Ultra Learning: Focus

What has come up over and over again in learning and in getting the most from non-fiction reading is

pretesting and post reading summarizing.
In chapter 3 of the book by Scott H. Young called Ultralearning he deals with focus.
There are 3 basic impediments to focus.
Procrastination-  main strategies to help are to force your self to do 5 minutes, or the
 Pomodoro technique. In the course "learning how to learn" there is a segment by a highschool girl who noticed that if she just started, go through the first 5 minutes, then she could skate.  I've found this to often be true
Carve out scheduled time to work is also a technique.
 He provides the example of a highly intellectual and accomplished woman from the 18th or 19th century who was able to accomplish a ton in addition to having full responsibility for children and running a household.  She was able to immediately dive back into a task.
Leave something half done Though not mentioned in this book, the Hemingway technique would fit in here.  He would leave something midway so that he had an easy entry back in.


Inability to sustain focus
 External distractions These you have to manage
Internal distractions  Acknowledge and release.  The more you do this the easier it becomes.

Poor quality of focus
here is you're too hyped up you can focus on minuteea.  Sometimes laser focus is required.  Sometimes, for writing or problem solving,  a looser type of focus is required.
Interestingly when your arousal is low, loud sounds can help.  I need to try this since that is usually my problem.  Not enough "juice"
Interleaving, changing to different aspects of study can help here.
Sometimes it's easier to focus on videos, but you need to keep an awareness of your quality of learning.  That is why he is not a huge proponent of "flow".  I do see flow as more of a function of creativity, rather than study.  Study is hard.

Consistent improvement

This was an unusual take on self-improvement.  These are notes from a business guru who took a unique approach in the endeavor to broaden his mental models.  He took the last 12 years of Discover Magazine and read each of the 6 page in depth discussions of an author's topic.  For example "nanoparticles."  He admitted that if he had chosen which topics to read himself he only would have chosen 14. But the point of it was to read what he wouldn't normally read,  to "broaden" his thinking.
But one of the parts that I liked the best as a reminder was this. He talks about the need for constant increase otherwise, you lose the compounding effect of action.

"Whenever you interrupt the constant increase above a certain level of threshold you lose compounding, you’re no longer on the log curve. You fall back onto a linear curve or God forbid a step curve down. You have to be constant. How many people do you know that are constant and what they do? I know a couple. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Everybody wants to be rich like Warren Buffett Charlie Munger. I’m telling you how they got rich. They were constant. They were not intermittent."

There was also a great segment of the talk where he talks about the incredible value of being positive.  And that you should be the one to "go first" in being positive.  And why don't people do it?

For answering the question, why would people not go positive and not go first when there’s a 98 percent chance you’re going to benefit from it, and only a 2 percent chance the person’s going to tell you to ‘screw off’ and you’re going to feel horrible, lose face, and all the rest of that. And that’s real. That’s why we don’t do it. He said there’s huge asymmetry between the standard human desire for gain and the standard human desire to avoid loss. Which one do you think is more powerful? 98 percent versus 2!

further

Lou Brock set the Major League record for stolen bases with the St. Louis Cardinals many years ago. And he once said, ‘Show me a man who is afraid of appearing foolish and I’ll show you a man who can be beat every time.’ And if you’re getting beat in life, chances are it’s because you’re afraid of appearing foolish. So what do I do with my life? I risk the two percent. I was so proud the other day, I was reading Bono on Bono. Bono’s the lead singer of U2. He’s the only other person I’ve ever encountered in my entire life, and I asked all my cronies, ‘Has anybody else ever encountered this elevator model before?’ ‘No. No that’s yours Peter.’ And I said, ‘You know how I said 98-2? Guess who’s got the exact same model? Bono! Well he doesn’t have 98-2, he’s got 90-10.’ 

Get your Identity out of it

Get your "I"dentity out of it when you want to make a change.  I fully believe in the concept of this, but also realize that it is the essence of major spiritual practices (Buddhism, Jesuits) so assume it's not all that easy to do.

And changing these actions is as simple as… changing your actions. One action at a time. Forget labeling it. Forget social accountability (in fact, research has found that sharing goals with others can often backfire). Forget making a big hoo-ha-ha about who you are or what you are or what the fucking Pope thinks about you.

Because he doesn’t. And neither do most of the rest of us. And neither do you, for that matter. Your identity is this made up thing that you’re emotionally attached to. It’s a mirage in the desert. A ketchup bottle in an empty fridge. And the quickest way to change yourself is to realize that there’s no real self to change.

Tidying in a more Maximalist Interior

Another British powerhouse
Lots of tips for tidying and organizing.

Heuman’s mantra is to streamline, streamline, streamline. The only way to stem the tide of detritus, she says, is to have constant clear outs. She instigates fortnightly office “streamlining sessions,” continually sorting through her own papers and questioning her team about the buildup of boxes or packages.

Organization, lists, and keeping track of ideas

Anya Hindmarch  
I find these British women entrepreneurs incredibly inspiring.  And she has 5 kids.  I'm sure there's a back story with some craziness, but I think we can all learn something from women like this.

“Brains are brilliant at having ideas but not holding them, so having systems in place is the key to creativity for me,” she says. “I have my best ideas at a clean table.”

House redo

Posting here for inspiration

Virtues of Being a Polymath

Amazing how you can not see something in front of your own nose.  I've tried to curb my own interest in lots of different things because "jack of all trades, master of none."  And then recently from Tony Robbins who insists one can only be good at maybe two areas in life, maybe three.  AND of course the current reverence for geeks and nerds who focus intensely and then make a millions of dollars.
I just love this treatise on the virtues of being a polymath.  I feel like I've been set free.