Making & learning · Collection guide · 5 stops
Learn & get better
Bring one skill you want to practise, not just a subject you want to collect information about. This route moves from apprenticeship to asking questions, adjusting pace and building study conditions, then ends with a demanding example of craft. The useful output is a practice loop you can repeat.
Browse this collection in reading order →Suggested routes through material saved to explore. I haven’t read or watched everything here yet. The order and prompts are editorial suggestions based on available source text, excerpts, descriptions and synopses; they are not personal ratings or claims of completed viewing.
Begin with observation and feedback
Young’s discussion of apprenticeship asks what learning looks like near real work. Use it to shift attention from finishing resources to attempting a task and seeing where your understanding breaks down.
Pause & try
Choose a small task performed by someone skilled. Watch or inspect an example, then attempt your own version before studying another explanation.
Ask the basic question
Luu’s essay addresses the embarrassment that can block feedback. Place it after your first attempt, when you have a real point of confusion and a reason to expose it.
Pause & try
Write the simplest question you are reluctant to ask. Ask a suitable person, or explain the problem plainly enough to identify what you need to look up.
Test an assumed pace
Sivers’s learning story questions the speed limits people accept. Treat it as an invitation to test your own pace, while keeping quality of understanding and available energy in view.
Pause & try
Which step are you delaying because a course or habit says it belongs later? Try a bounded version and note the prerequisites you actually lack.
Build conditions for repeated work
Karpathy’s course advice brings the route back to sustained study. An unusually productive session is useful, but a skill also needs conditions that let you return and work through difficult material.
Pause & try
Schedule two practice sessions with a clear task and a distraction-free starting point. End each by writing the next question to tackle.
Observe a demanding practice culture
Jiro Dreams of Sushi gives you a case study of repetition, standards and apprenticeship. Watch for what can transfer to your skill, and what depends on the particular workplace and people shown.
Pause & try
Choose one detail to improve through repetition. Define what better would look like and who or what could give you reliable feedback.
After the five stops
Take it into your own life.
Repeat the task, feedback and revision cycle three times. Keep the attempts so you can compare them. Judge the learning by what you can now notice or do, rather than the number of links, notes or lessons you have completed.
Continue exploring
Items 1–5 are the guided route above. The remaining items are listed alphabetically below; choose what interests you next. These numbers match the collection shelf.
- “You and Your Research” → Find on the shelf: “You and Your Research” →
- 50 Ideas That Changed My Life → Find on the shelf: 50 Ideas That Changed My Life →
- Advice That Actually Worked For Me → Find on the shelf: Advice That Actually Worked For Me →
- Brian Armstrong of Coinbase with an email to a new PM → Find on the shelf: Brian Armstrong of Coinbase with an email to a new PM →
- Childhoods of exceptional people → Find on the shelf: Childhoods of exceptional people →
- Choke → Find on the shelf: Choke →
- Cosmos - Carl Sagan Mini Series → Find on the shelf: Cosmos - Carl Sagan Mini Series →
- Free Solo → Find on the shelf: Free Solo →
- FUN TO IMAGINE with Richard Feynman → Find on the shelf: FUN TO IMAGINE with Richard Feynman →
- How to Do Great Work - Paul Graham → Find on the shelf: How to Do Great Work - Paul Graham →
- Jim Simons - Numberphile → Find on the shelf: Jim Simons - Numberphile →
- Kapil Gupta: Conquering the Mind → Find on the shelf: Kapil Gupta: Conquering the Mind →
- Lectures on the Art of Reading - Andrew Symons → Find on the shelf: Lectures on the Art of Reading - Andrew Symons →
- LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching → Find on the shelf: LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching →
- Michael Jordan to the Max → Find on the shelf: Michael Jordan to the Max →
- Michael Jordan’s Wisdom → Find on the shelf: Michael Jordan’s Wisdom →
- Momentum Generation → Find on the shelf: Momentum Generation →
- Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t → Find on the shelf: Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t →
- Playing to win - David Sirlin → Find on the shelf: Playing to win - David Sirlin →
- Reading The Room → Find on the shelf: Reading The Room →
- Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine → Find on the shelf: Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine →
- School is Not Enough → Find on the shelf: School is Not Enough →
- The Last Dance → Find on the shelf: The Last Dance →
- The Road to Self-Renewal - John Gardner → Find on the shelf: The Road to Self-Renewal - John Gardner →