The author is self-claimed learning addict. He had many subjects he wanted to learn. But he did not have enough time for them. To learn anything fast, he wanted to develop a system or a set of rules to follow. By extracting from some pedagogy disciplines and scientific research for biology, he came up with 10 principles. Then he applied the principles for several new subjects of his interest, like Yoga and Go, in his book.
I like efficiency. Personally, If I do something seriously for like 10 years and still do not get very good at it, I'd feel ridiculous. And it helps if the "beginning barrier" can be overcome quickly. So I gave the book a try. I liked it. It was an enjoyable read.
The principles he formulated ("Chapter 3: Ten Principles of effective learning") are as follows;
1. Research the skill and related topic
2. Jump in over your head
3. Identify mental models and mental hooks
4. Imagine the opposite of what you want
5. Talk to practitioners to set expectations
6. Eliminate distractions in your environment
7. Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization
8. Create scaffolds and checklists
9. Make and test predictions
10. Honor your biology
Intuitively they look correct and on the mark. A difficulty for a new learner is that the learner has no idea how to organize the new information for the new skills according to these principles.
Incidentally, I am slowly working on another Tango book project about how to dance stage tango.
The book is intended to aid dancers who want to dance tango on stage. Usually, designing a stage tango is a professional's job (they are there for you to make it easy for you). Alternatively, we imitate cool performances that we saw and choreograph the dance by ourselves. Whichever path you choose, there are helpful things if you know.
Once you get past a question, "to do or not to do the stage tango", and commit to the stage tango, the rest is all about improvements in dance quality and audience impact. There are a lot of tips, exercising, drills and tricks for the improvements. And the tips, exercising, drills and tricks are all teachable and learn-able.
If I address my points according to the principles, can I teach (or can a new student learn) the skill fast? Probably, yes.
Take "8. Create scaffolds and checklists". This involves setting up a deadline (performance date) and creating a task list for the performance. I can add "5. Talk to practitioners to set expectations" for designing the task list in a reasonable chronological order.
Since improving dancing requires negotiation with your own body, "10. Honor your biology" will be an innate necessity as well.
As I have been busy in my work (science-cancer research) and other events in my life, this Stage Tango book project, a sequel to my previous book for beginning Tango, has been going slowly for some time. I enjoy coming back to the project on weekends and working on the design and some writing.
It's a stage tango alright. Do you want to do it, and do it well?
And this is the Josh Kaufman's book.
