Where did this all come from?

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Where did these principles of prolific learning come from?

What I now know of principles of prolific learning is simply where I am at in an ongoing process of better learning how to enjoyably and effectively learn new things.

The summary of what I have learned is this. Learning is more about good methods and principles than it is about talent. We look at extraordinary cases of learning and assume it is due to talent and intelligence. The person who can use 3 or 4 languages comfortably is a genius. The person who plays a number of musical instruments and can learn a new one quickly has special music talent. The computer guru who can learn a new program in less than a day is smart. We compare our own mediocre results to extraordinary results and assume it is due to them having talent and intelligence that we lack. I used to believe this but I’ve slowly become convinced that much of this extraordinary accomplishment is due to application of sound learning principles and methods. We’ve gotten used to applying poor and mediocre methods that fly in the face of sound learning principles and pay the price with lack of good results. It took a number of years, but I finally started to understand the important role of sound principles of learning in amazing feats of learning that I used to attribute to special talent and genius.

This material had its origins in one of the biggest ongoing failures in my life. I simply could not learn a new language to any reasonable degree. It was in the process of trying to understand why I couldn’t accomplish much in language learning that I inadvertently ran across these concepts. My BS degree was in secondary education (along with math and physics). I picked up university teaching experience while earning a PhD. I spent a few years as a temporary professor. In industry, I was an unofficial trainer and presenter for many technical subjects. I also spent time as a teacher for various things of personal interest. I applied everything I knew with regard to teaching and learning to language learning but failed to develop any practical skills.

Over a course of about 25 to 30 years, I spent time on and off trying to improve my skills in German and ancient Greek. I had successfully completed two years of university German with high grades. I had audited and studied the equivalent of about one year of ancient Greek at a university level. I was never able to do anything anywhere near what I wanted to. With the help of dictionaries and online translation programs, I could exchange e-mails in German with colleagues and customers. My few attempts at speaking German during conferences calls were frankly an embarrassment. I was also able to slowly translate perhaps one to two sentences of ancient Greek in an evening of work.

At one point for a number of months, I put concerted effort into learning Greek better. I frankly was no better 25 or 30 years after I started than about a year or so after I had started. I spend some time on the internet looking up recommendations for learning Greek. I found little more than confirmation that I was on the right track and just needed to hang in there. I did the math and realized that my rate of progress meant I might finish one book in my life. I was ready to finally give up but decided to do one last internet search to see if I could find anything that might help.

I inadvertently ran across an online community of independent language learners. Much to my surprise, many of them seemed to take it for granted that being able to use multiple languages was a normal thing. I started going through many posts, articles, blogs, and videos by successful language learners. Over a period of months, I finally started to figure out ways that made my own language learning much more successful. I dropped my German efforts and focused on ancient Greek. I found that my reading skills started to advance to the point where I could enjoyable read pages of Greek per day. Later, I started learning Spanish from scratch and found I made consistent solid progress in a way I never had before. Within about 6 months, my Spanish skills far exceeded where my German skills ever were. Both Greek and Spanish are an enjoyable part of my regular everyday life (mostly through reading).

One of the confusing things about researching independent language learners was that there was no one language learning method they used. I had expected to find “The Language Learning Method” that would work for everyone. There was no such thing. What I did find was that there seemed to be principles underlying the different things they did. The first thing I realized is that two things that characterized just about everything was that it was enjoyable and effective. These language learners did things that they liked doing and it was effective for them. I then started to pick up on various principles as to why learning could be both enjoyable and effective.

Over a period of about 3 or 4 years, I started to make more observations about language learning. I continued to go through articles, posts, and videos from successful language learners. I started to run across a variety of links and references to various research articles and studies about learning and brain function. I read much anecdotal evidence about what did and didn’t work for various people. I started to experience and practice these things in my life. I slowly started to piece together a bigger picture about why successful language learners (who could use a handful of languages) could do this.

At some point, I had an epiphany moment (or perhaps more aptly a Homer Simpson slap the head and say Doh moment). I realized that what I saw about language learning could probably apply to learning just about anything. As I started to reflect on this, I realized the things I had been most successful at learning were not due to talent, but rather inadvertently using these same principles and concepts. I’d always had a knack for being able to quickly learn and use various computer languages and programs. I’d had a few trainers comment that I was the fastest computer learner they’d seen. I had a former colleague who spent some time in the defense industry and university work comment I was a computer freak like he’d never seen before. I had always attributed that to an innate talent that I had along with experience and much practice. I suddenly realized that it was probably not so much talent but rather having stumbled into methods that followed good learning principles. I started to realize that much of the feats of learning I saw in others were more likely due to inadvertently following sound learning principles.

As an experiment, I started to apply these principles to things I had never really tried before. I applied these principles to digital art, and was surprised by the rapid progress I made. I’d never been much good at art and never took an art class in my life (except for the forced ones in elementary and middle school). I assumed I had no art talent. I was somewhat surprised to find that I enjoyed it and actually could do things I was happy with. There’s no mistaking my work for professional work, but for a man in his mid-50s who spend decades believing he had no art talent, it was a satisfying start that I was happy with.

I also applied these principles to learning jazz style piano. I’ve been a musician my entire life playing guitar, bass, and piano. It was always a more pop, rock, and country type of playing. I’d tried jazz style a few times but it always seemed a level beyond me. Within a few weeks of applying these principles, I found myself comfortably and enjoyably improvising with a complexity of chords and scales I thought would have taken months to years to achieve. One of the incidental things I found was that it was the first time in my musical experience that I could simply sit at a piano and enjoyably create with a clear mind. Instead of being mentally focused on music theory as I played, I was simply hearing and playing without a mental layer of rules to follow.

Now, I want to be clear that I am not confusing mastery for some good initial progress. I’ll use an analogy of riding bike. At first, you are doing good to weave side to side and avoid falling over. Then you gain enough comfort to be able to ride down the street and around the block. If you dedicate yourself to it, you could become competent at motocross, mountain biking, or competitive biking. With regard to digital art and jazz piano, I’m somewhere between not falling over and enjoying riding around the block.

Why create a web site and write a book about this?

The first reason is just to simply share this with others as a part of leaving a legacy. I look at my new grandkids and realize the vast potential of things they could enrich their lives with. By the time they’re 30, they could enjoy speaking a few different languages, play a few musical instruments, be artists of some type, and who knows what else. They could easily be enriching their lives year after year with new things. I know so many people who have emerged from formal education with the feeling that they are stupid or lack the talent to do certain things. They have come to believe their limitations were due to personal inadequacy rather than having followed poor methods that ignored good principles of learning. Many people have simply giving up trying some new things because they no longer believe it's possible. I do not want this to happen to my grandkids.

The second reason is that I want to create a consulting business of some type that will pay the bills (and hopefully more than that) doing something that I enjoy and that can make a difference in people’s lives. I’m happy to distribute and explain what I’ve learned about prolific learning. I’ve spent years working on this and I feel like I’m barely scratching the surface of the potential. I’m confident I can help organizations and individuals bypass years of hit or miss learning to get on track. Employee training is close to a $100 billion enterprise in the U.S. alone. Helping an organization convert at least a part of their system from poor learning principles to good learning principles will likely yield significantly better results with more satisfied employees. I envision helping an organization helping their employees become prolific learners. This directly improves and enriches people’s lives with the side-effect that the organization benefits. I also envision helping individuals start moving forward and becoming prolific learners.

Doc Stuve