An excellent question! I have now written a meta document of “How do I learn X” which I have sent off to a friend to be checked before I post it on Lesswrong. I will post a link (probably in the next 24 hours) to a discussion thread. I think the meta-strategy is going to be more helpful and for more people. I can write a specific list after.
As a teaser:
Make a list of your knowledge in the area
Confirm what you think you know (via brief research), replace your existing knowledge with correct knowledge.
Make a list of the topics of knowledge in the area.
spend time finding the best resource (as a trade off of searching-time, $cost, time-to-cover-the-resource)
delve in, absorb the knowledge
devise ways to test yourself, and/or experiment that you have gained the knowledge. (experimental methods include controlled environments, repeated tests, evaluation)
teach others in order to cement your knowledge.
This list is a teaser; there are more points, but you can probably cover 1-3 by the time I get to publish the list.
How does one do this, besides trial and very painful error?
update: http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/mmu/how_to_learn_a_new_area_x_that_you_have_no_idea/
An excellent question! I have now written a meta document of “How do I learn X” which I have sent off to a friend to be checked before I post it on Lesswrong. I will post a link (probably in the next 24 hours) to a discussion thread. I think the meta-strategy is going to be more helpful and for more people. I can write a specific list after.
As a teaser:
Make a list of your knowledge in the area
Confirm what you think you know (via brief research), replace your existing knowledge with correct knowledge.
Make a list of the topics of knowledge in the area.
spend time finding the best resource (as a trade off of searching-time, $cost, time-to-cover-the-resource)
delve in, absorb the knowledge
devise ways to test yourself, and/or experiment that you have gained the knowledge. (experimental methods include controlled environments, repeated tests, evaluation)
teach others in order to cement your knowledge.
This list is a teaser; there are more points, but you can probably cover 1-3 by the time I get to publish the list.