You're Not Slow: Become a Speed Learner in 20 Minutes

Ok so, I've been called a "fast learner" (a compliment), fast reader and fast speaker (definitely not at as compliment) my whole life and as on my end: I'm genuinely just an impatient person who has had to find ways to get through information fast, or I'd get too bored and stop learning at all. I don't think there's any secrets to fast learning, but I definitely think everyone can improve their speed of absorbing information by changing and re-shuffling the way they approach it. This is what works for me xx

To make your life easier:
0:00 Intro
1:07 Safety Netting
9:00 Core Basics
13:32 Admin and Good for You
15:54 Jumpy Learning and Strategic Drowning

PS. The resources I recommend in the video:

If you want to stay in touch:

Or leave a comment, I (try to) answer 100% of comments :)

[generationm]

The prevalent problem with studying is that people have the expectation that quantity is better that quality. You are expected to take pages and pages of notes, many of which contains useless fillers, and are expected to memorize them all. I'm glad that you've made this video to show us a better method, Liz.

[blaroe]

TLDR (because i’m adding this to my notes)

1. Safety Netting: Making sure you have the reasons on why you want to learn something

Questions to ask:
what are we talking about?
why is it important?
how important is this?
what can i do when i learn this?
what can i NOW do even after i learned this?
where can i find further knowledge?

these makes sure you have a more realistic and calculated expectation and reduce disappointment when you feel like you haven’t learned enough

more realistic scenario like in lectures:
what we’re talking about is…?
what you actually meant by that is…?
so when this happens, this happens?

2. Focusing on the Core Basics
Making sure that the rules that are SO simple that teachers and educators forget about them because they think that people learning about something already know about the core basics

these are the things that can make learning faster as this is the backbone of what you’ll need to continue to learn further

ask yourself “what are the core basics i can teach myself?”

things to ask:
what are the things you do every day/week without fail
what’s essential here
what distinguishes the pro from the amateur
how fast can i learn this

then focus deep on the basics

progress:
- identify a core skill
- test the core skill in different contexts
- find where i can’t use the core skill (basically the limits)
- strong core basics means better and faster learning later

3. Categorizing Information
- Safety net: the logical backbone. Everything relies on this
- Core basics: Significant and Immediate
- Admin: Hard for me and not that much of a priority
- Good for you: You don’t really care and aren’t important

slowed read the information and slot the main topics in the categories and prioritize the safety net and core basics

4. Jumpy Learning
don’t learn the things in the order given to you, learn them by how interested you are in it. this keeps your attention and motivation high and avoid early dull parts.

[kiagmail]

*Safety Netting --> Priming your brain for learning*
- Giving it the space and context optimal for learning
- Ask:
- "What are we talking about?" Answer it preferably simply, drawing experiences and knowledge that are already there.
- "Why and how should I care?" Makes you understand its importance.
- "What can I do when I learn this? What can't I do even though I've learnt this?" Basically understand the connections & limitations related to this thing you're learning.
- "Who and where are the experts?" Helps you know the sources of information you can use to learn this topic.

*Core Basics --> Understanding the very basics*
- Involves studying the very basics (especially the ones often skipped) of the topic so you have a good a foundation in learning new ideas
- How to - Core Basics:
- Identify a core skill
- Test the core skill in many different contexts
- Find where I can't use the core skill (the limits)
- Strong core basics --> fast learning later

*Admin & Good for You --> Actual studying*
- Speed-read/learn and divide things into Information Categories
- Safety Net (Logical backbone, AKA context)
- Core Basics (Significant & immediate, AKA stuff you already learned + easy for you to learn)
- Admin (Hard for me & less important, AKA "I'll learn this later")
- Good for You (Don't care & unimportant

*Jumpy Learning & Strategic Drowning*
Jumpy Learning --> Learning non-linearly
- Not studying things based on the order given, but based on your level of interest.
- Helps you preserve motivation & attention, which makes things faster & longer (while still enjoyable)

Strategic Drowning (already discussed in other videos)
- Tendency to drown (perform not-so-great) first, before performing exceptionally well

[Xgolfer]

I recall my first year in Grad school at Stanford when I commented to the Dean of the Engineering School that I may not be smart enough to do this. He calmly replied, "It's not how smart you are that enables learning, it's how organized and motivated you are."

[Daithai]

I am old enough to be your father - it's actually quite scary how much you are teaching me about learning, kind of thought I should already know this stuff. Obviously, I didn't. Thank you for your insights.

[dearlantsov]

as someone with ADHD, i've been always describes as the kid who "has potential but just isn't trying hard enough". i have extremely low self esteem because of it, and instead of learning being something that should be enjoyable or something that should thrive out of my own curiosity, it became strictly about impressing others, like my teachers or my parents. learning became about winning their approval and validating me as a capable person, because at one point i used to think (and tbh i still kinda do) that not doing well in school= i have absolutely no value as a person. i'm starting to realise i wasn't doing it for myself but rather to make others proud, and in the process i lost my sense of self. i think i'm finally starting to let that ideology go, haven't reached there yet, but i'm slowing getting there.

[peparonimacaroni]

Elizabeth is honestly raising us to be superhuman istg <3

[bleeding.hearts]

As a teenager with hf autism, my problem is struggling to focus on learning things which don’t interest me. Your videos have really helped me to reevaluate this, especially on another video where you mentioned searching things up and actively looking for subjects in relation to the topic you need to learn which pique your interest.
In the space of a month, I’ve totally turned this around thanks to your videos. Thank you so much :)

[cwwhjmz]

As someone with ADHD in grad school, this is lovely. Categorizing helps to almost dumb things down, or make the learning material feel less impossible to grasp. This can help lectures/studying feel much less overwhelming. Love this!

[francisjsantana]

“I’m the sort of person who can study a disease and tell you everything about it but not know what it’s called” this is absolutely me, I can understand concepts and ideas very easily but then can’t name them 😭 I like to work up from the point of singularity of any concept and start filling the gaps once I understand the generals idea

[vante]

I realised how much important curiosity is for learning. When i was young and not allowed to do make up i would watch tutorials on it and i knew so much abt makeup without ever doing it actually.

The same goes with studies if we manage to raise curiosity on a topic we can master it in no time

[iknet]

I feel like my brain works very similiarly... I never need to learn for school because I just listen and think about what actually matters and try to understand instead of remembering. So watching your videos is amazing, because it shows me what I could do if I put a bit of effort in

[austyfrancis]

Your content is rlly high value. Often times we're used to creators uploading videos on the same topic w a diff title or thumbnail but this is unlike anything I've ever seen. Thank you so so much for providing us with high quality and really valuable content. Keep learning and teaching the rest of the world ur wisdom 🙂👍

[draces]

What an amazingly excellent video. School, uni and even post-grad studies are mostly info-dumps of what to learn and rarely teach you *how* to learn. You are a credit to humanity.

[lilyinthewater]

I have consumed hundreds of videos on this topic and this is the absolute best. Very refreshing and genuine take.

[joeking]

As someone who also has ADHD asking myself good questions might actually be the single best skill that I have ever developed.

My two favorites are "how could I use this?" and "what could I learn here?" *"could" should be used rather than "should" as it elicits far more creative thinking.

I have been able to use this ability to immediately see better results with ANYTHING. Whether it's studying, social skills, and even situational awareness.

Due to my condition I am constantly lost in thought but just the other day I was walking home from work and decided to ask myself questions to stimulate my awareness like "what's going on?" and I was instantly mindful and attentive to my environment the ENTIRE walk home.

Using this skill I am also able to strategically manipulate my interest levels and get into flow learning practically anything. It supercharges my creative problem solving skills, immediately grants me a growth mindset, and makes my focus airtight.


Research even suggests that it's the best way to develop your intuition. Give it a try!

[amel]

i really relate to the asking " stupid " questions during lectures, i usually ask the teacher something they already explained and i phrase it using my own words and ask them if i'm correct, i didn't realise that i was creating " my safety net ", and i stopped doing it eventually because my classmates asked " smarter " questions, but your video reassured me so thank you liz !

[meerghalib]

As someone with ADHD in grad school, this is lovely. Categorizing helps to almost dumb things down, or make the learning material feel less impossible to grasp. This can help lectures/studying feel much less overwhelming. love this!
As a teenager with hf autism, my problem is struggling to focus on learning things which don't interest me. Your videos have really helped me to reevaluate thhis, especially on another video where you mentioed searching things up and actively looking for subjects in relation to the topic you need to learn which pique your interst.
In the space of a munth, totally turned this around thanks to your vodeos. Thank you so much

[jwstanley]

Create a knowledge space. Fill it with answers to these questions, often in this order, Who, What, Why, How, Where, and When. If possible, also create a sub-space for Past, Present, and Future. If the knowledge space tends to collapse, support it with associations. That's my take. Thanks for the video.

[josoufsidiqi]

Two lesson i want to learn from this video:
1. Learn the core basic, like she said when you understand the core basics of for example electricity you would be better at understanding most of the concepts related to it, like my dad.
2. Pay attention to what you want to pay attention. She said that we all have limited attention spans and when you always force yourself to study the parts that you dont like that attention span diminishes, so for example instead of studying only the specific things im not interesteded in i should keep the attention span going with the activity i like to do.