Josh Kaufman

This review is based on the Blinkist version of the book...thus a summary and my review needs to be qualified as such. Presumably the original full text has much more details and research.....but it also takes much longer to read. If I like the Blinkist version, I might seek out and read the full book. Meantime here are a few nuggets that particularly struck me:
Many people wish they could play the piano, dominate on the tennis court or converse in fluent French,.......But often they give up show more before they’ve even acquainted themselves with the basics......This is where rapid skill acquisition comes into play. By employing this technique, you can become fairly good at whatever skill you choose by putting in a mere 20 hours of practice.
Rapid skill acquisition is more about covering the basics, rather than transforming yourself into an instant expert. But even those first 20 hours of practice on the court will already enable you to play against friends and maybe even partake in local tournaments.
Let’s continue with the example of tennis. If you practice for 20 hours, breaking that time up into daily doses of 60-90 minutes, you’ll soon find yourself rapidly improving. And once you’ve completed the initial 20 hours of practice, it’ll become considerably easier to continue developing your chosen skill.
1. It’s essential to persist for at least 20 hours. That way, you’ll have already reached a substantial level of skill, which will make further practice less problematic....There’s no magic to it–just smart, strategic effort invested in something you care about.
2. Make a list of all the skills you want to work on and pick the one that you feel most excited about at that present moment. This will help keep up your motivation to practice.The second principle of rapid skill acquisition claims that you should focus exclusively on one skill. It’s very tempting to try and learn several skills simultaneously; for instance, you may want to combine learning windsurfing with studying Spanish and how to play the ukulele........Don’t try to learn multiple skills simultaneously. If you do attempt to study multiple things at once, you’ll progress very slowly, which will only demotivate you.
3. The third principle of rapid skill acquisition is all about deciding how good you want to become at your chosen endeavour. This is referred to as your target performance level...For instance, if you’re learning to play the banjo, do you want to play three tunes by heart, or to seamlessly join in a jam session?
4. The fourth principle of rapid skill acquisition is to break up your desired skill up into smaller parts that you can tackle individually.....In the author’s case, when he began to study the ukulele, he first analyzed the anatomy of the instrument. He then learned how to tune it and only then began to learn the chords for the song he planned to play at the conference.
5. Ensuring you have the tools you need is the fifth principle of rapid skill acquisition. This step is rather straightforward–if you want to learn how to play tennis, you need a racket, and if you want to learn how to operate a helicopter, you need access to one.
6. Principle number six is about identifying the barriers that might interfere with acquiring your desired skill. Are there any emotional roadblocks, like fear or self-doubt that could hold you back? And what about distractions........If there are any hindrances, try to eliminate them. For example, you can create a peaceful environment by shutting out any distractions while identifying and working through your fears......When the author started windsurfing, he decided to always have someone else present when he was windsurfing–even if the person just sat on the shore. This way, there would always be help available if he was in danger.
7. Its important not just to try to find the time to practice but to make time to practice. This is the seventh principle of rapid skill acquisition......Identify other activities in your life that you’re not particularly fond of, or during which you tend to stall or feel restless....and drop those.
8. The eighth principle of rapid skill acquisition is that you need to ensure you get feedback on your progress.......If you can, hire a coach, as they can give you feedback almost instantly. Or, if you’re learning a new language, you could also use equipment such as a voice recorder, which will make it easier for you to spot your own pronunciation and grammatical mistakes.
9. Engaging in any difficult or tedious activity for an extended period of time is both draining and inefficient–and that’s why you should only practice in short intervals.....The ninth principle states that practicing in short spurts is the best way to make progress......use a timer to set 20-minute time frames for yourself.....Aim to do three to five of these 20-minute blocks throughout the day, on a daily basis, and you’ll be astounded at how quickly you progress.
10. The tenth and final principle of rapid skill acquisition is to focus on practicing a lot and quickly, not on attaining perfection.
By keeping the ten principles of rapid skill acquisition in mind, you can successfully undertake a new skill in no time. Find your equivalent of windsurfing, and embark on your learning journey today!
The key message in this book: It’s never too late to learn a new skill. All you need to do is keep the ten principles of rapid skill acquisition in mind. Whether you aim to learn French or play the ukulele, all you have to do is practice for an initial 20 hours, and you’ll be well on your way to proficiency.
Actionable advice: Use a logbook to find time to practice. When trying to clear your schedule for practice time, it’s a good idea to log how you spend your time for a few days. You’ll be able to identify patterns and hopefully see slots in your routine that could be filled with practice.
My take on the book. Do I believe the claim that you can learn a new skill in 20 hours. Well, I half accept the premise. Yes, if you do what the author says you can make significant progress with a new skill. But you certainly won’t become expert. And he’s ignored the age factor ...that it becomes more difficult as one ages to pick up new skills. Try learning Japanese at 80! Your 20 hours will have little impact but you can certainly learn a few useful phrases. And, I think that this is one area where the book falls short. A skilled teacher or trainer can help you focus on the areas where you can make the most progress fast. With Japanese language, that’s probably learning some stock phrases rather than learning Hiragana and Katakana. And with learning a new musical instrument....it’s probably learning a few chords rather than learning to read music. So you really need this expert guidance about where to focus your 20 hours. Sill, interesting; made me think and I ldearned a few new things. Four stars from me. show less

Like many people, I have a ton of skills I would like to learn. In fact, the list is overwhelming. I know I’ll never have the time to tackle even a fraction of them. So I’ve been focusing on the things that interest me the most: blogging, painting, drawing, scrapbooking, card making, journaling, writing, baking. But even that pared down list seems overwhelming. I don’t have 10,000 hours to dedicate to each one of those pursuits. But then again, I also don’t want to become a show more world-class expert in any of them. I just want to be good — okay, maybe really, really good. So imagine my excitement when I came across this book. I can get really good in just 20 hours? REALLY? Wow. Awesome! Unfortunately, if it seemed that the premise of this book was too good to be true… well, it was. The first couple of chapters are wonderful. The author describes his theories, and they make sense. But after that brief introduction, he goes in depth into his own interests: yoga, programming, windsurfing, etc. I assumed he’d be talking about how he learned these skills, but instead, it’s almost as though he’s trying to teach us those skills. The content is extremely dry, and not helpful at all if you’ve got other skills you have to learn and have no interest at all in, say, learning to play Go. I was very disappointed. Such a great premise - so poorly executed. show less

Very clear introduction to the key concepts covered by an MBA. It is mercifully free of the jargon and bluster that normally accompany this genre. It should be noted that the book is made up a series of definitions, meaning that it can often feel a bit like a dictionary than a sustained argument.

This book doesn't present a revolutionary secret for learning skills. What it does is collect insights that seem obvious, but are almost always overlooked, with clear observations, and describe a system for employing those insights to make the process of acquiring new skills more predictable, and for making success in skill acquisition more repeatable. In that respect, it provides an excellent starting point for others to improve their approach to developing their own repertoire of show more skills.

The lengthy case study examples toward the end are not exactly required reading, and many people might find them tedious and unnecessary -- even wasted space. I think they serve a useful set of examples for how the process works in practice, to help readers put what advice the author offers into practice, but not all examples are likely to offer much value to any given reader. Pick and choose what to read, perhaps skim these sections to see if they might offer insight into things you're having difficulty really absorbing from the earlier explanations for how to go about systematically acquiring a skill; ignore what doesn't offer any utility in your own life. show less