Learning

I learnt this mnemonic twice in the past week and I will be doing a disservice to mankind if I don't write about it. I have been meaning to learn strategies to absorb new concepts faster. In the pursuit of it, I found Jim Kwik talking about FAST in his podcast Kwik Brain and also as a guest in The Science of Success podcast run by Matt Bodnar. Let's get to it.

F – Forget your assumptions, what you know and your limitations.

When you begin learning a new concept it is important that you forget what you already know about it. Do not go into the concept by assuming that you already know it and you are not going to learn anything new. Also, forget your assumptions about what you might learn while going through the concept. Do not have preconceived notions. The biggest takeaway (for me) is to forget your limitations. Do not keep telling yourself that you might not be good enough, you are too old, you are not from some ivy league.

If you keep arguing for your limitations, you get to keep them.

A – Actively engage in the process of learning

Learning is not a spectator sport.

You cannot be a passive consumer. You need to roll up your sleeves and enter the ring. Actively listen, ask questions, take notes, make notes and learn to teach. When you have the intent to teach you tend to increase your stake.

S – State of being. What emotional state your mind is in?

If you are emotionally starved and not in a good state then whatever you are going to learn will not be retained. You need to have a curious mindset to learn. Be aware of the state of your mind before you begin to learn something new.

T – Teach. Learn with the focus of teaching.

Imagine you need to learn a new concept and then teach it to an audience after 48 hours. You will have skin in the game and will listen attentively. You will automatically make notes and learn with more involvement. Learn every new concept with the intention to pay it forward.

This in nutshell is how you can begin to learning fast. Using FAST.

#Podcasts #Learning #MindHacks

1. The way society sees video games is not necessary to be true always. Toby learnt how to make decisions with half information at a rapid pace. He had to make a lot of decisions every time he played the game. While working on the business you have to make similar decisions. Spread over a time interval.

2. Most of the business books are written from the perspective of primary markets. Like Silicon Valley and other similar business centres. These ideas might not be relevant to secondary markets. Ottawa in Toby's case.

3. Toby wanted to build a world-class organization in Ottawa. Talent in secondary markets tends to stick longer with the organizations.

4. Invest in the future potential of the employee. Train and empower them to realize their potential.

5. Most people want to do the right thing. But if you expect them to exercise their willpower to do it, it might not work. Enable environment changes that help them do the right thing. Example – Putting the empty plates in the dustbin. Place the dustbin at the exit door.

6. Shopify helps individuals sell products. Rather than selling happening at concentrated locations like Wallmart. You give more power to small businesses.

7. Trust Battery – Example – Love the contribution you do but if you don't attend meetings your trust level with the team diminishes. Do not make it about the individual. Make it about the trust percentage with the team.

8. You begin a business when you make the first sale.

9. Toby made the whole company work from home for a month to make them appreciate the people who work remotely.

10. To adapt to change quickly is a trait needed for nimble businesses.

11. Toby wants to run the largest small company!

#Podcasts #Entreprenuers #StartUps

1. You can start a business as a side project and still make it big. Creativity does get crumpled under the stress of making it count. Especially when you leave everything and focus on the business.

2. Unsplas's Mikael had excess photos after a photo shoot and they were wondering what to do with it. They wanted to create a site which they couldn't find after a lot of searching on the web.

3. Conviction in your story of business is important while trying to convince the VC of your value proposition. This is true especially when there is no straightforward business model to make money.

4. Identifying VCs who will sync with your value system is important. But really do you have a choice when you need money? Should you be waiting to find the right VC? I guess yes. Especially when you have a good product in your hand.

5. Unsplash is planning to use Blockchain technology. They want to figure out how a photo that is downloaded on the site is used by the user. Where does it end up going? Who all access it? Through blockchain ledger technology they want to have an audit trail of sorts. They want to connect all the players involved and build a paying ecosystem.

6. Growth @Unsplash was never the problem. They were growing by leaps and bounds. Getting thousands of photos contributed by the professional photographers. They are trying to figure out a way to monetise. Currently, they have APIs which enable other applications to use the rich database of unsplash.

7. Stock Image sites like Getty and Shutterstock have pay per use model. Unsplash database is larger than both Getty and Shutterstock put together! As of now the contributors to Unsplash don't get paid.
   Some of them do get referrals because of the visibility of their portfolio.

#Startups #Podcasts #Entrepreneurs

1. When you are new to the organization and want to challenge the status quo do not do it immediately. Learn from the environment. Take your ideas to your supervisor or someone who has agreed to mentor you and ask for their advice. This will help them support you on your path to bring about a change. List the ideas and ask if these are good and if they can be implemented.

2. Middle managers tend to kill an idea or innovation by default. They have worked their ass off to reach the position they have. The opportunity cost of not backing a good idea is less. Whereas the cost of backing a new idea and failing is high. They wouldn't want to jeopardize their hard-earned position. They prefer to play it safe.

3. To curb your anxiety the usual practice is to try and calm down. Instead, we should try and get excited about the act/event. Tell yourself that you are excited and it will help decrease the anxiety. Both worrying and excitement have the element of uncertainty. But they tend to have opposite effects on the psyche.

4. To explain the unfamiliar use of a familiar concept/idea. Example SpringRope is a LinkedIn of verified professionals. When you pitch a new idea to someone they tend to think based on what they already know. If they have never heard about this new concept they will reject the idea. If you instead explain it using a familiar concept the receptiveness increases.

5. Growing startups that hire people based on culture fit tend to be more successful. As compared to those startups who hire based on skills and star performers. Although, this culture fit hiring doesn't help beyond the IPO. They need to then radicalize their approach and have people who can disrupt. They have to bring in people who help disrupt their thinking. This they have to rethink periodically.

6. We get rid of people who give us critical feedback. When instead you should ask them for advice. This will help you learn faster. We should shun our ego and ask such people for more details and the act upon the data.

7. The counter-intuitive approach to let the decision maker know our flaws helps. Not always. Rufus Griscom pitches to venture capitalists to raise money for his start-up Babble. However, Griscom does the opposite of most entrepreneurs and presented a slide of Top 5 reasons not to invest in his startup. As Grant notes, it should have killed his pitch but the counter-intuitive approach worked and Babble raised $3.3 million in funding that year.

#Podcasts #OrganizationalPsychology