highly if you want to understand how learning works, and how to apply that knowledge to your own personal education projects.

I was homeschooled, so a lot of my early learning was self-directed. I had a lot of freedom to focus on things I was interested in, and wasn’t stuck learning whatever the rest of my class would have been learning in a traditional school setting. I saw firsthand how valuable it is to be able to teach yourself.

Traditional school settings often aren’t teaching the skills you need most in business or in life, so it behooves us all to be able to learn new things on our own. And in today’s job marketplace, we’re all forced to constantly renew our skills and stay on top of the latest technologies and methods.

There’s more to learn than there ever has been before. Back in the day of someone like Charles Darwin, the scientific world was much more narrow, and you could be a master of many disciplines. Today, there is a knowledge explosion, and it is much harder to keep up with the latest developments across many fields.

Still, the need to develop a deep understanding of the world is crucial. Our environment is becoming more complex, and we need to evolve along with it. Scott’s book can help you do that faster and better than if you just go about it without a roadmap.

Having followed Scott for years, I knew a book was an almost inevitable part of his future, but I find myself quite proud of him for the accomplishment. It’s awesome to see someone you both look up to and consider a peer achieve their goals and accomplish exciting things. It makes me think, hey, maybe I could do that too.

By the way, Scott didn’t pay me to write this. We’ve exchanged a couple of emails, but I wouldn’t even say I know the guy. I’m just a big fan, and I love supporting my fellow writers in any way I can, whether that’s buying their books, writing Amazon reviews, or telling others.

If you’re interested in learning how to speak a foreign language, excel in your profession, or just do life better, get yourself a copy of Ultralearning. It’s an enjoyable read, full of interesting characters.