How to learn anything faster than 99% of people
A practical guide to the 3 types of learning
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The following letter is part of our “Notes on Giants” collection, in which we explore the thoughts and lives of humanity’s greatest minds.
🏷️ Categories: Deliberate practice, Continuous improvement, Learning.
Your ability to process information largely defines your life.
This is not an exaggeration.
Human evolution could be understood as a constant upgrade of our physical and mental capacities. We optimize what works so as not to become obsolete. That has been survival in a ruthless world. As for the mind, the great advantage lies in the intentional use of knowledge at the right time and in the right place. The practical value of wisdom is in providing us with the tools to overcome all kinds of obstacles and anticipate future challenges.
“Is it not pleasant to study and, in due time, put into practice what one has learned?” “The wise are active.” — Confucius, Analects
In this society saturated with stimuli, where your attention is stolen every minute by noise and thousands of data points, the vast majority only passively consume what others say and do, without taking action. That is why knowing how to choose valuable information and apply it grants you a crushing advantage in almost any area.
That is the key question: How do we learn and apply what we consume?
Confucius, one of the earliest thinkers, provided the keys to achieving this:
“The best substitute for innate knowledge is to listen much, choose the best and follow it; to see much and retain the image.” — Confucius, Analects
“Those who possess innate knowledge are of the highest rank. Next come those who acquire knowledge through learning. Following them are those who learn through the vicissitudes of life. In the lowest category are the people who go through the vicissitudes of life without learning anything.” — Confucius, Analects
From this come the three paths of learning:
Learning by imitation.
Learning by study.
Learning by experience.
Let’s look at each one and how to apply it.
1. The Path of Imitation
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every day.
Intelligently copying the success of others is the first step toward elevating your wisdom. It is pure reverse engineering. You see what works and you replicate it in your own case to avoid unnecessary bottlenecks and thousands of hours of errors. Many problems have already been solved by brilliant minds of the past. The shortcut is to replicate the mental models and tools these geniuses already validated for you.
Consume specific, high-quality information about your area of interest.
Biographies of role models, scientific papers, expert presentations... Others’ experience is an excellent teacher because you let them pay the price of failure while you acquire the lesson for free and in record time.
This is what I call the “late-mover advantage.”
2. The Path of Study
If imitation is the shortcut, study is the map.
Most of our screen time is spent consuming content without a clear purpose, jumping from one piece of content to another in the internet’s black hole. The path of study is the opposite: choosing a single element and delving as deep as you can. This will give you expert judgment from multiple sources and a competitive edge over almost everyone in any goal you set for yourself.
How to execute it:
Start with a simple rule: less information, more depth.
Choose one concrete area you want to master and reduce the noise. Instead of consuming random content, focus on a few high-quality sources.
For example:
If you want to improve your health: You don’t need 50 different videos on nutrition. You can thoroughly study a couple of solid, science-backed approaches, compare their key points, and extract a simple system you can apply.
If you want to improve your work or business: Study how people who have already solved your problem operate. Analyze their decisions, their repeated mistakes, and the principles they use to make decisions. Follow them closely.
If you want to learn a skill: Don’t jump between 100 tutorials. Choose a couple of elite role models and study how they practice that skill. Write down everything you can and compare them to understand the dominant pattern to imitate.
The difference between consuming content and acquiring knowledge is intention.
3. The Path of Lived Experience
Living on autopilot is the default state for many.
If you move forward without observing your own patterns, it is easy to repeat the same mistakes and waste energy on actions that don’t take you where you want to be. That is why reflection is indispensable: learning to observe yourself as if you were your own experiment. This is known as metacognition—analyzing how you think, what you do, what results you get, and what patterns repeat in your life.
From that moment on, you begin to make evidence-based decisions.
How to execute it: Create a simple logging system. Don’t complicate it: a notebook and a few minutes a day are enough. Some questions you can answer:
Where did I use my time, and where did I say I would use it? This difference reveals the gap between your intentions and your conduct. Measure your screen time and use your phone’s timer to check how much you actually dedicate to each activity of the day. I did this during my first 3 months of writing to observe my performance, and it was one of the best decisions I made.
What emotions or thoughts repeat? This will help you detect patterns, fears, distractions, or impulses that influence your daily decisions.
Over time, your journal becomes a map of how you function.
If you want to improve your health, track your sleep, diet, and training to discover which habits affect your performance.
If you want to improve your work, measure your focus hours, your peak energy times, and the conditions that generate the best results.
If you want to learn something new, record how much you practice, which methods work, what obstacles appear, and how you evolve.
What is not measured does not exist, and reflection turns loose experiences into useful information for taking your next step.
The Three Paths
True wisdom lies in knowing how to combine the three paths:
Imitate: Observe the masters to decipher the formulas that already work.
Live: Take action to collect your own data.
Study: Disappear from the noise of fast-paced life, open your journal in calm, and connect the dots to calculate your next big step.
Hope you find this useful.
— Álvaro
Want to learn more? Here are 3 related ideas to go deeper:
Genghis Khan: The nomad who learned how to conquer the world.
The lesson from the sage Zhuang Zi to master any skill in life.
How to master any skill, according to the best sushi chef in history.
✍️ Your turn: What useful knowledge have you consumed recently that you haven’t yet turned into a concrete action?
💭 Quote of the day: “Eat without filling your belly; choose a dwelling without demanding comfort; be diligent in your work, prudent in your speech, and seek the company of the virtuous. Thus, it can be said that you have the desire to learn.” — Confucius, Analects
P.S. I also offer 1:1 consulting to help you grow on Substack.
If you’re just starting out and don’t know how it works, or if you’ve been at it for a while but are stuck, this will help you. I’ll help you find your direction, position yourself as a leader in your niche, and build a system tailored to your needs for sustainable growth.
My credentials? Over 93,000 global readers in 2 years, 100% organic growth, with 250,000 monthly visits. All from scratch, writing all by myself in my spare time.
If you’re interested, email me at: jardinmental@proton.me
See you next time! 👋
References 📚
Confucio. Analects. URL