Review: Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career

Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott H. Young
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I read these words in the early chapters of this book, my heart galloped in agreement. As a home educator of four self-directed learning scholars, the past two decades of my life and my four grown kids are living proof of the profound truth of these words: "Beyond principles and tactics is a broader ultralearning ethos. It’s one of taking responsibility for your own learning: deciding what you want to learn, how you want to learn it, and crafting your own plan to learn what you need to. You’re the one in charge, and you’re the one who’s ultimately responsible for the results you generate. "

This is the most exciting book I have read this year. Ok, ok, this is probably because it agrees with my closely held principles of education and learning and how it ought to be done; on a philosophical level, it did not challenge any of my well-formed views. Mea culpa. This is true. But it doesn't make any of Scott Young's discoveries and advice on learning any less potent and valid.

He learned so many hard things by immersing himself in them thoroughly while creating a dynamic feedback system for checking his own retention. He began from a place of interest. He had ongoing meta-conversations with himself to resolve issues of focus and he kept his eye on the transferability of the learning to real life in the real world. He anchored newly learned facts to something relatable that he already knew.

In Utralearning Young takes us from the grand to the granular in multiple realms. You won't feel at a loss on how to get started with your own ultralearning project or ultralearning lifestyle.

I especially love his deep analysis of the Polgar family and how Laszlo and Klara Polgar set out to raise geniuses together. They created ultralearners. Three. All daughters, who learned how to learn by blending the play and the work of it. They did not attend school. They all became national and internationally renowned chess players, but they also mastered multiple languages, among other things. Interviewed as adults, they acknowledge a very happy childhood. It is a great example of how to make ultralearning fun while making it a way of life. Everyone wins, here.

He discusses the barriers to learning and points out that fear is a chief culprit. If you are afraid that you won't be able to understand something and if this keeps you from starting, Young offers very specific advice on deconstructing that fear so you can get started.

This is a great book! Everyone who yearns to learn or who feel dissatisfied with their own learning journey in life (or their children's lives) really ought to pick up this book. It is a game changer. You will be not be disappointed.

What are you waiting for? The beginning is always today. ~ Mary Shelley

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