Learning a new skill by putting in 45 minutes a day for a month

10,000 hours is for mastery not just learning

I enjoyed his book "The First 20 Hours". Most of the content is how he specifically applied it to learn certain skills: Switching from Qwerty to Colemak keyboards, and learning to play Go were interesting. He also had a chapter of learning to program in 20 hours.

There was a time when I just loved TED talks. That has changed. I am not so sure why. But I think I got the feeling the insights I’m getting are not worth the time spent.

TED talks are infotainment. Pornography for people whose vice is feeling like they've been inspired and gotten smarter. In short, they ring false.

It feels like you're learning something, but the lesson plan was devised by a marketing department for the idea. It feels like the primary motivation is how good of a story can be told, and not the actual truth.

"Popular science" in all its forms – sucks. Leading people to believe things because they're told in a certain way that makes them feel good. The problem is you don't get to truth because the explanation is easy to understand and intuitive. Lies are easy when that kind of explanation is common.

When you're actually learning things, you need to be able to substantiate the facts, not just have statistics and study results thrown at you by an engaging speaker. In real science classes they make you drop balls and measure currents and synthesize chemicals and do calculations.

I also loved TED talks when I was younger.

Very convenient that it’s a nice round number.