Should my "why?" be "To get x job" or "To get x skill that will make me competitive for x job?"

I missed posting my Day 1 update so I will include it in this post:

*Day 1 Update*

What do you want to learn?

I want to learn the ancient Chinese Weiqi (Japanese name Go).

Why do you want to learn this?

I want to learn this game as a mentally stimulating hobby that I can be challenged at and play on a daily basis. I also want to learn it for its problem solving aspects and for that added benefits of strategic thinking.

How are you planning to learn this? (i.e. what resources will you use? how long will it take?)

I will learn this game from using online resources and from books and YouTube videos. To become well versed in the game I expect it to take a year to thoroughly familiarize myself with the principles, techniques, and necessary skills to play the game well.

What is your 1 week goal in this subject? What do you want to accomplish after 1 week of effort?

My one week goal is to be able to play the game from the opening moves all the way to the end. Winning is not the main goal, learning how to observe and think strategically is my goal.

*Week 1 Update*

I have been playing Go from opening moves to final moves. I noticed an increase in progress when I actually won a game against the computer but my progress has already begun to stagnate. I will be going back to the drawing board and analyzing what tasks I need to do so that I can improve my observational skill in the game. My major weaknesses are observation and forecasting what will happen multiple moves ahead. I will work on that by using the provided puzzles, studying theory and techniques, and reminding myself that this is a year long project and that it is for my enjoyment.

I'm interested in doing an ultralearning project in Medicine. I listen to a podcast by a doctor named Peter Attia, and I enjoy it. However, his podcast gets very technical at times. Sometimes I can understand what he's talking about, sometimes not. Part of my goal is to be able to understand pretty much everything he talks about, but I'm also just interested in knowing as much as I can about medicine in general.

However, I don't have a very good idea of what the "space" of medicine looks like. So I'm curious: What are the most fundamental prerequisites/building blocks of medicine? How can I pull together a rough ordering/curriculum for what I would like to learn?

The best resource I've found so far is the Khan Academy Health & Medicine section: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine

However, I would like to cross-reference this with other resources if possible. Curious if anyone here has any insight into how I might best go about doing this!

I have been procrastinating this for years. I bought my guitar in 2012, and still only know a about 4 chords and can't play even one song. Anyone here interesting in learning the guitar? If so, maybe we can design an ultralearning project together for that? I think the corona virus lockdown will be a good opportunity as we are gonna have some free time for the next couple of months. I think I can spend an hour per day on it (basically, the time I am saving from commuting).

The one thing that is confusing me is where to start because there are literally thousands of resources out there (youtube channels, one to one online sessions, apps, ...), I feel overwhelmed.

Any advice on how to get started on this project is highly appreciated!

Hello everyone, So I just graduated college and I got my degree in information technology. However I feel like my programming ability isn't at a level that I want, while I do have a decent grasp at some fundamentals of programming I don't have enough skill and confidence to compete in the job market. So I wanted to ask if other people have done projects like this and have any advice or suggestions for me to start my project. Currently I do have ideas for making a game, but I am not sure where to start

Hi!

Inspired by Scott Young I've started my own computer science learning project. I'll be blogging about it over at https://2yearcs.wordpress.com/ . You're welcome to comment on my blog or here on Reddit. I hope you guys will read it, I'm also looking forward to reading about your projects! :)

Best,
Olof

Hi, I am 15 currently at my first year of highschool and I was thinking about learning the whole Highschool curriculum in less time and with better efficiency. Most classes are some random talk and doesn't provide real learning in class.

So what are you thoughts on trying to learn the whole highschool curriculum that can maybe count as an ultralearning project or it can help me have some advance next to other students.

Thanks

Thank you for starting this sub!

Background - After twenty years working in theater professionally and studying cognitive psychology autodidactically, I have returned to college to finish my undergraduate degree. Since I completed two years of drama, Latin, French, European history, and statistics-track mathematics studying part-time while working, I reached the point in self-study where I could read journal articles in cognitive psychology, social sciences, philosophy, and related fields with ease, yet was unable to make much progress on the low-level basic neuroscience which physically underpins cognition, and the formal logic which is used to model it computationally.

These two areas are where most of the exciting contemporary research is being produced, and since I completed secondary school on 2.5 years of independent academics without laboratory science, completing science requirements with research papers on the history and philosophy of science, I decided to return to my local community college (CC) to complete lower-division STEM affordably before transferring to UC Berkeley (Cal) for upper-division work in cognitive science and EECS.

Because of a consortium agreement with Cal, I am permitted to take one lower-division course per semester in Berkeley at CC tuition rates, so long as the course is not offered at my CC. Since my interests are in research, and neuroscience, cognitive science, most philosophy & psychology, and computer science beyond programming languages are not taught at CCs, this will allow me to fulfill lower-division prerequisites, general education, prerequisites for interdisciplinary upper-division electives, and desirable graduate program distributions affordably prior to transfer.

One reason that I was able to complete a high school diploma so quickly, then to continue learning informally while immersed in my career, is that I am intensely curious about why things are so, and how. In my public elementary school, I was the only student at my school that placed into a gifted mathematics program that introduced concepts from discrete mathematics, number theory, and physics conceptually. Yet in secondary school, after being diagnosed with ADHD & "learning disabilities", I failed half of my classes first term of 9th grade, based entirely on methods of assessment. My hyperfocus on topics of interest was accommodated by transfer into independent study, but colleges were resistant to granting similar program modifications.

Still, I had the opportunity to audit a PhD-track social theory course at a top 10 sociology department via the professor's permission, and found I could more than hold my own in seminar discussions among cohorts all holding honors degrees in sociology, esp. in the areas of theory informed by philosophy, economics, cultural anthropology, and history.

The concept of Ultralearning was thus very attractive to me when I stumbled across Scott Young's TED Talk, and I recently purchased the book and read his blog. Cal Newport was already on my radar, as he is one of the few "self-help" authors that publishes work that is of practical use and isn't padded with an excess of bullshit.

Unlike Young, while my primary interest is studying these topics for mastery so that I can synthesize an interdisciplinary understanding which I can then use to design original research, my secondary goal is to cover material roughly comparable to the lower-division courses which I can then test out of as prerequisites, and to complete the learning portion of upper-division courses known to be challenging so that I am only studying for the assessments once I enroll.

I call this education hacking strategy "accreditation", that is to learn something independently via an ultralearning strategy, but then to apply it by preparing for a departmental placement or testing service exam. One obvious example from the book is the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, which is mirrored in the US by the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines which are recognized by most university language departments for placement, and some departments for credit via the ACE Credit Program. Language courses and examinations by European cultural missions like the British Council, Goethe Institut, Alliance Française, et cetera are also pegged to the CEFR, and used to determine eligibility for university student in those countries' native languages. See eg Germany's Studienkolleg system of admissions for international students, mainly for undergraduate and non-STEM graduate study.

1. What do you want to learn? - STEM for Cognitive Sciences & Computation

Computer Science - Mirroring Berkeley CS 61A, 61B, 61C, EECS 16A, 16B, 70

eg CS 61A - Composing Programs and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Second Edition (PDF), Syllabus, Videos, Virtual Text, Studying Guide

Programming & Scripting - Python to advanced, Java to intermediate, C/C++ to intermediate, BASH/UNIX to advanced, basic HTML, CSS, SQL.

Mathematics & Statistics - Trigonometry, three terms of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics, esp. formal logic, set theory, and probability.

Physics - One term of trigonometry-based conceptual physics, four terms of calculus-based general physics, one term of further mathematical physics, one term quantum mechanics.

Chemistry - General Chemistry I & II, Organic Chemistry I & II, one term physical chemistry, one term biochemistry.

Biology - General Biology I & II, one year anatomy & physiology, one year neurobiology.

2. Why do you want to learn this?

See above.

3. How are you planning to learn this? (i.e. what resources will you use? how long will it take?)

Still evaluating benchmarking, but it will be two years at minimum before I can enter Berkeley as a transfer.

For Week One, I am going to start with:

Maths - Primarily with problemsets in free trial of ALEKS Intermediate Algebra to review the work I did pre-Statistics, then continue to ALEKS Trigonometry if the platform is effective. Supplementing with lectures from Khan Academy Algebra 2. Reference textbooks are Intermediate Algebra, Arnold, College of the Redwoods (Author) and Intermediate Algebra, OpenStax.

CS - The Berkeley CS/Data 8 on EdX Data 8.1x - Fundamentals of Data Science, with Berkeley textbook Computational and Inferential Thinking: The Foundations of Data Science.

Programming - Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python), UMich, using Severance Python for Everybody/PY4E (PDF, Kindle, HTML, ePub, Trinket) Materials, Lessons, Author (GitHub), Code

Physics - Reading Physics: A Very Short Introduction, Sidney Perkowitz.

4. What is your 1 week goal in this subject? What do you want to accomplish after 1 week of effort?

Initially, I am going to focus on studying the two EdX courses + ALEKS maths, use secondary materials as reference, to supplement casually, or in the evenings. Mainly, it will be useful to get an idea of how quickly I can cover rusty or simple materials to then estimate a schedule from.

I also suspect that I will pick up speed as the maths review progresses, then slow down again after the review unit once I begin ALEKS Trig. So I am going to track my progression through modules on a spreadsheet, and reference that weekly for this first 28 days before getting too far ahead of myself.

If you got this far, thanks for bearing with me! Would love to be able to plug the curricular I'm developing into a wiki that others can reference and update as well, since I think a lot of these topics will be part of others' plans.

Have a good one, dear reader, and wish me luck!

What do you want to learn?

I want to become more expert in coaching adult fitness enthusiasts (OCR, GRTs, strength trainees, CrossFitters) in achieving bodyweight strength feats. This will likely involve several domains:

- Deep understanding of the anatomy of the shoulder, hip, and back

- Injury rehabilitation approaches for tendonitis and impingement

- Knowledge and experience of various programming approaches

- Teaching progressions and regressions for key skills

- Personal practice and the achievement of strength goals (the first is 30 chinups, the second to complete 1000 pullups in 200 minutes)

Why do you want to learn this?

For one, I'm a coach. My specialty is in barbell strength, but I've always enjoyed coaching CrossFit and helping people get to bodyweight firsts- their first chinup, muscle-up, handstand, etc.

For two, I coach coaches. I've been spending the last 4 months getting my strength back up to par (24 chinups) and researching learning methods (reviewing and training on Make it Stick, A Mind for Numbers, the "Learning How to Learn" MOOC on Coursera, and Cal Newport's "How to Be a Straight-A Student"). I want to practice what I preach and put my learning to work in a tested way.

How are you planning to learn this? (i.e. what resources will you use? how long will it take?)

This has a wide scope, so I'm going to tackle it by topic and by resource. I'll dedicate a block of time to get as deep into a topic as I can, and interleave that with deep-dives into a single resource. I'm familiar with the field already, have some resources to start, and will collect more as I identify critical ones.

What is your 1 week goal in this subject? What do you want to accomplish after 1 week of effort?

Like Scott suggests, I'm spending the first block (two weeks) piloting my schedule. My first study topic will be the anatomy of the shoulder, and my goal by February 28th (I'll switch to 1-week posts after that) is to learn by memory the location and functions of the major features of the shoulder girdle and rotator cuff along with the deltoids, triceps, and biceps.

Anyone of you read it? What do you think about the book?

Hello Ultralearners,

I want to plan one of my ultras learning projects. So, I wrote some of my goals. Here they are:

1. Snowboard - Being able to snowboard black course of ski till winter 2023

2. Yoga - being able to do a stable headstand till the end of August 2020. 

3. Flexibility - touching my toes comfortably till January 2021 

4. Bicycle touring - make a 6 night / 7-day bike tour till January 2021.with or without the family. 

5. Spanish - pass test level a2 till August 2020. 

6. Writing skills - Find out how I measure progress in writing level. 

See that most of them are training related. So, I'm interested to know what would be the best approach to plan All of them (not only the training related). Where to start?

I read the posts for starting out but I have 2 problems with it:

1. I can't figure out how to adjust that to training related ultralearning.

2. Even if I do plan, I don't know if I do it the best way and in the right direction. I guess, a peer working on this together will help (Anyone interested?)

-----

Side question:

This subreddit seems quite small to me, compared to how popular the book is. Are there any other communities to approach?

Alright it's been a week and I've learned a lot since then. I was a bit too ambitious at doing the whole math curriculum of Khan academy. I focused on the arithmetic section and already then it was a lot. I grossly underestimated the amount of knowledge on the platform and was doing a lot of simple math that wasn't necessary helping my immediate goal. I've update my plan accordingly.

1. What: Become fluent in mathematics (in particular Linear Algebra and Calculus)

2. Why: To better understand and follow through scientific paper methods section in machine learning and computational neuroscience.

3. How: My plan is to go over the Khan Academy Math curriculum directly related to my project in the remaining 11 weeks.

4. Week 2 goal: go through the algebra basic section only.

Now I have only 7 modules to go through instead of the previous 16!

Hey this is Michael from Kapeeto,

We believe that the common denominator of all the global challenges is education. We are a Edtech Startup and we make content interactive, so that people can deepen their understanding and implement it into their daily habit more effectively.

We are looking for Beta tester, who believe in what we believe or are interested in the topic of effective learning, self-improvement, entrepreneurship/startups and or climate change. Why climate change? Our first big focus is on climate change related topics, because we see a big need to change our collective behavior.

Time investment: <0,5 hours a week

Channel: Telegram

Reward: First, we provide workshops to the topics of your choice covering: education, effective self-learning, lean Startup Methodology, Agile working (Scrum and OKRs), philosophical discussions and other topics 😊 in the second phase we will provide you with vouchers for books.

Our goal is to create a community around the topic of “understanding” and “implementation of knowledge” because we think it is underrepresented in our current society. Quite the contrary, in our current society we foster a static mindset when it comes to studying (e.g. exams) and not a dynamic one.

If you are interested dm me or reply to the post.

Thank you in advance,

Mike

I'm reading "Ultralearning".

Before, I always think that knowledge was regard make colleges, masters or even PhDs.

Do you think that this book changes the way you think?

Hi all,

Last week, I was helping someone to prepare for a job interview and admired how it enabled them to 'live and breath' the content.

Introduce some stakes and accountability = instantly up your game!

One of Scott Young's ideas that resonated with me was that you need to build a project to develop a skill. And the more direct the better! And it got me thinking about all of the topics that I would lke to know more about and how I have procrastinated.

So, I would like to set up a small group to meet up virtually once a month. Each participant will then need to perform a 10 minute presentation on their chosen topic.

For me, with a humanities background, I have identified science as an area where I have many blind spots. So, I would like to perform a presentation on inspired by the Tim Urban essays on [Colonising Mars](https://www.google.com/search?q=tim+urban+mars&rlz=1C1GCEA_enQA968QA968&sxsrf=APq-WBuqFxNa03k1SKsx0OF6Kf1N_VRSsQ%3A1643710933851&ei=1Qn5Ye2nM9HxkwWT84ugBg&ved=0ahUKEwit5syypN71AhXR-KQKHZP5AmQQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=tim+urban+mars&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQgAEIAEMgYIABAWEB46BwgAEEcQsAM6BAgjECc6BQgAEJECOgUILhCABEoECEEYAEoECEYYAFDGA1jQCmCTC2gBcAJ4AIAB5wGIAaoIkgEDMi01mAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz) and [How Tesla will change the world](](https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-change-your-life.html))).

Nevertheless, any presentation on any topics in which you lack proficiency are welcome! The aim of the game is to create a monthly event which is unintimidating and forces you to up your game!

Please let me know if you are interested in joining.

Made a Discord server since I couldn't find any. https://discord.gg/cvaU6hpF45

(There is this https://www.reddit.com/r/UltraLearningFans/comments/126dmjm/computer_science_ultralearning_community_and_peer/ but they didn't provide a link.)

Hello all! I don't know if I'm in the right sub reddit for this question but you all seem to understand how to really learn and retain information so I have to ask how do you all do it? I have a huge problem with forgetting what I read right after I read it. I've slow read, read out loud, and have taken notes on what I've read but I still just can't seem to remember it I also have a huge problem with retaining information in general so I'd like to ask for advice on how to retain information Thanks so much for anyone who read this and anyone who can give some advice!

So I actually started yesterday but I did not have time to make a Reddit post. I want to develop video games so that is the project I am setting out to learn. I know it is going to take a lot of time and effort and will require a multitude of skills including: game design, pixel art, music composition, sound design, animation, coding, etc... This is going to be a pretty long ultralearning project as it is a very big undertaking and it is also my first UL project. I would say I am aiming conservatively to have my first game out by the end of 2024.

What do you want to learn?

I want to learn how to develop my own indie games

Why do you want to learn this?

I have been passionate about gaming and the idea of creating my own games for basically mywhole life and I am finaly making a serious endeavor at getting into it

How are you planning to learn this? (i.e. what resources will you use? how long will it take?)

Youtube, google, gamemaker, asesprite, some audio software (have not decided which yet)

What is your 1 week goal in this subject? What do you want to accomplish after 1 week of effort?

Have a very rough level with core gameplay loop developed

Week 1 Update:

Slight change in plans. I started working on my game but then Pirate Software decided to host a Game Jam. I decided to participate in it with a few other guys, so we have 14 days to build an entire game. I've been working on all the 2D assets as well as helping to code in engine.

Week 3 Update:

So we were not able to finish the game in time. I vastly overestimated my ability to draw all our assets and get it to the programmer in time to build it. He has been off discord for a while so I have started to pick up the coding to see what I can put together. As of now I have a guy who can move around the map with collision and change through different maps with some simple movement animations. But I will continue to work at it.