How to Learn Insanely Difficult Subjects Easily

As we go through school, we are going to encounter difficult classes and subjects. But we aren't taught the best way to learn. After years of experience teaching and learning about learning, we've compiled 3 lessons that make learning difficult things much easier, and it has to do with how our brains work. You're not stupid. You're not dumb. You've just been fighting against your brain to learn difficult and tough subjects. But if we take the time to learn these 3 lessons, that we have adopted from other skilled professionals, we can tackle those classes much better.

🙏 Thanks for watching!
- Mike and Matty

0:00 introduction
0:56 learn like a painter
4:28 learn like a hunter
7:06 learn like an athlete

[Bia-starlight]

Learn like a painter - "Learning the easier things will make the harder ones click."
Learn like a hunter - spark that curiosity
Learn like an athlete - keep showing up/stay consistent

[TheIllerX]

An advice I want to add, which is often mentioned when it comes to learning, is to continuously go back to more simple concepts you might think you aleady know decently and reflect on them and try to understand them on a deeper level than before. The ability to this is often said to be perhaps the most important thing that separates masters of a subject from the rest.
This especially is true in mathematics and science (PhD in math myself with lots of working experience and I practice this habit all the time).
You will notices that the pros don't just know a lot more stuff than most people, they know the things ordinary people know but on a much deeper level.

[cjayloco]

1.Learn the easier things will make the harder things click.

2. Be genuinely interested to the things you learn
3. Learn like an athlete " discipline and self reflect or re evaluation"

Taking action leads to motivation

[noself]

I’m 61 and sincerely want to learn and improve in a number of ways but have had difficulty with motivation and consistency when things get too challenging or mundane. This video is enlightening and inspiring. Thanks for sharing!

[InanaNinsianna]

Totally explains why my brain stalled at calculus. My self-image took a small but really limiting hit. 50 years later and I’m actually excited to give it another go. Thank you ❤️

[gregbattaglia]

Guys, this channel is literally changing my life. Absolutely excellent content. I have a difficult certification exam coming up and your videos have be helping me immensely. I can’t thank you guys enough!

Some really great points here. I've always been obsessively passionate when learning things, especially things I've found somewhat difficult, because of an annoying "need to know" deeply wired in me, so I never really struggled with motivation. But then I realized this was only actually helping me learn things I found interesting to begin with, and that is quite a narrow perspective, so I slowly taught myself how to find anything interesting, and I think this video helps describe a lot of it.

For instance it could be something silly like "wait, why _don't_ I know how to juggle? If it looks so simple and boring it should be easy" - kind of baiting myself into learning it, then when I inevitably begin struggling I gain that obsessive interest in it until I'm able to do it well.

But another great way to fuel passion that creates an almost endless drive is to jump straight to the problems, and try solving them on your own. Basically try to reinvent the wheel while having no knowledge of what a wheel is except that "it rolls". But only stay in this phase until the desire to try and figure it out on your own starts fading, then look up the solutions. More often than not you'll be surprised at how close you came, and if you spent more time on it you may have actually succeeded, which ends up giving you tons of passion for a subject you previously thought was boring.

I ended up having to write down a list of academic fields I find interesting and rank them by which I care about the most so I don't keep driving off track into another subjects. Where before it was only really math, programming, physics, and a few hobbies. Now it would be quicker to list the things I don't find interesting lol.

Creativity and logic are both equally necessary when learning. Everyone can do both, and believing the lie that you're better at one than the other will only limit your own potential.

[GarnonEre]

100%! Something related to this I do: learn the definitions of the words that are patterned within your field, because they can have specific meanings in that field's context. Especially for psychology, words like "guilt" and "frustration" seem intuitive, but have specific definitions that make them entirely distinct, and help you understand the broader theories. Thanks mate!

[arcticgem]

🦊Learn like a Painter🧑‍🎨 - learn in broad strokes, skip difficult concepts and gather information from concepts that are easier to understand and bring it into context, move the paint brush forward because it's likely the easy concepts will become the prior knowledge you needed to understand the things that were skipped

🐯Learn like a Hunter🕵‍♂ - using an enquiry-based approach to learning, looking for patterns between abstract topics, and answers to our questions - this is why we love analogies so much

🐼Learn like an Athlete🏃‍♀ - cultivate a habit for discipline and self-reflection that's completely detached from how we feel, seeing consistent progress will become the motivation we need to keep getting started, but objective factual data is essential to analyse weaknesses

[hollynoftall]

I am heading back to university 20+ years after my degree. I have always struggled with imposter syndrome, not feeling as smart as my peers and lacking confidence. Returning to university is my way of improving myself and gaining more confidence. Your channel gave me my light bulb moment. I've had horrible study habits in the past and never learned how to study correctly! I'm smarter than I realize if I managed to obtain my degree and work in my field for 20 years in spite of not knowing how to study. I'm watching all of your videos to prepare to go back and you have lit a fire in me to relearn with updated and efficient habits! Imagine how much better I'll be now!! Thank you so much and please keep your videos coming!!

[harshjoshi]

i have jee(an engineering exam in india) in 3 days... and im overwhelmed as hell... your videos are really a breath of fresh air.

[keithauguis]

Learning is really, really hard, especially you're only doing it by yourself.

I'm self - learning and studying physics, psychology, mathematics and other subjects for the sake of knowledge and for the sake of its usefulness on whatever I plan to do in the future. I've watched multiple educational videos, read articles and books on these subjects, and yet, I still felt that something was missing. This "something", as I figured out the way, was learning. Learning techniques, methods, and strategies. And then, this.



I recently stumbled

[serendipitypark]

Was studying physics till now which is apparently a subject that I find a bit difficult. Thought to take a break, look where it brought me😁 By the way awesome video👏

[brenoengelsdorf]

This video really should be titled: STOP, SUCK IT UP, AND GET BACK TO WORK. Youtube isn't going to make you succeed in life. It's you that could make you succeed.

[UrzuOfMythral]

30 now and a pilot needing to know procedures and systems for multiple aircraft and systems all while trying to improve my Japanese not only for my wife but so we can move back to Japan one day. This channel is something I wish I had when I was younger and is changing my life. Thanks

[_SomyaY]

I love the naming of the methods, it's just so much easier to understand,
And cuz i paint and do sports, this is amazing!

[TRSF-eo]

Takeaways:
1. Learn like an artists. Go back and forth to fill in those gaps
2. Learn like a hunter: Be curious
3. Learn like an athlete. Be consitent about practicing and also deloberate through self reflection

[kvu]

"Maybe you want to become a doctor"... but a doctor of philosophy

[skitsonboard]

I have to say this is THE best channel I came across on YouTube for study purposes . Every time I’m demotivated or distracted I just visit here and watch some videos . They motivate me so much that I’m completely energised and willing to sit to study again . This is a truly amazing amazing thing that every student always needs ! I am at a loss of words to describe how much I am thankful for having to come across this channel . Thankyou so much for bringing such content which is * worth spending time on* !❤😊 The first ever video I saw made me subscribe immediately and it helped me a lot with my studies .

[ebrelus]

Tora is chaotic abstract thinker. He is gathering huge nr of elements and zooms out looking for the most relevant patterns, structures, commonalities sorting them for the best optimal match. Then would fill holes, expand it with details top down sorting the rest again and again. From stem to roots. Finding big picture and adding puzzles then. It's fishing of a big fish learning big fish habits and then going for gradually smaller fishes until full.

kuma is opposite orderly sequential linear thinker. Sorting elements in queue as they come looking for important parts absorbing them until everything is processed and then building pattern structure abstracting up. From zoom in to zoom out. Kuma will never miss anything important but it's slower, ground up. From roots to stem. Adding fitting individual puzzles and getting picture at the end. It's fishing every fish that comes and fits net.

Kitsume would be a mix of these. His goal is building picture but not caring about figuring out whole picture at once. So he finds most obviously fitting pieces building a piece of picture with least effort then another piece. In the process Tora filters useless pieces & sorts relevant pieces into subpictures categories/boxes. Divide and conquer method.
It's fishing some fishes, understanding which of better quality are more common and then looking only for these or similar adjusting net in the process.