#96: How to learn anything fast in a data-abundant world
And some music to get into the flow
Many thanks to a random stranger who donated to Many One Percents via Vietcombank a while ago. I'm forever grateful for your support! Whatsup my friend!
How was your week? Anything new?
This weekend I had a great time exploring Sentosa Island: I went solo hike at Imbiah Trail and (finally) checked off bungee jumping from my bucket list!
Free falling is a uniquely thrilling experience: the first 2-3 seconds after you jump feel just like when you jump off a cruise to the sea. You will still feel this tightened feeling in your lower stomach. But in the next 3-4 seconds of true free falling, you will feel absolutely nothing. Not your hand, not your leg, not your body. Everything is blurred. You are technically spearing through the screeching wind like a fat-ass arrow, but your existence reduces to a speck of dust.
And then, rrrwhoop, everything stops. You’re this close to the pool, and you’re pulled back just as fast and hard as you fall. Everything spins around while getting smaller. Your head feels heavy because all the blood on earth has traveled there. You see things and hear things, but you feel nothing but the bounciness of the rope and its grip on your legs.
Remarkable experience. My next goal: >100m jump.
Aite, on to today’s show.
How to learn anything fast in a data-abundant world
I'm currently experimenting with a new way to learn.
Since this learning method is invented by a real-life example - my friend Cedric Chin, the amazing writer of CommonCog - whose work I luckily had a chance to observe the impact, I can't help but share it with you even before I've finished experimenting with it, which I usually do in the past.
(If you're wondering why I trust Cedric's method, know that Cedric is a software-engineer-turned-content-marketer-then-entrepreneur, and his vast and deep knowledge, reflected via his blog, is admirable!)
Anyway, Cedric's strategy to learn anything fast fundamentally lies in the way he breaks down what to learn and where to learn:
The basics
The nuances
The basics
To learn this knowledge, Cedric sets a goal to read 5 "landmark books": Books that, "before they exist, the conversation of the industry was X, and after they came out, the conversation was Y".
Technically, they are books that bring about a massive paradigm shift in their practitioners. For example, in Sales, there's a book called "Spin Selling", that changes the approach to sales from door-to-door, small-sump Zig Ziglar type of sales, to big enterprise sales.
The hard thing about "landmark books" is knowing what makes an industry-changing concept. That's why we need to read 4-5 books about the same topic. It will help us find similar patterns and notice the very core concept and its variances throughout the years.
The nuances
Once you get the core ideas of a field, it's time to explore "The nuances".
"The nuances" are subtle but determining details of "The basics", usually referring to how "The basics" have changed through time.
For example, you may have learned that the key concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is matching search intent with content.
About a decade ago, this match was determined by how many keywords the search query and the blog have in common. That's why marketers tried all possible ways to stuff keywords inside a blog post, sometimes to the point of rendering that blog utterly incomprehensible, only to get to the top of Google.
But now, Google has upgraded its engine to read blog posts and actually reward blogs with real content that match user’ search intent. Keywords are out of the question. Sentences, paragraphs, images, and how the whole blog is put up as a whole are the true players nowadays.
This change is an example of "The nuances". You can see that the core idea never changes (matching content with intent), but some dimensions inside do (from keywords to everything inside a blog).
To learn this kind of knowledge, you should listen to podcasts.
Yes, podcasts, not blog posts, or videos, especially podcasts in which industry practitioners discuss with each other.
Although format and questions are usually prepared prior to the show, podcasts are a good channel to catch the unfiltered thoughts of experts, which usually drop hints about how they are perceiving the current industry.
These unfiltered thoughts are hidden gems that are too small to make into a blog post, but too important to ignore.
Summary
Putting things together, you can think of knowledge as a territory, whereby the mainland and all its available resources are "The basics" - what makes this territory different from the other.
Meanwhile, the border of the land is "The nuances" - few people wander there, but it is what defines the sovereignty of that land.
To learn "The basics": read 4-5 industry landmark books
To learn "The nuances": listen to podcasts where practitioners discuss "The basics"
I learned this method from a podcast to which Cedric was invited. Check it out for even more gems: LINK
Weekly discovery: Yatao music
Recently I've switched to Yatao music whenever I write. It's a youtube channel where the artist plays different types of handpans for a long period of time (how possible...)
Handpan music is incredibly peaceful and not as repetitive as Lofi chill music (aside from Lofi covers, which are not helpful either because they are too distracting).
Adding the natural sounds of the landscape, Yatao music can help me slip into my flow within minutes.
I believe this channel's music is not only suitable for writing but also for meditating or winding up after a long day. Give it a shot and let me know how you feel afterward, will ya? :)
Around the Internet: Twitter ⚔️ Substack
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, I found a lot of the company's moves questionable.
First, the blue tick.
Then, the direct attack against Substack.
Wth??
Twitter is now blocking likes, retweets, and comments on tweets that include a link to a Substack newsletter. In addition, Twitter users cannot pin a tweet that includes a Substack link to their profile.
In a more apparently aggressive move, Twitter is notifying users that Substack links on Tweets are "potentially spammy or unsafe".
Twitter also, and this is seriously bizarre, blocks the ability to embed tweets on Substack
Why does Elon hate Substack so much?
Well, just recently, Substack launched a new feature called "Notes", allowing authors to post short-form content (similar to tweets) and for readers to like, share and discuss those posts.
I don't like this at all.
As an end-user of two products, I'm suffering from these products' strategies to (1) keep eyeballs to themselves (Substack) and (2) punishments from other competitors (Twitter), which I believe will even enforce Substack to make more hurtful moves in the future. Both companies are perfectly reasonable in their own right, and that's what justifies them to continue doing so.
Urg.
Back to the root 🌳
As you may know, in the past few months, I have explored various ways of sharing my thoughts and ideas with you, including writing in English (since newsletter #74) and pay-walling my content (since newsletter #77)
However, I have found that these practices do not bring me the same sense of connection and feeling of impact as when I wrote in Vietnamese, which is what I longed for when I started writing.
The ever-growing number of subscribers is exciting, but it can never match my happiness when receiving a reply from a reader detailing how my letters and blog posts have helped them out in life. It turns out, fame is far from what I need. The connection is what keeps me going.
By switching back to writing in Vietnamese and posting content on my blogs as I did before, I hope to get a tad closer to you, my readers. I will begin the switch from newsletter #97.
I apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause, and I thank you for your understanding and support.
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter. If anything in this newsletter has provoked your thoughts, I‘d love to hear them - it’s the best reward for my writing journey - feel free to reply to this email any time.
As always, I wish you a relaxing night and a productive week ahead.
Yours,
Tuan Mon
I concern learning every single moment in my early career, and this blog is valuable.
You do listen to Lenny Newsletters' podcasts, right? I've been subscribed to this channel, and have not yet found ways of transferring their conversations into actionables.
Can you recommend 1-2 top fav podcasts that discussed the nuances, and why you loved those podcasts? How did you apply such knowledge into work?
Yatao music is actually good:)