Why you may seem to spend a lot of time learning yet achieving little result — The difference of learning efficiency
In this article, I will break down and share:
(i) a story about chewing gum that hopefully inspires readers to reflect upon the source of information
(ii) what is First hand, Second hand, N-th hand information?
(iii) the time investment on each level of information — and which one has the highest return on investment
Part 1:
I have shared a story about chewing gum in another article reflecting on social media content that hopefully inspires readers to reflect upon the source of information.
If you have not seen it before, here it is:
Long time ago, there was a general who just won a war, he handed a chewing gum to one of his soldiers who took it and thanked the general. As he chewed the gum, he could not feel any sweetness so he asked the general “why, general, would you chew a sugarless gum?”
The general replied “this is not a sugarless gum, it is a gum that I chewed.”
*** just a story
Before you think that the general is gross and disgusting to give his chewed gum to the soldier, this is what happened in the era of information overwhelm.
Part 2:
Most of the information that we consume today is second hand, third hand, and even N-th hand. Most people have lost the ability to identify the sources of information nowadays. It is one of the reasons why our learning efficiency and effectiveness is deteriorating.
For example,
First hand information:
in 1993 Psychological Review Vol. 100 №3 363–406, K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer have issued a paper on “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”. This is first hand information.
It presents the finding that “expert performance as the end result of individuals’ prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints. In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.”
It is 44 pages long with references.
Second hand information:
In 2016, one of the co-author K. Anders Ericsson realised that the theory in the paper was misunderstood, hence he published the book <Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise>. This is second hand information.
Because this book is written by the same author of the original first hand paper, it authentically retain a lot of the meaning of the first hand information.
The book explains the research paper in further details and turn the theory into learning strategy for better understanding and application for most people.
Later on in 2016, Dr Anders Ericsson had a TED talk called “How To Get Better At The Things You Care About”. This is also second hand information.
In his talk, Briceño introduces 2 key concepts that form part of our improvement in any area of life: the performance zone and the learning zone. The performance zone represents our actions when we do something as best we can. We’re executing. In contrast, the learning zone is specifically focused on activities for improvement, and developing what we haven’t mastered yet. Both the performance and the learning zones have important roles to play in our lives and our improvement, but they help in different ways.
According to Briceño, the performance zone maximises our immediate performance, while the learning zone helps with future performance and growth. The performance zone can also help us identify skills to work on in the learning zone, which we can then apply to perform better.
‘The most effective people and teams in any domain … go through life deliberately alternating between two zones: the learning zone and the performance zone.’
To highlight what the learning zone looks like, Briceño uses the example of Demosthenes, the greatest orator and lawyer in ancient Greece. His performance zone was being a lawyer and orator, but he didn’t improve by just practising in the performance zone. Instead, he dedicated plenty of time to activities that were specifically designed for improvement: he studied law and philosophy to maximise his knowledge and he studied great speeches and acting in order to become more persuasive. To speak clearly despite a lisp, he practised with stones in his mouth. To work on having a more powerful voice (the courts could be noisy), he practised speaking by the ocean. In short, his learning zone activities were very different from his performance zone activities. Dr Anders Ericsson called these activities deliberate practice — breaking down abilities into subskills to individually work on. To be a good orator, some subskills could be voice clarity, voice volume, posture, becoming persuasive etc.
This is also second hand information on deliberate practice.
The characteristics of second hand information is that it explains and elaborates the first hand information with examples and further explanation without simplifying the information.
Third hand information:
The characteristics of third hand information is that it would be simplified and polarised for the purpose of better transmission and channeling.
For example, someone didn’t mention deliberate practice but take out the concept of “10,000 hours” and create a content on “rule of 10,000 hours” from the context of deliberate practice. It is catchy, it is easy to memorise, it is easier to understand than the full concept of deliberate practice and it is intentionally simplified for viral transmission.
Usually from the level of third hand information, the “sweetness” and nutrients of the information would be significantly reduced.
Fourth hand and N-th hand information:
The characteristics of Fourth hand and N-th hand information is to arouse emotion and therefore usually it is mixed with emotions.
For example, some coaches, consultants or authors who use market themselves with “10,000 hours rule” and mix it with their own professional growth experience as one of their unique unique selling proposition. These would be fourth and N-th hand information.
As you would notice, the value of these fourth and N-th hand information is largely reduced. Nonetheless, this is one of the most common types of information on social media, which is why I only spend 1 hour on social media each week now.
Part 3:
(1) Time investment for First hand information:
If you are a collage graduate, or with the help of google, you can complete reading the research paper (the first hand information) in around 1.5 hours.
****I would add an extra 1 hour to digesting the first hand information so that we can apply it in our life.
(2) Time investment for Second hand information:
If you really refuse to read research paper and turn to the book written by one of the co-authors of the research paper (i.e. second hand information), then you can finish it in 3–4 hours.
***It is important to note here that not all books are the same, some of the books could be third hand information (e.g. a book written on the 10,000 hours rule which is taken out of the context of deliberate practice). Obviously, the value of the information in such books would be much lower.
(3) Time investment for Third, Fourth, and N-th hand information:
If you turn to third, fourth, and N-th hand information, you could be spending more than 100 hours to get the full context of what deliberate practice really is and how to apply it.
This is the difference in learning efficiency and why you may seem to spend a lot of time learning yet achieving little result.
Book recommendation: <Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise> by Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool
Read Next —
Where to find me:
IG: www.instagram.com/simplifiedbusinesscoach
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simplifiedbusinesscoach
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/2s44usvp
Pinterest: https://pin.it/2fZa2Uz
Course: https://bit.ly/3CoQkrC
