A&B #19

Hey friends,

I'm writing to all 4,250 of you today.I hope you started reading your first book of the year. If you don't know what to read, check out my top 10 favorite books of 2020. Quick question: Would you be interested in a private community for readers?It would be a place to connect with fellow book lovers, discuss your favorite books, meet accountability partners, get to talk books and reading tips with me, and much more. 

• Would you be willing to pay $10 a month for something like that? If yes, reply to this email and tell me what you'd like to see in the community!

Alright, let's dive into this week's newsletter!

🎧  Podcast Update:

I recently had Scott Young, the bestselling author of Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career on the podcast.Scott's book is all about learning how to learn better. He talks about how the strategies he used to complete 4-years of MIT classes in 12 months and learn 4 languages in one year. Here are a few of the topics he covers in our conversation

• How to deal with distraction and procrastination  

• The paradox of learning (sometimes learning that feels easy is the least effective)  

• How to remember more of what you’ve learned & prevent yourself from forgetting information 

• Why you want to space your learning and not cram for an exam 

And much more.You can listen to our podcast here.

• You can also watch our conversation on YouTube here.

📚 Book Lessons:

Here are 3 lessons from Ultralearning:1) Have A Bias Towards ActionLearning something new and practicing something new seem similar, but these two methods can produce vastly different results. Passive learning creates knowledge whereas active practice creates skill. For example, you can read multiple books about the best workout exercises and routines, but reading won't get you in shape. It's only until you've taken action that you'll start seeing results. Learning can be extremely useful in life, but remember that it isn't enough. You need to have a bias toward taking action.2) To Learn More, Test Yourself SoonerPeople view tests as a way to evaluate the knowledge they learned. But, research shows that taking a test results in more learning than spending a similar amount of time reviewing information.

• "The research is clear: if you need to recall something later, you're best off practicing retrieving it," writes Scott Young.

In order words, if you're studying for an exam, instead of continually reviewing your notes, you're better off taking a practice exam, creating flashcards, or doing free recall (taking a piece of paper and writing down everything you can remember about the topic without looking at your notes).3) The Paradox of StudyingYou might be asking yourself, if testing yourself is a more effective method of learning than reviewing, why don't more people do it? Well, when the learning task feels easy (like reviewing notes), we humans are more likely to believe we've learned it. Whereas if the task feels like a struggle (like practicing free recall), we feel like we haven't learned it.

• "The feeling that you're learning more when you're reading rather than trying to recall with a closed book isn't accurate...retrieval practice beats passive review by a mile," writes Scott. 

✅ Actionable Advice:1) Have a bias towards taking action by applying what you're learning. Challenge: Take the last book you read and brainstorm three ways on how you could apply the knowledge you've gained to make a difference in your life.2) Spend more time testing yourself.Challenges: Create flashcards for a topic you're studying Take practice exams (or create your own test exam if there aren't any) Take a piece of paper and practice free recall by writing everything you know about the topic without looking at your notes3)  Be aware of the paradox of studying: If a studying method seems hard, perhaps that means you're actually putting your brain to work and doing a good job of testing yourself.

📖  Reading Lesson:Reading a book from cover to cover doesn’t mean you’ve finished it. It means you read it.A book is only completed after you’ve applied the lessons you’ve learned.(source)

⭐️  Weekly Quote:"We must not trust the masses who say only the free can be educated, but rather the lovers of wisdom who say that only the educated are free."–Epictetus

📸  Photo of the Week:

Here's a

TL;DR:

There are 3 types of books (at least when it comes to non-fiction):

• 🌳 Trunks:

  • These books provide the general knowledge base around a subject. A 30,000-foot view of a subject in a sense.

• 🌿 Branches: 

  • These books dive deeper into the subject and perhaps cover a certain time period or event. 

• 🍃 Leaves: 

  • These books go into a finer level of detail and can focus on a more specific time frame or a single individual.

🙏  Hey everyone, this week's newsletter is brought to you by: The Art of ReadingThis is the online course that I'm building where I'll be sharing all of my reading tips and advice. It will cover: How to find great books How to develop a consistent reading habit How to stop getting distracted while reading How to take notes while reading How to remember more of what you've readAnd much more. Since the course is still being built, you can use code "EMAIL99" to save $50 on it!The price will jump to $149 once it's live. Make 2021 the year you became a better reader. Learn more about the course here.

Thank you for your support everyone, I'll see you next week!Read on,Alex W.PS: If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with a friend. They can subscribe here.