Skill Acquisition · Parts 2 & 3

Key ideas

• ▸Theory overload, shown with two students: Enzo (light theory) went 62% → 92%; Suresh (theory-heavy) got worse, 80% → 71%.
• ▸Your brain is like RAM — a new, non-habit skill eats resources just to perform, so only experiment with one or two new things at once.
• ▸Rule of thumb: ~5 hours of practice per 1 hour of theory — but really, gate new theory on whether prior skills have become habits.
• ▸Pro playbook: start from zero, learn in sprints, lead don't follow, write less, don't memorise, prep everything, map everything, judge everything, ask better questions.
• ▸Tactically hit the books: studying is the fourth-best fix for a knowledge gap (after knowing it, a quick lookup, a deeper search) — stay targeted.
• ▸Delete the latent learning period: get feedback early and often so errors are flagged ASAP. Slow is fast.

Do this

• Balance ~1h theory per 5h practice; only add new theory once prior skills feel easier/faster without losing accuracy.
• Learn in sprints: set a clear goal (what, how well, by when), consume until slightly overwhelmed, then apply for an extended stretch.
• Overeating check — “does this make sense?” and “am I about to forget this?”. Two yeses → stop and digest.
• Prep 5–10 min before a session; map non-linearly; rate each item's importance 1–10; ask mapping/judging questions.
• Get your understanding checked early and often to shrink the latent period toward zero.

In his words