Do you have people like this around you

Who learn new skills faster than you
Master them better than you
Do you think they are geniuses
I think both yes and no
The biggest difference between geniuses and ordinary people
Is that geniuses follow the laws of the brain
While ordinary people go against them
When you're struggling to learn
And see someone enjoying it and being efficient
It's easy to mistakenly think they are a genius
Actually, as long as you follow the brain's rules
You can also enjoy learning and be efficient
Today I share 5 methods to quickly master skills
Why do most people’s learning violate the laws of the brain
Because there is a formula for mastering skills
And the common approach is exactly the opposite
Leading to many bottlenecks
David Koubo proposed
The essence of learning is
Action, reflection,
Theory,
And application in a cycle
Simply put,
To master a skill
You must first take action
Encounter problems during action
Reflect and summarize to form theories
Finally, apply the theories to practice
Achieving unity of knowledge and action
However, most people’s learning order is reversed
First learn theory
Then procrastinate
Then reflect
Start acting
And often give up at the end
Habitually learn a lot first
Think you're ready before practicing
But the more you learn
The more difficult things seem
Fear of difficulty triggers procrastination
Procrastinate for a long time
And start to self-doubt
Realizing you can't go on like this
Finally take action
But once you practice
You find the actual situation is very different from the theory
What you learned seems useless
And you begin to doubt yourself
Eventually, you have to put it aside
This kind of learning method is painful
You must know
Only joyful learning
Can truly help you learn
These 5 methods are summarized from my experience of taking detours
To help you follow the learning laws
They are:
The endpoint is the starting point
Find a mentor
Love review
Effective focus
Learn and teach simultaneously
1. The endpoint is the starting point
Let me ask you
Is it easier for a first-grade student to learn sixth-grade knowledge
Or for a sixth-grade student to learn first-grade knowledge?
Obviously, sixth-grade learning first-grade is easier
Why?
It's like a dimensionality reduction attack
The same applies to learning
This approach is often the most efficient
Many experts first tackle difficult content
And then work backward to learn the basics
For example, learning piano
Start with the hardest pieces
Then reading sheet music becomes much easier
Learning editing
First master the toughest clips
Then other projects are a breeze
Because in this process
You first master the skill itself
Then learn the theory
Your brain acts like a seat assignment
It fits the knowledge you already have
Rather than blindly exploring
It’s like
You’ve already understood a principle
But don’t understand its underlying reason
At this moment, when you see related systems in books or videos
You suddenly realize
Hey, this is what I understood!
And you grasp it instantly
Another example:
Can you say you learned Chinese by first learning Pinyin?
Actually, you learned to speak first
And then encountered Pinyin
If you learn Pinyin first and then the language
You’ll find Chinese very difficult
In other words,
Sequential learning often makes things harder the more you do
In practice, there’s a 20/80 rule:
A person can use 20% of their time and effort
To grasp 80% of the underlying content of a field
This can make you an amateur
But also risk leaving you only half-knowledgeable
Any skill is relatively simple at the start
But becomes increasingly complex and difficult
The gap with experts widens
And eventually, breakthroughs become hard
This is because your subconscious limits you
You think the remaining 20% is unreachable
But in fact,
It’s just that you don’t believe enough in yourself
Starting too low
What you should really do
Is use 80% of your time and effort
To conquer that 20% of extremely difficult parts
This way,
The learning curve will reverse
It will be hard at first
But become easier with practice
And you’ll gain more confidence
For example, when I first started my business
I thought doing internet work required mastering a lot of knowledge
And needed step-by-step learning
But it became more and more complicated
And harder to do
Eventually, I felt that those who made high-quality videos
Were like mountains I couldn’t cross
Later, I realized
I should treat myself as that mountain
Set a clear goal:
I want to produce the highest quality videos in my mind
And work directly toward that goal
Abandoning unnecessary intermediate steps
Then, I kept solving problems and researching deeply
Finally, everything became easier and easier
I could make any kind of video I wanted
Take Sun Wukong as an example
He initially wanted to learn the art of immortality
Bodhi Old Ancestor made him meditate for seven years
During this time, he wasn’t taught any skills
But kept talking about the Dao
Sun Wukong refused the four common Taoist methods:
Tree, Stream, Static, Movement
This was actually a test of his resolve
To see if his mind was firm
After years of mental refinement
Would he still be obsessed with immortality?
Because Sun Wukong’s goal was clear
He could catch Bodhi Old Ancestor’s hints
And learn the art of immortality
Some say Sun Wukong succeeded because of talent
I don’t deny that
But do you think
If he had trained diligently every day like his brothers
He could become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven?
I think it’s almost impossible
And
Do you think Bodhi Old Ancestor really just hit him three times
Is that just a surface meaning?
You could even say
Sun Wukong over-interpreted Bodhi Old Ancestor’s message
But because he had a clear goal
He dared to interpret it that way
And thus gained opportunities
So,
Many people ask if talent is really important
I think it is
But what truly separates you from others
Is not talent
But your desire
Your interest
Your self-positioning and confidence
2. Find a mentor
Earlier, we mentioned
To start with a difficult task
But during the process
You’ll find many challenges
Many people can’t persist
Because they fall into pain
This pain is called learned helplessness
When someone encounters many unknowns
And can’t solve them for a long time
These problems become mental barriers
Making them feel unfit for the task
But a mentor isn’t there to do everything for you
They’re there to guide you when you don’t know how to start
Help you get going
When you face unsolvable problems
A mentor can help you solve them
And help you master the skill
For example,
You want to shoot a high-quality Vlog
But get stuck on storyboarding and video structure
What to do?
Find a director to ask
They will show you
That storyboarding doesn’t have to be in order
You can shoot whatever comes to mind first
There are many editing methods
Even use voiceovers to create a timeline
You’ll feel like discovering a new world
3. Love review
Do you know why you dislike learning
And feel exhausted doing things?
Because you haven’t fallen in love with solving problems
Those who learn skills quickly
Often enjoy the process of solving problems
For example,
Why don’t we like exams?
Because to do well, you need to do a lot of practice and problem-solving
But even after practicing many questions
You might still do poorly if the questions don’t match your style
This makes solving problems feel like random feedback
Or no feedback at all
But in reality,
Solving a problem in real life
Gives immediate feedback
Because mastering a skill
Is about getting the steps right
If it’s right, it works
If wrong, it fails
Changing reality by solving problems
Will make you love solving problems
For example, when making videos
If you hit a traffic bottleneck
And find it’s because the opening isn’t attractive
Fixing that increases views
Don’t you want to find problems to solve every day
Because solving problems can boost traffic
And you’ll love that feeling
At this point,
You most want someone to help you solve problems
Or you want to solve them yourself
To have initiative
So,
Top creators love having their mistakes pointed out
They even spend money to find faults
Reinforcement learning shows
The essence of skill improvement
Is reinforcing correct actions
And correcting mistakes
In other words,
Practicing alone isn’t enough
The key to real improvement
Is recognizing which actions to reinforce
And which to adjust
So, how to review?
There are two methods:
First,
Find a way to observe yourself from a third-person perspective
Because it’s hard to see yourself clearly
You need a reference
For example, many athletes use high-speed cameras
To record their movements
And then review to find issues
In this case, the high-speed camera is their mentor
Or,
Post videos on platforms
And use view counts as your teacher
Second,
Compare yourself to a standard you consider excellent
Benjamin Franklin mentioned in his autobiography
That he consciously trained his writing skills
He would record articles he liked
And then rewrite them in his own words
Trying to restore the original style and template
After writing, compare with the original
Identify shortcomings and adjust
By repeating this process
He eventually became a distinguished figure
4. Effective focus
What is effective focus?
We all know
To master any skill
You need to enter a state of concentration
Because only with focus
Can you maximize your time efficiency
That’s why
Some people can learn more skills in the same time
But many can’t focus
Why?
The first factor affecting focus
Is multitasking
Harvard research shows
Multitasking permanently reduces brain capacity
In simple terms,
Doing many things at once lowers IQ
For example,
While studying diligently
Your boss calls to ask you to finish a PPT tonight
When you return to studying
It’s hard to concentrate
Your mind keeps drifting to the PPT
This is your cognitive resources being divided
So,
When learning a skill, focus on one thing
Don’t be greedy
The second factor is your state
The effort you invest must be high-quality
What is high-quality effort?
Simply put,
Adequate sleep
Clear mind
No discomfort
This is very important
For example,
After staying up late and going for a run
It’s hard to realize if your posture is correct
Similarly, running for two hours
Someone in good condition can review and summarize
And be aware of their movements
While you just force yourself to persist
Wasting time
That’s why athletes need 8 hours of sleep daily
So, before learning, ensure your state is good
The third point is to space out your study sessions
Because of fatigue effects
When practicing one thing
Attention usually lasts about 45 minutes
After 45 minutes
Focus and other aspects decline sharply
People become irritable
For example, I sometimes need to go to the bathroom after working for a while
Because I feel restless
At this point,
The best method is using a Pomodoro timer
Set focused intervals
After two rounds, you might enter a flow state
Once in flow
You won’t feel restless
And can do five or six hours of work
Feeling like only an hour has passed
5. Learn and teach simultaneously
The last method
Is actually the Feynman Technique
The so-called Feynman Technique
Is to output the knowledge you’ve learned
And teach others
What are the benefits?
First,
It helps confirm whether you truly mastered a skill
During learning
You might feel you understand
But in reality, you might not fully grasp it
Many details remain unexplored
There’s a saying:
If you can clearly teach others
And they understand
It means you’ve fully mastered it
Because explaining requires organizing the entire logic in your mind
If any part is unclear
You’ll get stuck
And your speech will lack confidence
Moreover,
When others listen to your explanation
They will ask many questions
Only when you truly understand the skill
Can you answer well
Besides,
The brain has a reward mechanism
If the brain perceives a piece of knowledge as meaningful and systematic
It will store it in short-term memory
And the content will be deeply impressed
And useful in daily life
So,
After teaching others
You’ll remember it more firmly
Because the knowledge system is recognized by your brain
For example,
You just learned how to make tomato scrambled eggs
And know that adding salt to tomatoes makes it tastier
If you don’t teach it
This knowledge might go into long-term memory
And after a while, when you cook again
You might only remember to add salt
But forget whether it’s in the tomatoes or eggs
Memory becomes fragmented
But if you teach once
Others might ask:
Why add salt directly to the tomatoes?
You explain it’s to make it easier to fry
Eggs are salty and tender, so don’t add salt
In this way,
Knowledge is explained
And your brain perceives it as systematic
The knowledge system of how to make tomato scrambled eggs
Will be stored in short-term memory
And you won’t forget it even after 5 years
From these methods,
It’s clear that
To quickly master a skill
You can summarize with a formula:
Choose a difficult task you want to accomplish
Do it extensively
And incorporate review and iteration
You will naturally become an expert and master
Form your own style
Because gradually, you will develop your own understanding of this matter