The Sea of Learning is Boundless, But You Don't Have to Struggle: Building My Learning Ability and Pathway System - Minority#
#Omnivore
Matrix Homepage Recommendation
Matrix is the writing community of Minority, where we advocate sharing genuine product experiences and practical insights. We periodically select the highest quality articles from Matrix to showcase the most authentic experiences and viewpoints from users.
The articles represent the personal views of the authors, and Minority only makes slight modifications to the titles and formatting.
Once we start working, it usually means we find it hard to have independent time to "purely learn" a skill or a subject, and the idea of lifelong learning can easily become just a slogan. At the same time, "efficiency" is also an important keyword, with various tools being repeatedly mentioned on major efficiency platforms to help organize information and form knowledge flows. To avoid becoming a pure tool person stuck in place, over the past two years, I have tried various methods, pathways, and tools to form my own learning paradigm and information flow, striving to maintain a relatively stable learning habit amidst a busy work schedule. I had to step on some landmines and jump into some pits, but fortunately, I found a somewhat universal approach to share with you.
Motivation#
Why Learn More#
Who Doesn't Want a New Life Copy#
Detectives deduce the real culprit, police interrogate criminals, and the direction of evidence is one aspect, but having a clear motive is also important, and we are no exception. Since we have reached the age of making a living in society, why should we still put in great effort to relearn?
Let's talk about something practical.
Everyone understands the slogan of lifelong learning, but let's change the perspective: when you see classmates or friends switching to a second life track through a certain skill or side job, do you feel envious and jealous?
Answering this question is not meant to make everyone become utilitarian, even if your answer is likely "yes." Changes in the people and environment around us are the easiest stimuli for us to start reflecting on ourselves. Nowadays, the trend of "slash youth," self-media people, and digital nomads living on Bali Island are almost active in everyone's social circles. Every time we see these, don't we often sigh: hey, if I had also persisted in doing self-media or something, maybe I could have opened a new life copy too. This is a very practical reason to keep learning: it gives you a chance to start a new life.
Control Yourself, Build Confidence#
Now let's talk about something abstract.
Assuming you haven't been stimulated by the people around you, let's return to the word "learning" itself. Before the age of 18, our world was often surrounded by keywords like "study well" and "get into a good university." At that time, we were on the path of knowing astronomy and geography, and studying well was the local optimal solution we faced. As a student from Henan, I was lucky in high school, with a handful of students going to Tsinghua and Peking University, and I could barely secure a spot at a 985 university in Zhejiang, then go to Antai for a master's.
This year, I experienced changing jobs and cities, and when I couldn't continue writing extravagant PPTs, I directly went for a naked resignation to try my luck in a new field. A classmate from my class who went to Peking University to study psychology has also resigned from teaching this year to start a personal psychological consulting studio. After a brief chat with him, compared to being a psychology teacher and dealing with the increasingly complicated tasks of public schools, running a psychological studio may not be stable, but at least it brings inner peace. When I resigned without a job, I never once worried that I might not find a good job. I attribute this lack of internal conflict to the confidence I gained from successfully entering a top university back in school by "studying well." What truly internalizes in our bones is the ability to shape our self-awareness and control. The sense of control is something everyone is striving for nowadays, but ultimately, the sense of control in life comes from the sense of control over oneself. A person who can manage their abilities, state, and life rhythm well will exude a kind of confidence from within. This confidence is actually brought to us by the ability to learn continuously, this is probably the true intrinsic motivation for learning: to control oneself and build confidence.
Laying the Foundation#
Having resolved the motivation issue, practice will certainly not go as smoothly as one might imagine. First, we need to solve the question of what to learn, and then think about how to learn, with each link becoming more complex. What I want to tell you is something different.
What to Learn is Not Important, Learning Ability is Important#
Is the real obstacle to our learning not knowing what to learn? No, the real obstacle is often that we no longer have the ability to calm down and learn. Imagine, can we still read a book a day or study hard for a week like during university finals? I think most people's answer is no; our ability to focus and learn has gradually diminished with age and the grind of work, and what urgently needs to be rebuilt is a learning foundation centered on ability.
Method 1: Input, Try Reading Systematic Texts During Commute#
If you spend more than half an hour commuting to work each day without driving, why not use that half hour to read systematic texts? Systematic texts are those that require a certain length and time to understand carefully. Finding an independent time slot dedicated to reading is certainly the ultimate ideal choice, but the path to cultivating this can be indirect and winding, and commuting time is a very good entry point. For most of the previous time, I needed between twenty to forty minutes of walking, subway, or bus for my commute. During this time, I tried reading the articles on the homepage of Minority or the text version of courses I received. At this stage, I do not advocate using audio; systematic texts are easier to get you into a thinking state visually, and what we need to do to cultivate learning ability is to regain the ability to think seriously. After trying for a while, I felt my reading ability gradually returned to its previous level, and I could almost finish reading the content of seven courses during my morning commute.
Method 2: Output, Try Recording Thoughtful Segments#
Input is one aspect, and output is another. In a previous article, I discussed how writing has changed my life, and in the last paragraph, I mentioned that writing has brought me the important change of being able to think quietly about something familiar or unfamiliar. Input is the source, output is reinforcement. To be honest, I don't have much mature practical experience in this regard; rather, my older sister, who is already middle-aged, has made significant progress in this area. Whether reading books, attending classes, or even when being PUA'd at work, various strange thoughts may arise. To avoid merely having fleeting insights, it's essential to quickly write these down. Writing them down is also a process of rethinking. When we have thought about something more than twice, we gradually acquire the ability to deeply learn about it. As for whether you use a memo or Flomo, as long as it helps you quickly record and review, it doesn't matter.
My sister can smoothly generate ideas while listening to a World Cup class.
Building the Framework#
Once the learning ability is restored, it's time to start constructing my learning paradigm. A learning paradigm is not a complicated matter; there's no need to demand that you have a mature RSS or impeccable note flow. What's more important is to decide for yourself: how to conveniently learn different content from different places.
Principle: Hardcore Content + Interest Exploration + Broad Information Flow = Effective Information Saturation#
For a working person, a very important keyword in learning is diversity. Compared to our student days, we now have more choices, but the problems brought by work and making a living often lead to a gradually narrowing perspective, and the ways and angles of thinking about problems become increasingly singular. Therefore, to establish effective information saturation, we need to diversify our information and pathways as much as possible to build our learning framework.
Filling the Meat#
Hardcore Content#
Difficult "Unpleasant Learning"#
In a certain class during my third year of junior high, my chemistry teacher emphasized that there is absolutely no such thing as "pleasant learning" for those who study seriously, and I fully agree. Once we decide to invest energy deeply into a certain field, it will inevitably come with various "torments," whether it's the time we must spend or the pain of not understanding. Most of the time, it has nothing to do with happiness. Therefore, the first step in my exploration of building a learning paradigm is to select a stable hardcore content and continuously invest time and energy into learning it. Thus, under the crazy course promotion of Jenny, I chose "Get" as my channel for hardcore content learning.
Hardcore content has two key points: it requires effort and must be sustainable. Many of the courses on "Get" come from experts in different fields, and the coverage of the fields is comprehensive enough. Each class, even if just listening, takes about ten minutes, so it's not easy to finish a class seriously. Moreover, courses like "Elite Daily" have a daily update rhythm, requiring continuous follow-up, which well meets my learning requirements for hardcore content. According to my annual plan, I started forcing myself to read or listen to seven classes during my commute every day. Initially, I was very motivated for the first month, but once I experienced a "break" during major holidays like Spring Festival or May Day, the pressure to catch up after the holidays increased dramatically. Not to mention that some courses in literature, history, and philosophy require a good cultural literacy, occasionally supplementing some background knowledge from other places may become the norm. Thus, I had to spend more time catching up, reading the books mentioned in the courses to aid understanding, and experiencing this "unpleasant forced learning."
I have also developed a habit of learning crazily on "Get."
Is it necessary to have a portion of hardcore learning content? I believe so. Once we have passed the stage of restoring learning ability, we need to incorporate some hardcore and professional content because habits need to be cultivated, maintained, and persisted. We need to be vigilant; if most of the content we learn is easy to understand, we may still be stuck in our comfort zone, inevitably entering a cycle of rigid perspectives and thinking. Forcing ourselves to move, enduring one or two difficult phases, we will find that everything is not as difficult as it seems.
Skills That Don't Make Money Are Also Good Skills#
I believe that most of us develop the thought of learning from wanting to "learn English" or "learn Python" and other skill breakthroughs. Of course, wanting to improve a side job skill is also a good choice, but often we face situations where these skills are related to making money or wanting to make money, but they won't be immediately applicable in our work. Thus, our learning journey often starts strong but ends weakly; we choose a lecturer, buy a course, and prepare to take notes, but because it doesn't provide immediate practical benefits, we struggle to maintain motivation for continuous learning.
Since that's the case, I won't force it here; instead, I'll take a different approach. Learn some skills that seem completely non-utilitarian.
Here, I must recommend many digital and efficiency courses from Minority. Most of these courses are very practical but not to the extent that they can bring you income growth. Some software and system-related courses are almost things we often need to use in life, and they require you to simultaneously perform some operations and even take some small notes. Experience tells me that this type of course is best started with interest but ultimately ends in practice. Non-monetary skills fundamentally focus on skills, which require us to invest time and energy, and we need to take action or think to make changes and achieve progress. When you can find such a skill that is not monetarily beneficial but has practical value, don't hesitate; treat it as your hardcore learning content and dive in.
Taking notes for the Notion course using Notion.
Interest Exploration#
Interest exploration can be considered the seasoning in this learning formula, primarily aimed at allowing me to continuously see new directions and gain some extra momentum and strength. If hardcore content emphasizes the synchronous scale of input and output, where there must be a corresponding visible output for every input, then interest exploration does not have such strict requirements for me; it doesn't need many notes or practical operations, but it must be something I like, satisfying the classic formula of liking: liking = familiarity + surprise.
Familiarity#
Familiarity means being within my areas of interest. Everyone can identify at least a handful of areas of interest; eating, drinking, and having fun are just four, and you can easily come up with another category to make it five. This is, of course, a joke, but if you can treat eating, drinking, and having fun as genuine interests to explore, that's also a very good choice. Learning doesn't always have to be laborious and unpleasant; our minds need rest, and we don't need to maintain a highly tense state all the time. Our brains need rest too, allowing some space for other things to enter our vision. After all, one of the purposes of building this learning paradigm is to prevent our vision from becoming narrow, and we must always keep this purpose in mind.
Surprise#
So, whatever you are familiar with, you can try to input a little more than usual in that area. It's not just about casually looking at things; it's about researching some details you didn't know before in that field. This input doesn't necessarily have to be systematic courses and timely summarized learning notes; simply reading a couple more books or looking at some content you didn't know before is also great.
I consider myself a half-hearted sports enthusiast, with a decent interest in various sports that are difficult to participate in daily, especially volleyball, tennis, and gymnastics. Besides following competitions and idols, since last year, I have invested more of my interest and energy into studying these sports themselves, researching rounds, tactics, different players and teams' playing styles, even some methods of positioning, and technical statistics. In today's self-media era, this content can be easily obtained from various official event websites, fan forums, etc., without needing to exhaust oneself exploring various avenues. Alternatively, I also try to study some specialty coffee; articles from the younger generation of Minority and a book titled "My Coffee Life Proposal" have become my most basic sources of information.
Therefore, in-depth research will definitely bring you more "surprises." After truly delving into these topics, you will find that, let alone working for love, maintaining interest cannot rely solely on superficial enthusiasm. When we have the opportunity to delve into something we are interested in, that thing also deepens its bond with us, making our liking more "intense." The deeper and more professional the research, the more "surprises" we can discover in the process, deepening our interest. Finding one or two things that allow us to continuously invest energy through the method of "familiarity + surprise" in such a complex and ever-changing life should be something to be very proud of.
Broad Information Flow#
For most ordinary people, a large chunk of their day is devoted to work and sleep. Except for weekends, the time available for learning and receiving information is often fragmented. Therefore, beyond hardcore content and interest exploration, and excluding the very necessary time spent on mobile phones and browsing Bilibili, what we can do is to try to broaden our information flow.
If you think that the information flow I mentioned is about building an effective RSS subscription system, then that would indeed be off-topic. I am not an expert in daily information overload, nor do I subscribe to many continuous columns. What I consider broad information flow is to increase, widen, and thicken the forms of information as much as possible. We all know that the brain processes and handles information from auditory, visual, and tactile sources differently, and the extent to which we can absorb, remember, and utilize that information also varies. At this point, there's no need to pursue highly efficient use of information; instead, we can expose ourselves to different types of information to keep our thinking as active as possible.
Text: I mentioned reading systematic texts when discussing learning ability, so I won't repeat that.
Sound: Sound is a very interesting way of information dissemination. Compared to reading, which may distract you, sound can relatively quickly help you refocus your attention. The best interpretation of this form today is podcasts. There are excellent and mature podcasts available on various topics such as cultural commentary, sports, spiritual values, and audio-visual sharing, allowing me to absorb and digest a wide range of content without much pressure. Since we no longer have many opportunities to attend lectures and forums, I highly recommend everyone consider podcasts as an important and effective channel for information input, keeping our ears young.
Unlocked a professional interest blog channel.
Video: I believe everyone has had either failed or repeated experiences with learning on Bilibili. Yes, Bilibili is indeed one of the best sources for video learning materials today, but I also understand how difficult it is to persist in learning and checking in on Bilibili. Let's relieve that pressure and give Bilibili a more suitable and effective use: for quick entry. When I need to quickly understand a new field or new knowledge, I choose to search on Bilibili, sort by views, and watch the top five videos that are highly relevant to the topic. This allows me to gain a good understanding and insight into a field at a very fast pace, making this method perfect for preparing for interviews or learning business knowledge at work. When long video learning is hard to sustain, why not use it for your quick entry?
Perfecting the Knowledge Pyramid#
When I successfully start and persist in completing the above steps, my learning path is basically formed. At this moment, I am no longer the student who learned numerous difficult problems back in the day. Re-establishing the habit of in-depth learning is certainly challenging but necessary. We have become accustomed to relying on fragmented knowledge and the massive influx of information into our brains, and aside from writing requirement documents, it seems difficult to calm down and complete anything else. One day, when we look back and realize that this dangerous situation is becoming increasingly severe, it becomes necessary to start making changes. This change does not need to have a precise efficiency system, nor does it require significant effort to build a very polished workflow. The most important thing is to first reshape our learning ability and then think of ways to achieve effective information saturation. On the road to perfecting the knowledge pyramid, I look forward to meeting you soon.
> Download Minority 2.0 Client, follow Minority WeChat Official Account, and unlock a new reading experience 📰
> Practical and useful genuine software, presented to you by Minority 🚀
Principle: Hardcore Content + Interest Exploration + Broad Information Flow = Effective Information Saturation
© This article is copyrighted by the author and is exclusively authorized for use by Minority. Reproduction or use without Minority's permission is prohibited.