Novice To Expert In 10 Steps

You probably don’t need any more convincing as to the benefits of being a polymath.

That should be self-evident at this point.

Instead, it’s time to turn our attention to the “how” part of this book.

How do you learn a skill that you’ve selected? How do you immerse yourself most optimally into a new realm of knowledge? How do you expand your horizons and take the first step into becoming a polymath? First, we’ll explore the four basic steps toward exploring a new topic and preparing to master the knowledge and skills that will be most useful to us.

These include: (1) The Broad Overview, (2) Narrowing the Scope, (3) Defining Success, and (4) Compiling Resources.

Then, in a following five steps, we’ll use the focus and resources we’ve developed to create and carry out a curriculum which allows us to learn most effectively.

Finally, we’ll go over a four-part notetaking system that ensures a much deeper understanding of a topic.

Step 1: The Broad Overview

The first important step is to delve into the basics of your topic of choice.

We need some introductory knowledge about the subject we wish to enlighten ourselves on before we proceed to do so.

The main purpose of this step is to determine the scope and complexity of our subject matter.

Are there subtopics within this subject? What are the absolutely essential details we need to know or preparations we ought to make before attempting to master it? Is the thing we wanted to learn even the same as the subject we’ve chosen? What does this topic or skill truly entail?

Establishing Where Your Interests Lie

Conducting an in-depth study of our subject is not necessary at this point; we simply need to familiarize ourselves with what we intend to learn.

For example, let’s say that you want to learn how to code.

Before embarking upon this task, you need to deduce what coding entails, what the different methods or languages of coding are, how can one learn more about different coding systems and the subtopics within them, etc.

While carrying out this step, you will likely discover that your chosen subject, coding in this case, is far too broad and that your actual area of interest is a specific language (C++, Python, etc.).

The next step involves narrowing down your subject matter, but this one is restricted to understanding enough about the topic to discuss it intelligibly and find out for yourself what the true scope is.

Three Important Questions

Now it's time to get into some specifics regarding how exactly to approach getting this big picture of your field of interest.

To do so, you need to answer three questions.

(1) What is it about? (2) How extensive is the subject? (3) What acts as an appropriate starting point in trying to learn it? Regarding the first question, we must determine how we can commence learning about the topic we have chosen.

Is the topic something basic that a layperson could grasp in a few hours, or is it too complex, like nuclear physics, for an untrained individual to pursue? How much literature has been devoted to this subject, and how much do you need to learn to understand the topic adequately? We need to answer these queries before proceeding to the second question.

That in turn leads to our third question of how can you narrow down your topic to achieve proficiency in it.

Most of the time when we start out we choose vague, umbrella topics like coding, only to discover that our interest is restricted to a section of the broader subject.

We need to ascertain which constitutive part it is that you seek to learn.

Our primary goal here is to figure out exactly what we know and don’t know about the topic we’ve chosen.

This is indispensable for us to start reflecting on matters like scope, preferred subtopics, etc.

This is what we will do in the next step as we determine what precisely we want to learn.

If you’re struggling to narrow down your subject matter to the essentials relevant for you, there are several tips you can follow that might help.

First, the internet is an invaluable database with various depositories on all subjects.

From Wikipedia pages, to individually hosted blogs, or the various books available online, they all provide different perspectives framed in unique ways.

You need not devote too much of your concentration while reading these—skimming through will suffice.

All you need to do is answer the three questions laid out below so that you have a foundation for learning your chosen subject.

You’re going for quantity as opposed to depth here.

Here is an example to further assist you in this endeavor.

My topic is Renaissance art, and I’ll instantiate a cursory Google search to learn what this is.

Remember, the goal is only to familiarize yourself with the basics.

79 First, I’ll try to locate a good description of what Renaissance art is, the different types of Renaissance art, and so on.

There is bound to be a Wikipedia page on Renaissance art, and that is always an appropriate place to start.

These pages are generally full of details that comprehensively explain the subject.

However, even if the page on your topic is short, it will at least give you a summary.

In many cases, reading the Wikipedia page from start to end will be adequate to serve the purpose of introducing ourselves to any topic.

In addition to Wikipedia, I’m also going to scan through the other links yielded by my Google search.

This helps me observe how people of various orientations and demographics are discussing Renaissance art.

If I’m unsatisfied by the information garnered from these links, I might search Amazon for some books related to the subject and try to gain some general information based on the results I get.

Amazon and Google Books both offer “preview” features that allow readers to see part of the book without purchasing it.

80 In completing step 1, you’ll likely identify some aspects of your topic you’re not interested in, and others that are more useful to you.

That brings us to the next step in this process.

Step 2: Narrow the Scope

Step 2 entails determining the scope of your chosen topic.

First, we took a relatively vague topic and attempted to organize it according to what we actually desire to learn.

After completing step 1, we’ve likely arrived at the specific subtopic we want to focus on.

Now, step 2 will help us ascertain the scope of this narrow subtopic.

In simpler terms, we started out with something big, cut it down to pieces and decided which piece we like best.

Taking our previous example of coding again, we divided a broad subject into specific languages and agreed upon one or a few languages to learn.

We would struggle to succeed at learning every single coding language in existence, but focusing on one or two offers us a much higher chance of success.

81 Deconstructing the Topic As humans, we perform better at tasks by deconstructing them into their constituent parts and tackling each part individually.

We need to employ the same strategy here.

The subtopic we’ve selected, like the broader one we deduced it from, can often be far too expansive in and of itself.

For example, if our topic was physics, and we broke it down into nuclear physics, atomic physics, classical physics, etc., these subtopics in themselves could take a lifetime to master.

Our goal is to infer the appropriate scope for our topic such that it takes from a few weeks to a month to grasp.

You can always take a big topic, say atomic physics, break it down into its prominent subfields and learn each in succession.

But to be more successful, we need a realistic and reasonable understanding of how much atomic physics is essential to our learning.

It is often the case that when people attempt to learn something new, scope is not one of their considerations at all.

They don’t ponder the actual depth of their subject, or how they can conclude learning it in a timely manner.

The result is that they never accomplish their objective.

I’m going to help you achieve success by first, determining an appropriate scope that can be learned within a practical timeframe.

This time period must also be carefully chosen to maximize your focus on the task.