Mastering a skill

Overview

 * Time estimate: 30 minutes for lecture, some time for discussion, so maybe 45 minutes?

==How to Master a Skill ==

Examples of skills: math contests, piano, ultimate frisbee, fitness, coding, rock climbing, Magic: The Gathering

Examples of skills that people don’t usually think of as skills: socialization, teaching, talking to non-technical people, making rational decisions, sleeping, walking [these aren’t very well-organized, but I think as a rationalist it is important to realize many things are improvable and important, and this realization alone sometimes helps one improve at them. -Yan]

Note: This is a distillation of our experiences trying to master skills, feel free to add on or make comments.

[Anna: I really want someone to cover growth mindset vs. belief-in-fixed talent somewhere at SPARC. Eliezer: This seems like a good place.]

In my experience, most steps in skill mastery fall under one of the following categories (which are roughly chronological, but can mostly all apply at any time):


 * Get basic familiarity


 * Research the skill


 * Progressively challenge yourself (while planning and tracking progress)


 * Find a community


 * Engage in focused practice


 * Master the basics


 * Cross-train

I will go over some case studies from my own experience, highlighting where each of the above apply. Then I’ll make some general observations.

Ultimate Frisbee
<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 0:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">played casually, learned crappy technique

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-> when getting basic familiarity, helpful to have someone more experienced to help you

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 1:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">unlearned bad throwing technique, threw a <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">ton <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"> with experienced throwing partners (getting basic familiarity)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">focused on good technique and gaining intuition for how different muscle commands affected throws (engaging in focused practice)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 2:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">progress slowed down substantially

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-> I was on MIT’s backup-backup line and so never got in-game experience

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-> important to track your progress so you know when it slows down

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">eventually started playing for a lower-level team and improved much more quickly (progressively challenging yourself)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 3:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">had strong friendships with many people on my team, which made me want to work harder (form a community)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">made it onto our starting defensive line, but got benched during our most important tournament because I couldn’t throw well enough in the wind (mastering basic skills)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 4:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">focused a lot on basic skills (strength, running, throwing)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">started weight-lifting, which finally helped me learn how to make good deep throws (cross-training)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">missed some low-hanging fruit (better agility / endurance) due to insufficient reflection

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-> I didn’t think enough about which skills were most important or the most efficient way to train them (didn’t have a good enough plan)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">was on the starting line, but in a relatively inactive position; improved more slowly as a result (due to not progressively challenging myself)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Math contests
<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 1:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">math team captain gave me lots of combinatorics problems to solve (basic familiarity)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">attended lectures covering core olympiad syllabus (research the skill and find a community)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">wanted to make USAMO, did 12 practice AIMEs (1997-2004) (plan and progressively challenge yourself)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-> after each practice contest, I asked myself how I could have solved the problems more effectively (focused practice)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">made USAMO, wanted to make MOP, did 10 practice USAMOs (1994-2003), made MOP

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 2:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">kept working on olympiad problems (progressively challenge yourself)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">made slow progress through <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Geometry Revisited <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">(master basic skills)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">taught myself advanced math like group theory / algebraic combinatorics (cross-training)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">did some independent math research (cross-training)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">again, progress stalled due to lack of a clear plan or measurement of progress

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">made MOP but failed the TST due to weak geometry (basic skills)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Year 3:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">realized that geometry was a huge weakness, tried to get better at it by diving straight into ISL G1’s

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-> these were too hard, so I progressed too slowly (progressively challenging yourself) and failed to make Black MOP

General principles
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Get basic familiarity

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is an area where there’s a lot of potential for improvement over my current method.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Before you can do much of anything, you need to at least have basic understanding of the skill you care about.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you already do, great, you can skip this step!

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If not, work on the skill, preferably with access to someone more knowledgeable (the “expert”).

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Try things out, reasoning for yourself what you should do, but asking the expert if you get stuck / to see whether your reasoning is correct.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In many cases this can be unglamorous, how can we get past this stage?

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Take satisfaction in your progress.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Track your progress.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Remember that there are dividends later.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Research the skill

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oftentimes other people have put a lot of effort into mastering the skill already --- <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">learn from them <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">. <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">(ex. <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Starting Strength <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Good textbooks / trusted experts are extraordinarily helpful.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Challenge yourself to see steady improvement

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To keep improving, it’s important to make yourself perform at a level that:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. forces you to get better

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. is attainable

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Both are important, and to do this consistently, it is crucial to plan and track progress. [I personally consider this as a part of the idea of <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">flow. <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">-Yan ]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You might have to do some thinking and seek out resources to find good ways to do this; <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">this is where people typically stall out.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Master basic technical skills [To me this is ridiculously important. Most of my plateaus are reflections of the lack of understanding of some fundamental that I have to go back and learn. This is a good place to possibly discuss the Chinese/Russian school of learning finesse-based skills by doing a ton of fundamentals first versus Western schools -Yan]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning about isogonal conjugates won’t get you far if you can’t spot similar triangles.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fancy ultimate frisbee strategy is not going to help if you can’t throw and catch.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You have to learn arpeggios and chords before you can play complicated piano pieces proficiently.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In many cases, there are basic technical skills that present the most low-hanging fruit for improvement. Unfortunately, these are usually boring to master and initially seem more difficult. But they are essential if you want to be a master. Identify the technical skills you have not yet mastered, and rejoice that you have such a straightforward way to make yourself better. Then go master them. <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Sometimes they haven’t yet been mastered because there are no obvious resources, or because you need to go back and gain basic familiarity with something else first.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Engage in focused practice

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you practice, know why you are practicing and what you are working on.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Think about marginal benefit of time -- what areas will practice benefit the most and how can I work on them?

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Find a way to get feedback!

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You need feedback to know if what you are doing is working. In many cases this is easy, but in some areas (like open-ended research) it is harder.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Think retrospectively about what strategies were good.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One major goal is to place useful mental processes reliably into unconscious thought

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Both strategy (intuition) and tactics (technique)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Find a community

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You will be much more motivated to do well if you are in a community that values people who do well.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Smart people often have valuable insights to share (whether or not they are smarter than you).

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Try to shape community standards to be beneficial.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cross-training

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cross-training gives you different approaches to learning the same / similar skills

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If the conventional wisdom in field X of how to learn Y doesn’t work for you, perhaps the conventional <span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> wisdom in field X’ will

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It also hedges against things that either you or the entire community missed initially

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ex.: I could never make good deep throws in Ultimate because I never learned how to transfer force from my legs to my upper body. Weight-lifting forced me to learn this.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Experiment

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Once you are an expert, conventional wisdom may no longer apply. Use the intuition you’ve developed to try new approaches and see what works.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Still important to <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">get feedback <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How much Mastery? [-Yan]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m personally very interested in this question. At least in the academic research world, more premium is put on deep knowledge versus broad knowledge (hedgehog vs fox). People also like to judge other people by a number, which is usually the number corresponding to the projection of their own strongest trait ;) much discussion of mastery takes the idea that you want to get better at the skill and that <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">is <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"> your utiltiy function, but what about in the larger scope of life as a maximization problem? You only have finite time to distribute between your skills! How do you guys attack this problem?

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mastering Competitive Skills <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">[-Yan]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a skill whore, I’ve realized that a good percentage of skills are competitive in nature, and they have a lot of commonality. Applicable skills: combat, board games, video games (RTS or fighting), running a business. Partially applicable skills would include things like math competitions, where the psychological toughness still applies but there is no direct interaction with other participants so tactics for disrupting the opponents are not necessary.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This may be good as an addenum or as a separate lecture.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I think every field re-discovers the following concept and gives it a different name:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* evaluate nodes - what is the game tree? What nodes are there? What moves do I have? What move does the opponent have?

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* compute expected value - create some heuristic for an evaluation function and calculate them deeply. The usual concept of “strength” is the ability to actually do this calculation / estimation.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* execute - in some sense you are already done, but in situations where things have similar expected value and you have more information from the evaluation phase, you can seek to play psychological tricks on the opponent or hedge strategies.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is called OODT in some circles. When I learned the concept, it was from poker and called REM (range, estimate, maximize). This is a good example of an idea that has very little semantic complexity but is very useful to keep as a locus. I want to mention this comes very naturally to someone writing an AI, since these are functions that they better write =D [similar to Bratman’s belief-desire-intention model, where desire is replaced by expected value -- Jacob]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Within the smaller sphere of games where you want to defeat an opponent, there are a few additional patterns. Good references are:

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* David Sirlin’s <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Playing to Win <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"> does a good job of factoring out a lot of the commonality: psychological toughness, adaptation, some variant of RPS / mental poker / Yomi. This is why I think basic elements of poker and rock-paper-scissors should be learned by everyone, since the same concepts just keep coming back everywhere under different names. There is no need to relearn them several times.

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* The <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Book of Five Rings <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"> is overrated by hobbyists but was still personally valuable, maybe in the sense that when lessons are vague enough everyone can learn things from them. There are very good concrete lessons though, especially that of <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">rhythm <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"> (which you can argue is a part of RPS theory).

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* I think similarly for <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The Art of War <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;"> - my favorite lesson from there is the concept of the <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">indirect approach <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">, which can either be considered as better research in the “evaluation” phase or heuristically as disrupting the opponent’s <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">rhythm.

==<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bibliography of the metaskill of obtaining skills ==

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[I started this because I’m curious about other people’s favorite books! Please tag your name so I can bug you about it if the book looks interesting. The book may be about a particular skill but if it has good ideas of general skill acquisition then I consider it relevant. -Yan]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[Yan]

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Art of Learning

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Art of War

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Book of Five Rings

<span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">www.sirlin.net

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Playing to Win

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mastery

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chess for Zebras (this is a terrific example of what I mean in the above comment - I don’t play chess at all!)

<span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Elements of Poker (this is not about poker at all)