Notes on Cal Newport's video Learn Any Hard Skill in 2024 - How to Eliminate Distraction and Master Productivity

Video link: https://youtu.be/dDV1bDiJSWE?si=-Kpq-8vQ37Ok4iE1

These are my notes on Cal Newport’s video: Learn Any Hard Skill in 2024 - How to Eliminate Distraction and Master Productivity

Anyone can learn almost anything. However, you cannot learn everything. So you must prioritize your efforts. Also, people will vary in how fast they can learn.

There is an element of nature vs nurture in learning. He gave the example of Arnold Schwarzenegger whose dad made him do pushups and squats to get dinner. He was stronger than most by the time he was a teenager. He is a case of nurture. So it is with learning. Some people start reading and reading voraciously at a young age and have higher learning capabilities for life.

Learning takes time and time is finite. There are only so many things you can learn.

The way you progress in learning is like going up a set of stairs. Your brain can only progress by going up one stair at a time. And the way to go to the next stair is deliberate progress.

Deliberate progress involves stretching yourself. It’s not fun and it’s a bit past what you currently know.

Anyone who has mastered a skill has done the stair steps to mastery.

If you want to cultivate Master Knowledge in your life, you have to figure out what the next step is.

It requires patience and expert help.

Expert help: coaches, courses, books.

Our brains are what distinguish us from animals. We can think abstractly and deliberately and creatively.

Advice for young people to aim for:

• something in your professional life that you do well and better than anyone else - something complicated and valuable
• something in your personal life that you’re really good with - like deeply understanding movies, wine, etc

It is deeply satisfying to deeply understand complicated things. It’s human.

We should all be trying to master hard things. It’ll take years but it’s worth it.

Where are you going to find the time to work on these things? Stop spending time on your phone.

Cal is working on mastering movies in his personal life. He wants to contribute really deep, thoughtful, good reviews.

What is note taking? Recording information on a durable, written medium.

Three types of note-taking:

• Working memory extender - expands the amount of information you can temporarily remember in your working memory
• Obligation tracker - system to maintain obligations like a calendar or to-do list
• Ideas, brainstorms, journaling, plans, saved articles, etc

Build a system for each of the above.

Cal uses .txt files for working memory extender, Trello for obligation tracker, and Remarkable 2 digital notebook for everything else.

Don’t use YouTube to learn how to be a better student. The incentive structure isn’t conducive to being a better student.

If you want to be a better student, read a book about it. The incentive structure is more closely aligned to getting a result.

Podcasting has a better incentive structure for learning than Youtube. I.e. word of mouth. If your content is good, people will share it.

Figuring out what to get good at next is a really hard question. People don’t spend enough time figuring this out. Spend a lot of time figuring this out. Deconstruct your field. Look at people you admire and figure out how they got there. Make a good and educated bet on which skills will be valuable. Some people wander, some people deliberately pick a path. It’s a hard question to answer precisely because it’s so important.

Each step of skill building requires one deliberate step up the ladder at a time. To get better, slow down the rate at which you progress. In the short term, you will progress slower. You will feel like you’re going too slow but in the long term, one or two years, you’ll be far ahead of everyone. It must be sustainable.

Think about the one step you can take each day to move toward mastery.

Sustainability over time will get you to a better place than fast, unsustainable progress.

How do you build a career you love? Build a skill that is rare and valuable. Cultivate concentration to become good at something.

So Good They Can’t Ignore You was the culmination of his learnings in his 20s. A World Without Email is the culmination of his learnings in his 30s. Slow Productivity is his next project.