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By Niklas Goeke 1 year ago Categories: Self Improvement
The First 20 Hours Summary
1-Sentence-Summary: The First 20 Hours lays out a methodical
approach you can use to pick up new skills quickly without worrying
about how long it takes to become an expert.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author:
Here’s a small selection of the things I hope to learn in my lifetime:
producing electronic dance music, rapping, freerunning, kung fu, chess,
streaming video games, freestyle dancing, and speaking Japanese,
Korean, Spanish, Italian, and French at least somewhat fluently. Yeah,
right. I don’t have time to learn all those. Neither do you. We all have to
make sacrifices.
Like Josh Kaufman, when he quit his job as a brand manager for
Procter & Gamble in order to focus on writing and researching. After
The Personal MBA turned into his full-time career, he noticed he also
wanted to learn lots of things, like windsurfing, Go, or playing the
ukulele. In order to reconcile his larger commitment with his curiosity,
he developed a process that would allow him to quickly learn the basics
of new skills. This way, he could decide what to double down on later
on, without missing out on taking a swing at the things that matter to
▾
him.
He called this process The First 20 Hours, and that’s what this book is
about. It contains ten principles of rapid skill acquisition, ten principles
of efficient learning, and examples of how Josh used both in his life.
Here are the 3 that seemed most important to me:
1. Always make the next skill you’re going to learn the one
you’re most excited about.
2. Think about emotional and real-life obstacles beforehand.
3. Initially, focus on quantity over quality.
You don’t need to retire young to be able to try everything you want and
the ship has not yet sailed. All you need is 20 hours and a plan on how
to spend them. Here’s that plan.
If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF
and read it whenever you want.
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Lesson 1: Choosing your next skill to
learn is easy: it must be the one you’re
most excited about.
One of my favorite Warren Buffett anecdotes is about what James
Clear calls his 2-list strategy. When his pilot Mike Flint asked him how
he could figure out his career priorities, Buffett told him to list his 25
biggest goals and then mark the top 5. After he’d completed the
exercise, he expected Buffett to recommend he focus on the top 5 and
spread the remaining 20 in between. But he didn’t. Buffett told him to
avoid the bottom 20 at all cost, for they’d only get in the way of his
biggest dreams.
Whether what you want to learn is something you hope will change your
career or just a passionate hobby, the same logic applies. Don’t focus
on what’s “kind of interesting” and don’t try to learn multiple new things
at the same time. All-in. Whatever you learn next should be the thing
you’re most excited about right now.
▾
This doesn’t guarantee you’ll stay motivated, but it sure maximizes the
chances. The first few hours of learning are always the most brutal,
because you’re instantly confronted with the fact that, as a beginner,
you suck. So the more fun you can have with it, the better.
Lesson 2: Identify both emotional and
practical barriers in advance.
I like Josh’s sixth principle, because it addresses an issue few people
talk about when wanting to learn new things: irrational obstacles. When
planning practice sessions, it’s easy to imagine and anticipate practical
problems, like a distracting phone, a long drive to the gym, etc. But the
biggest preventer of progress are the sessions you don’t start at all,
because you’re afraid of failing, looking bad in front of others, and so
on.
When Josh started windsurfing, he was worried about drowning and
hypothermia, so he always brought someone along to watch him and
bought a really good wetsuit. But he was also fretting about not having
been in the water forever. Besides making a list of potential distractions
and taking measures to prevent those, think about your fears, doubts,
and other beliefs that might hold you back.
Why do you have them? When did you develop them? Do you really think
they’re true? Doubt your own doubts, so you can start learning with the
enthusiasm of a child.
Lesson 3: In your first 20 hours, learn
as much as you can, as fast as you
can.
When I began to practice writing, I wrote whenever inspiration struck. I
had a few initial ideas, but then, my imagination quickly “dried up.”
Except that’s not how it works. As long as you sit down and start
thinking, you’ll always come up with something. It was only six months
later that I set a goal of writing 250 words every day, but once I did that,
I immediately picked up steam. ▾
That’s why I can’t stress Josh’s tenth principle enough: When you first
learn a new skill, practice as much as you can, as fast as you can. It
doesn’t matter how many bad posts you write, how often you fall into
the water, or how many swings it takes until you make it onto the green.
What matters is that you don’t let disappointment get the better of you.
If you can make it through the first 20 hours, whether that’s in 60-minute
or 20-minute sessions, the worst is likely going to be behind you, and
future failures won’t affect you as much. Once you make that transition,
you can start looking for quality in your efforts. It’s bound to show up
sooner rather than later.
The First 20 Hours Review
This is a book for the semi-scientific self-experimenters out there. It’s
less methodical than Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour approach, but more
structured than just a motivational kick in the pants. Ten simple steps,
which you can follow with a few hours of work to get The First 20
Hours under your belt.
Read full summary on Blinkist >>
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Learn more about the author >>
What else can you learn from the
blinks?
Why setting a target performance level is important
How to make sure you don’t ask too much of yourself at
first
Where to find the time for your new endeavor
What kinds of feedback mechanisms you can employ
Who would I recommend The First 20
Hours summary to?
The 34 year old consultant, who never got his sailing license, although
he now has the money to finally pay for it, the 63 year old, who thinks
▾
her chance to become good at gardening has long gone, and anyone
who struggles with structuring how they tackle new projects.
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