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Get Better At Anything originally made me skeptical when I first saw the title.
I mean, I’m usually not one to judge a book by its cover, but…
“Anything”?
That right there is what you call a big promise.
So, of course, I had to invite Scott Young onto the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast to asking him what counts as “anything.”
And I wanted him to define “better.”
As usual, Scott did not disappoint.
From accelerated learning techniques to rapid skill acquisition, the science demonstrating what really works is all there.
Click play on the the audio or video players to join in on the conversation.
And keep reading for a written review of this epic new book.
Whether you’re a lifelong learner, productivity enthusiast or simply curious about how you can explore more of your potential, Get Better At Anything is the book for you.
Get Better At Anything: A Review
One of the highest virtues of Get Better At Anything is how it gently, but thoroughly tackles many of our assumptions about how we learn.
Even if there are some issues with how scientific studies play out (which I’ll address further on), questioning common myths about learning is a valuable activity.
For one thing, questioning stimulates new ways to think about your own past as a learner. That way, your future learning efforts are more likely to succeed, especially as you take on new challenges.
Failure Isn’t Always A Good Teacher
One big takeaway I can foresee for many people involves the supposed value of falling flat on your face.
For example, Scott addresses the common wisdom that we need to fail to learn. As we speak, there are productivity gurus loading up their X accounts with tweets about how you have to “take action” so you can “fail faster.”
It’s not that they’re entirely wrong. We all need feedback and errors can be corrective.
But as Scott takes pains to show, it’s not the case that you absolutely have to fail in order to enjoy positive learning outcomes.
I’ve experienced this effect directly as a card magician, especially when learning memdeck routines. There are many magicians who preach that it’s better to learn from books. It’s not that they are wrong, but I’ve learned faster and mastered knacky moves very quickly when I could see them performed on video.
The real problem with no having examples in certain contexts is that people often give up on learning certain skills. I’ve certainly done that with more than a few magic instruction books. It’s a problem stimulated by the fact that a lot of talented magicians simply aren’t skilled writers.
Scott is great about showing how various “problem spaces” can be solved by finding ways to avoid failure. You’ll enjoy how this part of the book gets you thinking about ways to succeed faster and more often as you learn new skills.
Variety (And Theory) Is The Spice Of Learning
Although I think I talk about it in a different way than Scott presents the idea of getting plenty of variation into your deliberate practice and study sessions, I talk about how I use interleaving all the time.
Scott goes far deeper into the idea of shuffling between the various actions and aspects of learning.
A potential point of frustration with the suggestions in this section is that it’s not always clear when and where variability matters. For example, it seems unlikely that switching between chemistry books and fiction will make any of us better readers of either category.
That said, the research Scott presents seems to confirm something I’ve thought all along: understanding the theory behind many skills and topic really helps when it guides the actions we take during learning.
Michael Shermer says something similar in his introduction to Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye. Shermer says we need an “interplay of data and theory” to guide our thinking. Scott extends this imperative seeking a balance of theory and practice from as many sources as possible:
“Talking to people in the field, and finding out what tools they’re using and theories they’re working with, gives a roadmap for acquiring more tools to work with.”
In our age of digital amnesia, extending beyond books and the Internet strikes me as sage advice indeed.
Expertise Guarantees Nothing
As a former story consultant, I was very interested on the material about a problem I sometimes think of as “coaching effect.”
You’ve probably seen coaches at the side of the basketball court who look like they couldn’t sink a ball to save their life. Well, back when I was working in the film industry, but like an out of shape coach, I probably couldn’t have sold a screenplay.
Yet, because I was able to memorize a few varieties of story structure, I was able to see “models” in the stories written by others and help them decide how to improve them.
Scott goes deeper into how to find models and use them to guide your learning. You’ll also gain a better understanding of how top performers in realms like chess and poker operate.
Various contradictions seem to arise as well, such as the role of experience.
As we discussed in the interview, we’re both YouTubers and both my channel Scott’s technically have tons of views and we aren’t lacking in basic presentation skills. Yet, when platforms keep changing their rules, all the experience in the world does little to guarantee “growth.”
That’s why his point that improvement is never a straight line is especially valuable, especially when he talks about old knowledge potentially hindering new ideas. From a memory perspective, I wonder how various memory biases might play a role in that. Either way, the final part of Scott’s new book has solutions for how to keep improving despite the problems developing expertise can create.
No Complaints
As with Scott’s previous book, Ultralearning, I have no gripes.
I will say that I like Get Better At Anything a touch better, however. One reason is that I think the stories supplement the takeaway points in ways that, well… work better for me as a reader.
One concern I didn’t quite raise as well as I might have in our interview relates to the reproducibility of various studies and other issues I often see in memory science.
It is this:
If so many studies show that various learning strategies work so well, why do so few students seem to pick them up?
Unfortunately, I neglected to ask Scott about what is sometimes called Hawthorne Effects – a variety of situations in which participants may modify their behaviors because they are know they are being studied.
Scott seems to have a preemptive strike on this issue for those who do put the accelerated learning techniques he shares into action, however:
- Score your attempts
- Write progress reports
- Share with others in a “brain trust” to identify and improve your blind spots
In the world of memory competitions, many mental athletes suggest a very similar cluster of activities. Johannes Mallow, for example, has shared his approach to journaling while preparing to compete. Other memory athletes like John Graham, Alex Mullen and Nelson Dellis have noted how much they learn from others at competitions.
In sum, Scott stresses that there’s a difference between the act of solving problems and learning how to solve problems.
Just about anything you want to learn involves encountering one or more “problem spaces.” The more you know about how others have succeeded in tackling them and succeeding, the more you’ll improve your chances of success.
Can it really be that simple?
Well, here is where you’ll have to read the book yourself to find out how you should value “better.”
I think Scott’s closing chapter on mastery will put you in good stead when it comes to improving both your goals and how you set out to achieve them.
Highly recommended, and Get Better At Anything is widely available for whenever you’re ready to start enjoying improvements across the board.
