Variability, Not Repetition, is the Key to Mastery

Рет қаралды 6,860

Күн бұрын

Bruce Lee is reported to have said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” With all due respect to Mr. Lee, he might have been wrong about this one.
Variability plays an essential and oft-neglected role in mastering complex skills. Considerable research shows that practicing in varied contexts with varied methods and performing with varied task constraints results in more robust learning than simple repetition.
📩 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter and receive 5 FREE EBOOKS - www.scotthyoung.com/blog/news...
WHO AM I:
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of "Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career," podcast host, computer programmer, and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider, and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.
📧 YOU CAN REACH ME AT:
hello@scotthyoung.com
#learning #youtube #productivity #brain #science #learn #mastery

Пікірлер: 19

@brittmaragh Жыл бұрын

As a physics student, this is something I do innately. I found that it was the smarter and quicker way to study. Rather than do hundreds of problems in sequential order, I work out of order. It’s a bit uncomfortable in the beginning because it’s not how we are taught to study or do homework. However, we aren’t going to be tested linearly in our exams…so it only makes sense.

@ScottHYoungVid Жыл бұрын

Amazing! Thank you for watching.

@leandrojunior5007 10 ай бұрын

Scott, thanks for this content, hugs from Brazil!

@elidrissii Жыл бұрын

I think a good analogy to the problem with low variability is the danger of overfitting. To be able to abstract (which is the goal of learning in the end) requires variability, otherwise we will just (over)fit to the data since our brain are lazy, as you mentioned.

@miles6875 Жыл бұрын

Your book and this channel = invaluable. Thank you

@rajveer-ck9rq Жыл бұрын

Wow sir I am very happy to see you on KZfaq. Since 2 years before I know about you then I went through your website . The concept of holistic learning is groundbreaking For me... And helped me a lot. Sir i am from India Sir I assure you that after 4 years I wil meet with you. 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

@abjee1602 Жыл бұрын

aur kitna maska maerga bhai?

@theinquiringmindpodcast243 Жыл бұрын

Incredible stuff, Scott.

@ScottHYoungVid Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@Tony-cj6jy Жыл бұрын

Every workday at lunchtime i go to a museum to exercise my drawing skills, i alternate between going to the carmuseum, the amymuseum and the art and history museum. I plan on getting extra variability by doing six 5 minute sketches vs one 30 min sketch. Other suggestions are welcome😉.

@martin-raison-music-composer 7 ай бұрын

Does the contextual interference technique suggest I should : - mix up all my flashcards together instead of learning them one category at the time? (math , then physics, then history, etc) - hide any cues that would spoil what the context of the flashcard is? (like by hiding the parent folder of the flaschard for instance) thank you :)

@chippy977 Жыл бұрын

Hi Scott I’m an avid reader of your blogs and love your book ultra learning. I’m taking up cabinet making as part of my ultra learning project but would like some advice on finding the meta strategy. I know in your blogs you’re an avid fan of learning by doing (avoid transfer issues) but also surely the theory part is also crucial? How can I best divide my time between theory and practice in a hands on skill?

@ScottHYoungVid Жыл бұрын

I think the theory is important. I think we learn well by being able to watch someone do something, try it ourselves, and then get corrective feedback for trying to fix our mistakes. Clearly there are some domains where this needs to be bolstered by a deeper theory of why you're taking certain actions, but that depends a lot on the domain (how much useful theory do we actually possess?) and the aims for breadth (theory is more useful if you're likely to encounter problems that are quite different than the examples you've seen). I think watching KZfaq videos plus trying things yourself is probably a good start for cabinet making. Obviously, taking a class with an instructor might be even better, since you can get guided into what sorts of projects are easier and be given feedback if you make mistakes (which might otherwise be hard to spot).

@Fonch117 Жыл бұрын

This is true! There is a name for it. Interleaved practice is what it's called. It's counterpart is known as "blocked practice" which is a less effective way to study.

@fabienmusicien616 11 ай бұрын

Merci de France 🎉🎉🎉🎉

@knw-seeker6836 Жыл бұрын

I’m a psychology student and what I noticed is that topics connect although they are in different chapters When organizing the ideas you get a much better understanding and come up with better questions I think one would benefit from interleaving when switching between chapters or topics

@ScottHYoungVid Жыл бұрын

Yes--a major problem with classroom assignments is that if you know a question is from Unit 1 of your book, you have already been given a huge hint as to what possible knowledge is needed. Shuffling the questions in a curriculum is harder, but leads to more robust learning.

@pankajsureka4731 Жыл бұрын

Your idea about variability appears good in theory but not practical. In beginning one usually don't know about what all variation occur. Also it appears to contradict ultra learning principal that intermittent repetition of same task makes it permanent in memory. Can you explain by some real life example of problem or situation in which you or someone else successfully implemented this technique?

@ScottHYoungVid Жыл бұрын

Variability would mean, say, when learning a grammatical pattern in a language, using lots of different examples and applying it in different contexts. Doing repetition of the same question will make it faster to remember the example, but be otherwise less efficient for retrieving the knowledge in new contexts or applying it to somewhat different examples. Other examples might be: Skiing -> Practice in different snow conditions, hills, runs Portraiture -> Practice different faces, lighting conditions Physics -> Doing a large variety of problems from problem-sets Languages -> Listening to different speakers, accents Repetition isn't bad, but once you've overcome the high cognitive load conditions when you're still trying to understand the pattern, greater variety is probably better.