Ultralearning is Out!

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Month (again!)

Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career, by Scott Young.  Scott’s book is finally out this week—we are SO excited! As Barb’s blurb on the book’s cover notes: “Ultralearning is the best book on learning I’ve ever read. It’s a beautifully written, brilliantly researched, and immediately useful masterpiece. If you are looking for the magic match to help light your learning, Ultralearning is it. If you want to learn anything, do yourself a favor and read this book. Now.” This is such a great book that we can’t help bringing it to your attention again now that it’s finally out!

A Bad Link in Last Week’s Puzzle for Learners—Here’s a Good Link!

Unfortunately, Barb created a bad link for last week’s puzzle involving the two separate meta-analyses: one concluding that traditional guidance isn’t good, and the other concluding that traditional guidance is good. Even so, learners have been finding their way there—the discussion is fascinating. Join the fun with the right link here!

Nelson Dellis on How to Make Life Itself An Adventure

This lovely short video shows how Nelson makes his life interesting. As he points out: “Sometimes you don’t have to have an epic moment to have a crazy or fun little, memorable adventure… It’s okay to not do these insane things just to live up to the hype you see on Instagram or YouTube. It’s okay to just do these ‘micro-adventures.’” Relax and have a diffuse moment as you watch Nelson’s thoughtful video—and watch to the end. And speaking of micro-adventures…

Want to Break Out of a Rut? Attend a Conference!

We’d like to tell the inspiring story of GW, a LHTLer who wrote us several months ago. After a health scare, and not getting any younger, GW felt he was treading water in his career. Inspired in part by our advice to attend a conference—any conference—to help break out of the rut, GW decided to attend SIGGRAPH, a premier conference on computer graphics. 

The upshot? GW describes it for us:

“In the two weeks leading up to the conference I was so nervous and afraid about this journey. I applied to the MentorMe program offered by the SIGGRAPH Student Services, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but I had second thoughts soon after I submitted my application because I’m neither a student, nor someone who just graduated or who is an emerging professional with less than three years of experience, and I was worried I would just waste their or my mentor’s time. 

“It was a great surprise when they confirmed that they paired me up with a mentor! I got to meet him in person at the conference. And what a great pairing it was…

“We met a couple of times and had a great conversation over lunch. He described the diversity in their company culture and how they hire people with very different backgrounds and ages. He explained since everyone needed to be trained on the job anyway, what really mattered to them is the motivation, commitment, interest and willingness to learn. This gave me hope because I experienced quite the opposite in the last 11 years and wrongly assumed that every company would be pretty much the same.

“Victoria Alonso of Marvel Studios shared the same sentiment during her keynote when she talked about hiring for potential. She said “When you take that risk, it is the most beautiful thing you can do. If a person doesn’t have it on their resume, it doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t do it. It means they haven’t had the chance.” People hired for their potential could turn out to be their best people. She also urged people not to fire themselves but to keep working and believing in themselves.

“I have to say: I not only had the time of my life and learned so much in the course sessions, I’m feeling so energized, inspired, focused, excited, optimistic and hopeful for the future!

“I’ll meet my mentor again once we both have had a chance to reflect on the last week and then work on a vision and plan for the next few months…

“I can’t thank you enough – without your recommendation, I would have never considered attending this conference. Now I’m already looking forward to SIGGRAPH 2020 in Washington, DC!”

Is there perhaps a conference you’d like to attend to help you break free from a rut, or to open new creative visions? Be inspired by GW and go for it!

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!
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