How to learn efficiently and durably
Over the course of my life so far I have learnt a variety of skills, from the intellectual , like physics, to the more soft and intuitive or physical. Some of these areas I view myself as quite talented in, others not so much. Despite all that variation, a number of themes keep reappearing about what I believe is important for effectively improving a skill and maintaining that improvement:
A healthy overall lifestyle as a foundation to enable the physical processes underlying learning
Loops of exposure to content, recall/testing and feedback as the core learning methodology
Switching between
Doing the real thing, i.e. performing the actual skill we want to learn in the actual context we need it in, as far as that is possible
Drills isolating specific sticking points
This applies if the skill is reasonably well established. For an established skill, there is a decent amount of clarity around what is and isn’t good mastery of the skill, and experts are available that can give decent assessments of it - e.g. learning a well known dance. If you are building a skill that does not exist yet, e.g. trying to develop your own unique art style, this guide may be less applicable - though it can still be helpful for developing the more universal foundations that your art style is based on.
I will first elaborate my view on the best practices further, and then illustrate them through examples of learning efforts throughout my life - from achieving top grades studying physics at Cambridge without attending lectures, learning Mandarin to the point of passing the highest level of the relevant standardised test (HSK 6), receiving an offer at McKinsey and succeeding once there, as well as more low key efforts to become a social latin dancer.
A healthy foundation
A healthy lifestyle, aside from making our life directly more enjoyable, supports both
our learning process
our performance during key moments where we are applying the skills we learned, such as during an exam
Learning is a physical neurological process that occurs not only when we are actively learning, but also to a certain degree at all other times. An especially important time is sleep, because during sleep we
Consolidate and strengthen memories
Clear out toxins from the brain, preparing it for performance the next day
Non-sleep rest, which can include full rest such as going for a walk or simply lying down and doing nothing, or work that is not mentally challenging like doing laundry, is also helpful. Learning continues in the background while we are doing something else or let our mind wander, with a diffuse mode of thinking (as opposed to the focused mode of thinking when we are actively engaged in the task) consolidating memories and discovering creative solutions that might not come to us while we concentrate. More often than not energy and not time is the limiting factor for our learning progress, making it feasible to incorporate plenty of rest from learning activity into our schedule.
Physical exercise is very helpful for aiding learning, including the learning of completely unrelated non-physical skills. Most directly it does this by increasing neuroplasticity, but also by improving sleep quality. Both going on walks and intense exercise feel helpful to me, either as time where I rest from learning, or as time where I expose myself to audio content.
Finally, learning relies on the reward and motivation system, involving neurotransmitters such as dopamine, with a feeling of reward being triggered if we learn something or succeed at a task. If we engage in highly stimulating activities when we are not learning, this makes learning less appealing and less effective by desensitising us. Aside from stimulant drugs (going on a cocaine fuelled bender over the weekend will not aid learning the following week), technology is the biggest culprit here, with especially video games but also social media being designed to trigger the motivation system very effectively. It is worthwhile to at least experiment with cutting down on such stimulating activity (i.e. doing a “dopamine detox”), and tp observe what that does to our well-being as well as our learning progress.
These are the most important factors in my experience, but there are of course further factors contributing to health and also indirectly to learning, such as nutrition, hydration, air quality and a supportive social network.
Having a healthy foundation is important to support the learning process, but becomes even more important before key moments where we perform the skills we learnt. Many people work very hard leading up to the key moment and then rest afterwards, e.g. having an all-nighter before an exam and then collapsing once it is done. In fact, late night cramming is the absolute worst we can do - I always give myself sufficient sleep opportunity the day before a key performance moment, and often take the day before off completely from any study, work, or highly stimulating entertainment. Because I rested extensively before the performance moment, I often do not rest much afterwards, only maybe taking the rest of the day off and then going back to my normal rhythm. The only exception to this rest before performance approach is really the limited cramming of very simple knowledge that I have no intention of remembering long term - e.g. I would memorise the name of the CEO of a company I am interviewing with on the way to the interview. If the information is not available in advance, short term memorization is actually the only option. But it only works for a very limited amount of information - if a larger amount needs to be remembered, and it is available in advance, it is better to make a more extended learning effort starting well before the performance moment in order to bring the knowledge into long term memory.
The exposure, recall and feedback loop
Learning fundamentally consists of a sequence of 1) exposure to a concept, 2) recall / application / testing and 3) feedback, with at least the recall and feedback parts repeated multiple times.
Exposure means simply the initial introduction to the content, e.g. by reading a book or being demonstrated a movement. Sometimes we skip this step by simply winging it and then building on feedback. But at other times that is a less practical approach because
It is simply not possible to do the full skill without building it up first and being exposed to some knowledge. E.g. a physics problem can be impossible to solve for even the most talented person if they do not know certain definitions.
There is a risk of bad habits getting entrenched, e.g. intuitive but harmful movement patterns in some sports.
I believe that exposure is actually the smallest part of learning, at least in terms of amount of time spent, but that there are still a number of best practices (depending on the skill only some of these may be practical)
The content should be as directly relevant to what we are trying to achieve as possible, with not too much exposure to content that we do not need.
If we are learning a somewhat common skill, often the initial exposure does not need to be customised much to us. This means frequently the best source is cheap or free off-the-shelf polished content by the very best teachers of the subject, such as a book or popular YouTube video, as opposed to e.g. a live presentation by an average teacher.
Different people take different amounts of time to digest the content depending on their starting point, so a form of exposure where we can adjust the speed can make our learning more efficient. For example when reading a book, we can automatically adjust the speed at which we are reading and take breaks to digest. When attending a lecture, the speed may be so high that we cannot follow or we may waste time due to an unnecessarily slow speed. Lectures are really a legacy method from back when books were too expensive to give each student one, and really their only advantage is high relevance to the exam, and an externally prescribed schedule for those that find that helpful.
Understanding connections between content, e.g. being able to derive formulas for a quantitative subject, or understanding why a movement is done a certain way for a physical skill, usually leads to much better retention and transfer than trying to memorise isolated facts. I also find it a lot more enjoyable. Analogies can aid understanding, e.g. comparing electrical voltage to height difference because they both can store potential energy. We can force and test understanding by explaining a concept to ourselves or others using different words than the ones in the exposure material.
When understanding is less feasible, e.g. when memorising vocabulary or a checklist, mnemonics, which link something hard to remember to something easy to remember, can be helpful. For example there are a variety of mnemonics for the SCUBA diving safety checklist “BCD, Weights, Releases, Air, Final Check”, such as “Because We Really Aren’t Fish”. Mnemonics are also really useful for learning Chinese characters. Once the knowledge becomes more settled, we usually do not need the mnemonic anymore.
Recall means retrieving knowledge, e.g. by direct testing (such as looking at a flashcard of a word in a known language and trying to remember what the translation is) or applying the skill (e.g. actually talking), or by teaching someone else (which can be a very powerful way to reveal gaps in understanding). Recall is a requirement for receiving feedback, but it is also at the core of learning itself - recall is the most effective way to strengthen and consolidate memories. It is most efficient when it has become somewhat effortful, e.g. when some time has passed since the last successful recall. “Overlearning” by recalling very frequently while it is still easy on the other hand is less efficient. For simple knowledge such as vocabulary, a spaced repetition software such as Anki can be used to test us at close to optimal intervals, with the intervals increasing if the recall is successful and decreasing if it is not. For more complex skills this is less feasible, but spaced repetition can still be achieved by
Planning to learn over an extended period of time, or at least maintaining what is learned over an extended period of time. This is in contrast to e.g.
limiting learning to a short high intensity project, such as deciding to learn a language in three months and then being “finished” (an intense project however can still be useful to overcome major hurdles)
procrastinating beginning to study before an exam until quite close to the date
If we want to do a lot of learning, studying several things in parallel (“interleaving”) to avoid overlearning. This has the additional benefits of allowing diffuse thinking about one topic while we focus on another, and mixing up the cognitive context in which we perform the skill, allowing for wider applicability (see the later discussion of doing the real thing). One example of interleaving is university curricula teaching several subjects in parallel.
A common alternative to recall is repeated exposure, e.g. rereading a textbook, or a sort of passive recognition through multiple choice testing. There are two problems with this:
It does not strengthen memories as much as full active recall does.
It can lead to an “illusion of competence” - we recognize the piece of knowledge when we expose ourselves to it again, and falsely believe that that means we know it and can use it.
After recall / testing, we want to receive feedback at least some, and ideally most of the time. If we recall without feedback, we may in fact be strengthening incorrect “knowledge”. The feedback should be as close as possible to the recall to allow for rapid improvement. There are fundamentally two kinds of feedback:
Simply observing if we achieved a favourable outcome (e.g. passing an exam, swimming quickly, or the follower doing the dance move we’re trying to lead). The limitation of this is that from outcomes by themselves it is often not clear exactly what we need to change. However, outcome based feedback is essential to avoiding illusions of competence (falsely believing we have learned a skill) - after all certain outcomes are what we are learning a skill for in the first place.
The second type of feedback is targeted advice on what we should change. This could come from
A software (e.g. a flashcard showing the correct translation of a word) or study material (e.g. detailed solutions to a problem set). This is often very cheap and easy, but usually only works for simple skills
A formal teacher, ideally in a 1-on-1 context. Indeed hiring 1-on-1 tuition is a game changer for many skills, and I have used it for many learning efforts including physics, Mandarin, dancing and swimming. To make it financially sustainable it can be beneficial to either be in a low-wage country or take lessons remotely from a teacher in a low-wage country
Someone we are practising a skill on, e.g. a dance partner
A friend or colleague (including supervisors and reports) observing us performing the skill
In some contexts, such as school / university study, feedback is readily provided by the institutional framework. In other contexts, a key lever for improved learning is making an effort to receive more feedback, not only by hiring teachers, but also by
surrounding ourselves with people that are willing to give feedback. Regular feedback is one of the best parts of McKinsey’s culture for example, and I highly value friends that give me feedback about how I show up in social situations.
by directly asking for it. E.g. if I get rejected in a job search or even dating context I will usually ask for feedback, even if this feels awkward. I also ask several people for feedback before publishing a text like this one. However if people respond reluctantly to the feedback request, usually not worth it to keep pushing for it
by responding positively when we receive feedback, whether solicited or unsolicited. I will try to thank a person giving me feedback even if I do not agree with it and choose to not implement it (if you ask for a lot of feedback, you will find that you will necessarily have to disagree with some, because the feedback from various people ends up being conflicting - it is still useful however because patterns emerge and it spurs our own thinking). There is a saying at McKinsey that feedback is a gift - sometimes we choose to throw a gift away instead of using it, but we can still see positive intent in it
The biggest challenge is often psychological, with us attaching our sense of self-worth to a certain degree of perfection. It is important to instead try to accept ourselves at whatever capability level we have for the time being, have a growth mindset and get excited about being able to get better.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that positive feedback is just as useful as negative feedback - it helps us continue or double down on things that work well, motivates, helps maintain an accurate picture of our performance and makes it easier to accept negative feedback. A combination of positive and negative feedback is ideal.
Doing the real thing and drilling sticking points
Sometimes we learn something simply because we like the activity, e.g. reading a non-fiction book that we find interesting, even though we never plan to apply that knowledge in any way. But usually we are trying to build an ability to perform a certain task. To avoid developing an illusion of competence, our learning method needs to include performing the skill in as close to realistic of a way as possible. E.g.
If we want to pass an exam, doing past exam papers, sometimes timed, sometimes in unfamiliar surroundings (because the exam hall will be unfamiliar)
If we want to be able to speak in a language, actually speaking to non-teacher native speakers in that language
This of course requires us to have clarity about what goal we are trying to achieve / what capability we are trying to build in the first place.
Part of doing the real thing is becoming sufficiently flexible about the context we use the skill in. If we always practise skills in a similar sequence, with similar people or at similar times, we may become reliant on habitual cues that are missing in a key performance moment.
Sometimes doing the real thing early on in the learning journey is not feasible, because
the skill is too difficult to have any sort of reasonable performance (e.g. trying to wing freestyle swimming without any build-up may just turn into an uncomfortable mess involving a lot of swallowing of water)
we want to avoid the possibility of bad habits getting ingrained - such development of bad habits can be in particular an issue with physical skills such as sport or music
It may be dangerous, e.g. we should not go scuba diving without some safety drills first
At other times, fear of failure, embarrassment or simply discomfort might prevent us from doing the real thing. We can address this part by pushing ourselves to try anyway, and by being compassionate when it turns out we perform badly (e.g. someone we are trying to talk to does not understand us) - it is helpful to have a more input than output oriented mindset in these times, being proud of ourselves for simply trying. Often when we overcome our fears we realise the negative outcomes are not as bad as we thought they would be.
When doing the real thing immediately is not feasible, we need to start building the skill up from smaller subskills, and / or practise some sort of halfway house where we use some method to make it easier and / or safer to practise the skill, i.e. “putting on training wheels”
If we start practicing smaller subskills, over time, through sufficient recall, these subskills turn into “chunks” (sometimes called a mental representations) that can be performed without much conscious attention (e.g. the breathing movement in freestyle swimming). We can then perform a more advanced exercise where we combine several chunks (e.g. combining breathing with arm movement), eventually forming a larger chunk. This combination into larger chunks is necessary, because our working memory can only hold a certain number of chunks at a time. Eventually our chunks become large enough that we can do the real thing.
We can put on “training wheels” by e.g.
for interactive skills practising with a teacher first (e.g. a language teacher will be better at understanding flawed speech than a non-teacher)
giving ourselves more time than we would in the real situation (e.g. solving exam problems without time pressure or dancing to slow or no music)
using a floatation device when practising swimming
In either case we do not want to let fear prevent us from moving on towards practise that is closer to the real thing. When the exercise does not feel effortful anymore and there is no more significant negative feedback, we should move on.
Even when we get to a point where we can at least to some degree perform a complex skill, we often want to return to drilling specific sub skills based on feedback. We do the real thing, discover a sticking point, and then focus on that specific sticking point, by either
Still doing the real thing, but putting focused attention on the sticking point, while running the rest of the skill mostly subconsciously
Performing some sort of drill that isolates the subskill, similar to what we did when building the complex skill up the first time
This practice of focusing on difficult sticking points based on feedback is often called deliberate practice.
Effort, flow, fun and rest
Most of my recommendations, such as recall instead of review or focusing on sticking points, make learning feel more effortful, and essentially involve us stretching ourselves beyond our current capabilities. This contrasts with the experience of flow, which is usually described as effortless and highly enjoyable, and needing a balance of challenge and capability. I certainly want learning to be fun a lot of the time, both for its own sake, and because from my experience I am pretty certain that enjoyment makes learning more effective. I believe there is a place in a learning system for both flow and effortful practice, and that both can be fun and help the learning process:
Flow is worth it simply in how enjoyable it is, and can be thought of as a reward for improving our skill. I also think that its highly rewarding nature should be helpful for reinforcing memories
Effortful practice is still required to make progress and push through sticking points. My experience is that it is actually quite enjoyable if a sufficient amount of breaktime is added: The progress made during the learning session makes me feel satisfied during the break, and the exhaustion from effortful practice aids relaxation. After the break I continue learning with joy and energy. The higher effectiveness of effortful learning makes it possible to take frequent breaks - energy not time becomes the limiting factor, with learning still progressing during break time through diffuse thinking as discussed earlier. An analogy is how running can be fun if you also take time to rest - endlessly marching while being stressed out about progress however can be miserable.
Example: Achieving top grades in undergraduate physics at Cambridge University
The first question to ask when studying a formal, tested curriculum is what is the real thing? In my case I took the exams set by the university as the real thing, because
I trusted the university to prepare a sensible curriculum that prepares me for a career as a physicist should I want such a career
I wanted the credential of high grades to open further doors (and prop up my ego)
If we doubt that exams prepare us with the right skills, an argument could be made for example to volunteer to do some research to get a sense for what is truly useful.
Having defined passing exams as the “real thing”, the outline of how to study became apparent:
Expose myself to the content
Do homework practice problems sets (an intermediate “training wheel” step)
Discuss and drill sticking points
Practice past exam papers
Discuss and drill sticking points
Practice more past exam papers
The most obvious approach for content exposure would have been to attend the lectures. This however had a number of drawbacks
The lectures started somewhat early in the morning (in my first year 6 days a week at 9 am), making it hard to maintain the social life I wanted, while still getting enough sleep
Many but not all lecturers were great
Lectures tend to be non-interactive
As mentioned earlier, lectures progress at a fixed pace that might be too slow or too fast for me and do not allow any rewinding
For these reasons, by around mid second year, I did not attend any lectures. This left me with two alternatives
Reading the lecture notes, which usually contain all of the necessary content and not much unnecessary content
Reading relevant textbooks, which are reliably polished
Luckily the lecture notes were usually high quality, so I chose them for their high relevance to the course most of the time, only using textbooks for courses with poor lecture notes. Some of my friends who had a less exam focused goal made more use of textbooks. After I stopped attending lectures my grades improved from the 81st to the 95th percentile, and my classmates who also stopped going to lectures experienced similarly large improvements.
After exposing myself to the content, I would attempt to solve the homework problem sets. If I was stuck I would go for a walk to take advantage of diffuse thinking, leaving a smaller amount of sticking points unresolved.
One of the distinctive features of undergraduate studies at Cambridge is a system of 1-to-2 tuition called “supervisions” (they are actually much less hierarchical and controlling than they sound) - this makes it much easier and more of a default to receive teacher feedback than in most other universities. To make the best use of the teacher time, I would first discuss the problem with my classmate attending the same supervision, and we would then bring the problems neither of us could figure out to the teachers.
After dealing with the homework problems sets, it was time to do the “real thing”, i.e. practice exam papers. Again, if I hit a sticking point, I would go for a walk, then talk to my supervision buddy, then bring it to the teachers. The actual exams were concentrated in one week of the year - this meant we would need to continue doing exam problems (practice recall) throughout the year in order to retain knowledge. I believe setting end of year exams was a great choice by the university, because, although terrifying, they encourage long term retention through spaced repetition. To set a healthy foundation, I would stop drinking alcohol a month before the exam and not do any studying or other mental exertion the day before an exam.
I experienced rest as being very important when studying physics, because of the very high amount of concentration required - on most days I would only study for around 4 hours, taking frequent breaks in between.
Common pitfalls I saw among undergraduate students:
Damaging the healthy learning foundation through sleep deprivation, both throughout the year and directly before the exam. I still vividly remember the image of classmates passed out in the lecture theatre in my first year, neither absorbing content nor getting optimal rest
Concentrating the study effort in too short a period before the exam
Too closely following the teaching methods prescribed, e.g. attending lectures
Example: Scoring 770 on the GMAT
Problems included in the GMAT (the standardised test for business school admissions) are relatively general, not requiring much specialised knowledge, with instead concentration and speed during the exam being most important. I hence put the largest focus on setting a healthy foundation before the performance moment by scheduling my GMAT right after a week-long vacation. During that vacation I would spend a few hours on preparation, and the rest of the day on rest, e.g. sightseeing.
For the preparation, again because the GMAT does not require much specialised knowledge, I could start by doing the real thing, i.e. I took a practice exam. This practice exam revealed on which question type I was performing the worst. I would then focus on the sticking points by doing practice problems of this type, and finish by doing one more practice exam. The day before the actual exam I rested completely.
Common pitfalls I see among GMAT takers:
Sleep deprivation before the exam
Not focusing on the hardest question types, potentially because of not taking a practice test early on
Example: Learning Mandarin, including passing HSK 6
There are several things that could be thought of as the real thing for language learning
Talking or texting with native speakers (casual conversation)
Reading native texts such as newspapers or books
In the case of Chinese, handwriting as a skill in addition to reading
Passing exams if there is a key benefit to that
For me I defined the real thing as casual conversation, including being able to read characters, with passing the HSK, the main standardised Chinese exam, as a secondary goal. Reading formal texts and hand writing seemed like too much effort to be worth it.
I started my Mandarin learning journey by attending some relatively cheap group classes. I did not make much progress here, due to
Limited feedback given the large class size
Speed of class not adapted to my abilities
It did however have the benefit of the teacher introducing me to spaced repetition software. I then spent several years learning characters and vocabulary by
First learning small building blocks that make up larger Chinese characters
Leveraging this building block knowledge to use mnemonics and the actual etymology to learn new characters and words (this in many ways actually makes Chinese vocabulary easier to learn than e.g. English, where there is less of an easy to remember relationship between words). I chose the words to learn from frequency or HSK lists available online
Maintaining and solidifying the knowledge through spaced repetition
This laid a solid foundation, but did not lead to much actual applicable language skill, because I was not doing the real thing. Doing the real thing began in earnest during extended trips to China where I would take several hours of 1-on-1 tuition a day (usually cheapest in a country where the language is natively spoken). The teachers would expose me to new necessary grammar and pronunciation skills and provide me with feedback on my mistakes. Talking to teachers also was a stepping stone to talking to non-teacher natives, who have less practice at understanding flawed Chinese. Getting to a decent level through the 1-on-1 classes gave me the confidence to overcome my fear of talking to non-teachers, and when I noticed sticking points in real life I would go back to the teachers to do focused work on those sticking points. I would also add vocabulary that was useful in my specific real world context to my spaced repetition system. Finding a Chinese girlfriend greatly increased the amount of real life practice I could do.
Finally, to pass the HSK, once I had acquired the required vocabulary, I would take practice exams, work with the teachers on any sticking points identified in the practice exams, and repeat. I would take a day off from any study or work the day before the actual exam.
Common pitfalls for language learners:
Not utilising a spaced repetition system for vocabulary
Delaying doing the real thing too long
Not hiring a 1-on-1 teacher at least some of the time - with hindsight I would have started this much earlier by hiring a teacher remotely through a platform such as iTalki, starting with practising very clean pronunciation to ingrain good habits from the start
For Chinese: Not learning character building blocks and mnemonics
Example: Passing McKinsey interviews
Most consulting interviews consist of two parts, carrying roughly equal weight:
The frequently discussed case interview
A “personal fit” interview part focusing on interpersonal skills, usually based on past experiences, which is normally equal in importance to the case interview
After exposure to the overall principle for doing case interviews, I focused on doing as close to the real thing and then getting teacher feedback (there is not so much opportunity for outcome based feedback unless you receive a very large number of interview invites). The best teachers are interview trained consultants, followed by other consultants or people who received consulting offers, followed by other applicants. Since I did not know many consultants, the bulk of the practice consisted of doing cases recorded by past applicants in “case books” with another applicant, receiving feedback from them and switching roles. Only near the end would I ask my consultant friends to practise cases with me. Afterwards I would practise again with other applicants to work on integrating the consultants’ feedback. In a context where there are both many (former) consultants and other applicants, such as in an MBA program, the potential for feedback can be maximised by reaching out to consultants early on in the program before they get too tired of giving practice cases - that means peer practice should be started even earlier, right at the beginning of the program.
For the personal fit part, I would look up the most commonly asked questions on sites such as Glassdoor (i.e. try to get as close to the real thing as possible) and prepare multiple stories for each question. I would then test those stories with other applicants, receiving their feedback on how the story landed in general and how details could be improved. Leading up to the interview I would practise recalling my stories to be able to just rattle them off in the interview - this preserves energy for the case interview which cannot be memorised to the same degree.
To maximise the healthy foundation before the moment, I would try to travel to the interview location the day before the interviews if possible, so that I could get a full night of sleep before the interview. I would not do any preparation the day before the interview, except recalling my answers to the very most common personal fit questions.
Common pitfalls I have observed among consulting applicants:
Overfocusing on passive exposure / doing cases alone without feedback, instead of practising live cases with other applicants and consultants
Not preparing for the personal fit interview
Not taking time off before the interview, or even allowing a full night of sleep
Example: Succeeding at McKinsey
I believe there are three main skills required to succeed as an entry level consultant:
Actually understanding and solving the problem from an intellectual perspective - in my experience this part is relatively easy, and if anything improved through specialised knowledge for each topic. I did not put a lot of explicit effort into it
“Making pretty slides fast” - while crucially important for advancing in a consulting career, I believe it is more of a cultural artefact of the industry and does not deliver much real impact. In the words of Self-help Singh “there is no power in those points, and no point in those presentations” so I will not focus on it here
Getting people (colleagues and clients) to like you and do what you want them to do, usually without having any formal power over them - I will focus on this part
While there is some knowledge exposure in formal training, most learning of consulting interpersonal skills starts by doing the real thing - simply interacting with colleagues and clients, asking them for something or presenting something to them. The McKinsey environment tends to automatically provide challenging situations and feedback from colleagues, but the process can be optimised by
Asking to be put in situations that present growth opportunities, e.g. presenting in senior meetings
Avoiding boring work as far as possible
Asking for feedback when it is not being given and expressing appreciation when it is
Consciously focusing on implementing the suggested change (isolating a sticking point) for a time period and then asking for more feedback
Maintaining a healthy foundation as far as possible - following the prevailing culture of sleep deprivation at McKinsey inhibits learning
Example: Becoming a social dancer for Bachata, Salsa and Kizomba
Several goals could be considered the real thing when learning a partner dance:
Simply enjoying attending group classes
Being able to dance with a fixed partner, e.g. a long term romantic partner
Performing on stage, again usually with a fixed partner
Being able to dance with a large variety of partners at dance socials
For me social dancing was the main goal, promising a new way of entertaining myself and meeting people as well as an interesting challenge. The biggest obstacle was that doing the real thing is really quite terrifying: I would need to ask people to dance with me, then initially almost certainly struggle and definitely dance worse than other leaders, potentially giving my dance partners a bad experience. Alcohol can blunt the anxiety but can further weaken performance and, crucially, inhibits learning.
Hiring a 1-on-1 teacher was a big help with this. I would first expose myself to a new dance move either in a group class, or from my 1-on-1 teacher showing me. I would then improve it based on feedback from the 1-on-1 teacher, aiming for a high level of precision to avoid bad movement patterns becoming ingrained. Afterwards I would finally take it to a social, first dancing with my teacher to warm up and refresh the memory, and then attempting the new dance move with advanced followers (including other teachers), who were often initially introduced to me by my 1-on-1 teacher. If I noticed any problems, I would raise them in my next 1-on-1 class. Only when the move reliably worked with advanced followers, would I try with intermediate followers and then beginners. In my experience, I would need to keep using (recalling) the move at social for at least 3 months to have a high chance of remembering it long term.
Improving dance skills frequently involves isolating sticking points. For example, even if I can lead a dance move well enough for most followers to be able to follow it, there can still be ways to improve it to:
Allow weaker followers to understand it
Make it more comfortable for me and / or the follower
Make it look better
Such improvement would usually begin with feedback from a 1-on-1 teacher. I would then isolate the subskill (change in movement vs how I was doing it previously) by directing my conscious attention to it at social while keeping the rest of the overall movement on autopilot. Humility and a beginner’s mindset are key - one of my teachers described how 10 years into her dance career a teacher of her own told her “we need to work on your basic”.
Common pitfalls:
Many people take too long to start dancing at socials (doing the real thing), e.g. they simply attend group classes for years
On the flipside, some followers only learn at socials, and develop bad habits by poorly imitating difficult skills around e.g. body or hand movements. Without teacher feedback those bad habits do not get corrected
A focus on more and more patterns instead of fundamentals can prevent a dancer from looking truly good
Guest example: Becoming a professional guitarist
Johann Nissen is a successful classical concert guitarist who is able to secure 5-figure concert fees and won numerous awards. He is also an in-demand teacher for adults and children and plays a leadership role in the German youth music competition “Jugend musiziert”. 1-on-1 tuition is the default process when learning to play the instrument - without it, it is very difficult to reach a high level of performance. Johann emphasises that the right teacher is needed at the right time, depending on the skill and needs of the student.
Johann places a very strong emphasis on performing movements with a high degree of accuracy from the very beginning to avoid bad habits becoming ingrained. He views the following practices as key to doing so
Maintaining a relaxed concentration, with awareness inside the body throughout the practice and little to no mind wandering
Limiting practice time to a few hours a day at most to allow such concentration to be maintained
Making the practice easy enough that almost no mistakes are made by slowing down and / or isolating skills, such as practising making circular motions with the thumb
Johann maintains this high degree of awareness and grounding in the body when performing, helping him stay in an emotionally calm state. Having practised such awareness for a long term he can even rehearse mentally, e.g. when sitting in a plane. Doing the real thing, e.g. performing, has special emotional challenges for musicians, due to the highly public nature of performing and due to optimal performance requiring relaxation. Most musicians play somewhat worse during performances compared to practice (this contrasts e.g. with my experience taking exams - I usually do better in real exams than in practice ones). To get a beginning performer off to a good start, Johann finds it important to make sure that they have good positive experiences when first performing. Teaching his embodied, grounded, detail oriented approach helps greatly with this. He sets a standard of being able to perform at 120% during practice so that 100% is genuinely available during performance. Despite aiming for perfection to avoid bad habits being ingrained, Johann still believes in compassion when mistakes do occasionally happen. When organising competitions, he makes sure to select Jurors that can give feedback in a compassionate, constructive and motivating way also for the weaker performances.
Recall practice (scroll down for answers)
Why is it important to have a healthy foundation?
What are the three most important elements of a healthy foundation?
What are the two key learning loops discussed in this article?
What are the advantages of recall over repeated exposure?
Recall practice answers (feedback)
To aid learning as well as improve performance at key moments
1) Sleep, 2) exercise, and 3) limiting strong non-learning stimulation e.g. from electronics use
1) Exposure, recall, feedback and 2) doing the real thing and then drilling sticking points
Strengthening memories more effectively as well as avoiding illusions of competence