So we're here with Tim Ferriss to talk about his new book, The 4 Hour Chef. Tim, what is it
all about? Four Hour Chef looks and quacks like a cook book, but as a
self-described non-cook it's a little odd that I would write such a thing. This is really
guide to have become world-class in
just about anything in six months or less.
So this is not just cooking, right? I mean, you have this reputation of acquiring
bazaar unique skills quickly. When you first discover this process?
The meta learning
concept really hit me when I was in college and I became fascinated by
two things simultaneously. The first was smart drugs for excelerating
acquisitions and recall and all these things. And then I realized that maybe
snorting antidiuretic hormone is not the best long-term strategy and simultaneously
became fascinated with how different companies were teaching language learning.
And that's when I also noticed the same pattern in kickboxing.
Yeeeahhhh...
Ughhhh….
and I ended up applying it to kickboxing to win the national championships in nineteen
ninety nine just a few months after starting practicing. If you
believe that instead of being limited to be world class in one or two things in
your life that you could actually become
world-class in one or two things per year, how do your decisions change?
How does your outlook change? It changes completely! Okay, let's get specific then.
So, if I want to learn some kind of complex skill quickly and I want to become
world class at it, what's the process I have to go through? Yeah, so the core
principles of meta learning are pretty simple.
The acronyms that I use D.S.S.S. and it stands for deconstruction, selection
sequencing, and stakes.
This is the process you apply to any complex skill. And that involves
deconstruction, so what are the minimal learnable units, the lego blocks
that I should be starting with?
Selection, what twenty percent of the blocks will produce eighty percent or
more of the outcomes I want? And sequencing, in what orders should I learn
these blocks? And then stakes. How do I set up real consequences to guarantee
that I follow the program? So, based on what you know then about how people
acquire skills
what piece of advice would you give? My piece of urgent advice would be very
simple and it sounds morbid, but I would say you are going to die
and the sooner you come to terms with the fact that you have a
limited amount of time on this planet
and that time is your most valuable, non-renewable resource, you should
learn to squeeze every ounce of life added every minute and every hour that
you have on this planet. I really cannot think of a better way to do that then to
sharpen the blade of the mind and spirit that you have by emulating the
world's fastest learners with meta learning.
Okay let's get specific then. So if I want to learn some kind of complex skill quickly and I want to become
world class at it, what's the process I have to go through? The principles of meta learning are pretty simple.