Generating habits out of hacks

Is superlearning a collection of hacks or a new life habit? Both, actually. We explain one hack after another like steps of a ladder leading to a totally new learning experience. Being able to enjoy the new learning experience requires certain learning habits or a certain lifestyle choice. I have been collecting articles about building up a new habit for a while now. However I was not able to find some components that makes this transformation complete until now.

Most of the humanity is dealing with debilitating self-doubt. Fortunately self doubt comes and goes, especially when faced with one success after another. The journey to success starts from a single step.

The first step would be generating strong long-lasting motivation. For me, sublimation is the most effective tool. So I begin by searching within. As any other person I am blessed with a full arsenal of negative traits. As many other people I am not very happy about being less-than-perfect, and I am using this discontent as my top motivator and driving force. So whenever I envy someone, I try to build up or acquire myself the traits that generated the envy. Every time I am angry, I search for the weaknesses within me that generated fight-or-flight response and try to fix them. And so on… Sublimation is an on-going effort, since there is always a deeper layer of issues to fuel strong motivation. Most of the students in our course generate motivation from their self-doubt regarding handling the amounts of information they are expected to handle. This is a perfect motivator. By actually answering the most burning questions, we generate many more new questions , requiring us to handle still more information – so that the original motivation never dies.

Once the motivation is there, it takes only a handful of small hacks to get me going. The first couple of hacks we learn for every new skill are the most important. They show us that we can succeed in the new skill, we can become better selves and we can trust the teachers. Therefore the first hacks we choose to implement must have really high return ion investment. Alternatively, we could generate an uncanny sense of accomplishment by figuring out something nobody around us knows or understands sufficiently well. In any case, the initial accomplishment is the source of our confidence, so it is important to remember it. Probably you remember the feeling you felt when creating the initial markers, remembering the first text with 100% retention, reading a page without subvocalization. These memories should help you when trying to speedread a new sort of material or remember a new sort of information.

While the first hacks are simple and rewarding, the ascent becomes steep very fast. There are several small tricks that allow us to continue. By making smaller tasks, and building success in one task upon success in the previous task we push forward. It is extremely important to build a strong foundation and not to rush forward. If you can delay satisfaction you are usually greatly rewarded. Do not try to remember a text without ability to generate markers, and do not try to speedread until you can retain a text with 100% accuracy. Keeping a slow steady pace is the most effective way of superlearning.

Loss aversion is the best trick in our sleeve when we feel like quitting. The thought of loosing so many hours of work and achieving nothing does not allow us to fail. We are hardwired to increase our involvement in the task until generating a success. This means that once we generated some skill we are not likely to give up.

The theory above works well most of the time with most of skills. It allows us to collect several hacks and learn a new skill. Unfortunately it does not support transforming the new skill into a habit. Eventually we are confronted with entirely new daily routine and the new hardly won skills stay unused. An easy way to make the new skills into a true habit is sharing. If you need to prove your skills on and off in front of other people, or need to support other people with similar skillset, or need to compete with people who have the skillset, you will probably never stop using the skill. And this is the small secret of habits. You need a community to have them – a family, a group of colleagues, a small circle of friends or even an on-line group.
You are invited to show your skills to people around you and suggest them the lifestyle of superlearning. You are invited to be friends with people who already have chose the path of superlearning. And you are invited to write me at [email protected].