Ultralearning Principle N9: Experimentation

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Welcome to my ninth and last article in this series!

Here, I aim to explain in detail all the principles of ultra-learning proposed by Scott Young in his book "Ultralearning"!

I shared with you how anyone can master any topic with the power of ultralearning (learning intensively about any topic).

So far, our list of principles is as follows:

• Principle N1: Meta-Learning
• Principle N2: Focus
• Principle N3: Directness
• Principle N4: Drill
• Principle N5: Retrieval
• Principle N6: Feedback
• Principle N7: Retention
• Principle N8: Intuition

Today we will learn about the last principle N9: Experimentation and how to explore outside your comfort zone.

Experimentation is the secret key to mastery

So far we have learned that understanding is a vital skill when mastering a topic.

However, as your skills develop more and more, it is not enough to study how others did.

For example, if you're learning programming you will first understand the programming language and see how others learned. But at some point, you will need to build up your own roadmap.

In this context, I started coding projects that I was interested in, such as animal conservation, video games, data analysis from brain signals or markets, etc.

That's experimentation.

This method has 2 great advantages:

1. You will learn the best way to solve a problem.
2. Originality.

To explore this more, let me show you another case example.

Case study: experimentation when learning a new language

When you start learning a new language, you first follow a roadmap and see how others studied it.

However, there's a point where you already know pretty much and just can't follow step-by-step what others did.

Also, you may have an interest in how you can apply what you learned.

For example, perhaps you want to experiment by listening to German podcasts, reading French books, or learning Spanish songs.

You can also make goals like exploring your limits by watching Dark or any series or movie in German without subtitles.

The possibilities for experimentation are infinite!

Set your Ultralearning Mindset: You can learn anything

"Experimenting is based on the belief that improvements are possible in how you approach your work." — Scott Young

Any person can learn anything.

And to master a topic, we need to experiment.

To get into this mindset for experimenting, you not only need to see your skills as something you can improve but also understand that there are multiple paths to do this.

Exploration is the key to realizing that potential.

Some tactics to start experimenting with right now

Remember, experimenting first requires understanding.

Ask yourself what problems you're facing and how you can resolve them.

Then, you can follow these strategies:

1. Copy first, then create: see how others learn, and replicate.
2. Compare methods side by side: see which methods work better to solve the problem.
3. Introduce new constraints: limit yourself during testing to improve your learning.
4. Mix your skills and find a superpower: combine your skills.
5. Explore the extremes: don't play safe, explore the limits.

Learning is experimentation

Experimentation is the principle that bonds all the others together.

Learning is a process of experimenting in 2 ways:

• A trial and error
• The process of trying out learning methods

And it is only with experimentation that you will find the balance between these 2 ways.

We arrived at the final article of this series, where we started with what ultralearning means, and covered all its 9 principles.

Now you have all the tools to master any topic, and in the next articles, I will show you how to set up your ultralearning projects correctly.

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Thanks for reading!