Impose new constraints to break old habits. Trying new ways of doing things forces your brain to approach tasks differently. Constraints challenge you to think creatively and develop innovative solutions.Find a coach to guide your performance. A coach can provide real-time feedback and suggest adjustments, helping you improve more efficiently. External guidance allows you to focus on executing tasks while receiving valuable insights.

Unlearning Requires New Constraints and Coaching

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions."

"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery—it’s the sincerest form of learning."

"See, do, and seek feedback"

"Unlearning is the highest form of learning."

"The more you practice, the luckier you get."

Quantity leads to quality. The more you practice, the more opportunities you have to improve and innovate. High productivity allows you to explore various approaches and find the best methods.Streamline non-creative tasks. You free up mental energy for creative and complex work by automating or simplifying routine tasks. This efficiency boosts your overall productivity and effectiveness.

Do: Leverage Productivity to Achieve Breakthroughs

Use feedback to refine skills and correct mistakes. Constructive criticism helps you identify weaknesses and areas for improvement. Embracing feedback allows you to unlearn bad habits and adopt better techniques.Stay adaptable to avoid functional fixedness. Being open to new methods and perspectives helps you avoid becoming stuck in rigid thinking. Flexibility allows you to see multiple uses and solutions for a given problem.

Feedback: Learn How to Unlearn

Observing experts is key. Watching top performers tackle tasks helps you learn effective strategies and techniques. It allows you to see the standards to aim for and identify areas for improvement.Practice and repetition solidify skills. The more you do something, the better you get at it. Consistent practice helps refine your techniques and build muscle memory, improving performance.Feedback is crucial for growth. Constructive criticism helps you understand your mistakes and learn from them. Actively seeking feedback allows you to make necessary adjustments and continuously improve.

To Enhance Your Performance, Follow the 'See, Do, and Seek Feedback' Approach

Imitating experts helps you learn faster. You can quickly absorb effective practices by copying the methods and techniques of those who excel in your field. This approach helps you bypass the trial-and-error phase and get to proficiency faster.Break down complex information into manageable chunks. Organizing information into smaller, easily digestible parts makes it easier to remember and apply. This method reduces cognitive load and enhances learning efficiency.

See: Exploit the Power of Imitation

There’s no limit to what you can learn, from quantum physics to backgammon, Hungarian, or silversmithing. Even close-up magic and tap dancing are within your reach! The important thing is not what you learn but how you learn it. Understanding the learning process empowers you, giving you the tools to take control of your learning journey.

The author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Ultralearning explores why it’s so difficult for people to learn new skills, arguing that three factors must be met to make advancement possible, and offering 12 maxims to improve the way we learn.Life revolves around learning—in school, at our jobs, even in the things we do for fun. Yet learning is often mysterious. Sometimes it comes fairly effortlessly: quickly finding our way around a new neighborhood or picking up the routine at a new job. In other cases, it’s a slog. We may spend hours in the library, yet still not do well on an exam. We may want to switch companies, industries, or even professions, but not feel qualified to make the leap. Decades spent driving a car, typing on a computer, or hitting a tennis ball don’t reliably make us much better at them. Improvement can be fickle, if it comes at all.In Get Better At Anything, Scott Young argues that there are three key factors in helping us learn:See—Most of what we know comes from other people. The ease of learning from others determines, to a large extent, how quickly we can improve.Do—Mastery requires practice. But not just any practice will do. Our brains are fantastic effort-saving machines, which can be both a tremendous advantage and a curse.Feedback—Progress requires constant adjustment. Not just the red stroke of a teacher’s pen, but the results of hands-on experience.When we’re able to learn from the example of other people, practice extensively ourselves, and get reliable feedback, rapid progress results. Yet, when one, or all, of these factors is inhibited, improvement often becomes impossible. Using research and real-life examples, Young breaks down these elements into twelve simple maxims. Whether you’re a student studying for an exam, an employee facing a new skill at work, or just want to get better at something you’re interested in, his insights will help you do it better.

GARY PLAYER

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