"How To Be Better At (Almost) Everything" notes

in #books6 years ago (edited)

I am a fan of the jack of all trades, since I have too many skills that interest me, such as drawing, programming, photography, reading, writing, etc. Although I'm not good at any of these since I neither do them consistently nor efficiently.

After reading this book by Pat Flynn, I have found a set of rules and principles that may help me with my problem. This book doesn't give us a step by step guide on how to learn things (fortunately we have the first 20 hours for that), however what this book does is give us a set of principles to follow, rather a step by step guide to being a jack of all trades, which if mixed with other books that do teach how to learn skills (the first 20 hours), can be fairly valuable to a budding jack of all trades.

I spent the entire day reading this book, since I read a page every hour and I have to take notes. Any improvement suggestions are welcome so if you've read this book and you have better takeaways, please tell me. Furthermore, any book recommendations sim are also welcome

Notes

Principles:

Jack of all trades > Master of one

Prioritize one skill at a time. This doesn't mean you have to work on one skill at a time, just make it the priority.

Never go beyond 80% proficiency in a skill. There's no point other than to specialize.

Repetition and difficulty are key for improvement.

Make difficult deadlines (Not a "principle" as stated in chapter 3, however it is stated in the conclusion to make deadlines and I felt it warranted being placed here as it's a nice principle)

Meta skills (Skills everyone needs to learn):

Discipline - By getting better at desired skills.

Focus - By getting better at desired skills.

Logic - Debating with others such as on social media, puzzles, and math.

Persuasion - Socializing

Desired skill ideas:

Music (Singing, guitar, drums, etc)

Drawing and painting

Exercising

Programming

Cooking

Photography

Science

Math

History

Languages

Marketing

Sales

Whatever else interests you

Other:

Record and monitor everything, including meals, exercise, progress, money, etc.

Don't worry about upsetting people, no matter what you say, someone will be upset.

Inb4 many libertarian references.

Reach out to at least one new person a day. For those you already know, ask if they need help with anything.

Practice meta skills with desired skills, you don't need to practice meta skills on their own.

Books:

Discipline - Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual by Jocko Willink

Focus - How to Pray: Reflections and Essays by CS Lewis

Logic - Come, Let Us Reason by Norman L Geisler

Persuasion - Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini

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