# Private Workshop - How to Learn Anything Faster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0QMMlarSC4

[00:00] So, back before I was doing YouTube, I used to run workshops like 20 times a year.
[00:04] These days, I only do three or four.
[00:06] So, I held a private workshop a few months ago and the team wanted to record this one to share with you guys as well.
[00:12] We've actually edited this video to be interactive so that you guys can actually follow along later as well.
[00:17] So, here's the workshop.
[00:17] Hope you enjoy.
[00:19] So the the first thing that I want to start with is some of the basic principles around how how to learn fast, how to learn anything very fast.
[00:28] No matter what you're learning, no matter what situation you're in, no matter what type of content, whatever type of challenge you have, there are certain principles that have to be met.
[00:36] If you don't meet these principles, you will find learning hard every single time.
[00:39] So this becomes your northstar.
[00:42] Any strategy or technique that you learn or or use for the rest of your life has to meet this northstar otherwise you will struggle.
[00:49] So I'm going to give you a little bit of theory just enough to kind of wrap your head around it and then I want to swing back into back and forth having some discussion and then I'll go through some more tactical strategies afterwards.
[00:58] The
[01:00] first thing I'm going to anchor on is that uh flow of information that I talked about before where you just have data
[01:09] and that data can come from any type of source and this is going inside your brain
[01:16] and your brain is doing stuff with it.
[01:18] It's thinking about it, right?
[01:20] And that thinking we're going to call that processing.
[01:29] And depending on how well you process that information, you are either going to have a really good memory.
[01:32] It's going to be sticky.
[01:34] You will retain that information or if you process it in a bad way, you will forget it.
[01:41] Likewise with how deep your learning is.
[01:43] If you process it in a good way, you will reme you will not only remember, but you can use that information in the way that you need to.
[01:48] So if this is good, then this means strong memory.
[01:54] Okay?
[01:54] and then great depth of understanding and great ability to apply that information.
[01:58] If you do this poorly,
[02:03] most of the time it just ends up in the bin.
[02:10] This is when you forget everything that you learn.
[02:11] Uh you read through a page, halfway through the page you realize you don't actually remember anything that you've been learning.
[02:17] You spend hours and hours learning and then one or two weeks later you realize you've forgotten half of it.
[02:22] That's what happens.
[02:24] And this is just a symptom.
[02:25] You don't control this.
[02:27] You don't control your memory.
[02:29] You don't control your depth.
[02:29] You can try to remember something.
[02:30] It doesn't matter.
[02:32] Trying to remember something doesn't mean you can remember it.
[02:33] Otherwise, this room would be empty.
[02:35] No one would have any problems with anything ever.
[02:36] Uh likewise with depth.
[02:39] Trying to understand something deeply doesn't change anything.
[02:40] Right?
[02:43] Uh all of this, these are symptoms purely of the process that we use.
[02:47] And when you use the right process, you can't avoid it.
[02:49] You can try to forget it but if you're using the right process you won't be able to.
[02:52] It will be sticky.
[02:55] So obviously the question is so what is the right type of processing that we need to do?
[02:59] I want you to remember this for when you're learning
[03:06] information
[03:09] in isolation
[03:13] is death.
[03:17] Information and isolation is death.
[03:20] When you get when you get any new piece of data coming into your brain and anytime you your brain is trying to figure out what to do with that information, whether it should hold on to it or not, it is making a decision.
[03:28] Is it worth keeping on to this information?
[03:33] Most of the time it is no.
[03:36] Right?
[03:36] What's the sixth license plate you saw today?
[03:40] That is data.
[03:42] That was sensory information that went into your brain and your brain filtered through it and forgot it so fast.
[03:45] you don't even remember even having had it in your brain before.
[03:49] The overwhelming majority of data that goes into your brain will be lost because if it doesn't lose that information, your brain is just going to be processing non-stop.
[03:55] The energy consumption of that is going to be massive and you know that that's a life or death situation.
[04:02] So your brain is extremely extremely efficient at pruning
[04:06] information that it doesn't need.
[04:08] And only the stuff that meets multiple filters of being worth keeping will it be stored.
[04:15] Now, here's a problem, right?
[04:17] Remember how I said that you can't just will your way into having better memory.
[04:19] So, if you read something and you think, "Oh, this is really important.
[04:23] I need to know this for an exam, for my job, for solving this particular problem."
[04:26] And you say, "Okay, I need to try to remember this really hard."
[04:31] From your brain's perspective, it doesn't care.
[04:34] It doesn't care that you need it for an exam because the alternative is that you will just die, right?
[04:37] Would you rather, you know, die or remember something for a for a meaningless exam?
[04:41] So most information that comes into our brain, especially in the modern day is extremely dense and largely irrelevant from our brain's perspective.
[04:49] And so what we're trying to do is we're saying, I need you to recognize that this is worth keeping.
[04:55] And the way we do that is by preventing isolation.
[04:59] We say, hey, you need to hold on to this piece of information because it's not just this piece of information.
[05:03] This information relates to this and this and
[05:08] this and this.
[05:10] And so if you forget this, the implication is catastrophic.
[05:13] So we have to trick our brain into seeing every piece of information as a connected web or a connected pattern.
[05:19] Everything has an implication.
[05:21] Everything has a consequence.
[05:22] Everything influences everything else.
[05:25] And by actively processing information that creates those connections, automatically you will have better memory.
[05:33] Okay.
[05:35] So quick question.
[05:38] Roughly how many hours did I study a day when I was trying to enter into medical school?
[05:41] 22.
[05:43] Yeah.
[05:43] Uh what was the type of mint that I used to rub on my eyes?
[05:49] Yeah.
[05:51] So you know these these are that's a very isolated small piece of information, right?
[05:55] That's a very isolated fragmented piece of data that actually has no meaning to you in your life.
[06:00] Like it could be a Smith, it could be a a Hershey's kiss.
[06:02] Like no one cares, right?
[06:03] But you remember that you remember that involuntarily if I ask you
[06:08] about your favorite movie that you have watched.
[06:10] you know you watch you watch a movie you love it and then afterwards I say what was it about and you say I don't remember anything.
[06:17] something is wrong with you right you remember that whether you want to or not that will be retained because when that information comes in it's being connected the story is connecting it whatever is connecting it right and that's actually a process that we can control.
[06:29] we can deliberately create a connection in such a way that previously irrelevant information becomes comes relevant, right?
[06:37] So, a common example is like a phone number.
[06:39] So, if you have a phone number, let's say that the phone number is uh I don't I don't remember what how the Australian phone number starts, so I'm going to use a New Zealand phone number.
[06:45] So, so let's starts with 021 067 uh 934.
[06:54] Please don't call this number.
[06:56] I don't know whose it is.
[06:59] Um I'm sure it's be nice if you're going to call them.
[07:01] Uh, so this is a a series of numbers, right?
[07:04] And if this was your phone number, then normally the way that you remember it is like this.
[07:08] It's like
[07:10] duh duh duh duh duh duh duh.
[07:13] Like you create like a pattern.
[07:15] You create a rhythm to it.
[07:16] And then have you ever had that situation where you say what your number is to someone and they say it back to you, but then they use a different pattern and you're like wait like yeah that is correct.
[07:21] Yeah.
[07:25] So that's your brain having found a way to organize that information in a certain type of structure and a pattern where this has become relevant not through any intrinsic meaning but actually simply just because it's associated with a pattern.
[07:35] So that's a very simple example right uh but you know this this goes up in levels and we're going to explore those those different levels together.
[07:44] The next thing I want to move on to is the the snowball effect and how everything I've talked about right now relates to the snowball effect.
[07:49] How many of you um if I say the word flow, entering into flow?
[07:53] Do you understand what that means?
[07:55] What that feels like?
[07:57] It's when you you just it just things are locking in.
[07:58] How many of you have experienced flow when it comes to learning something?
[08:01] You're learning something and you just feel like, "Oo, I get it.
[08:05] It's making sense.
[08:07] Things are coming together.
[08:09] The concepts are building.
[08:10] Actually, it feels good because you can feel like, oo, I'm
[08:11] learning. Like I'm gaining knowledge.
[08:13] You're usually pretty confident about that knowledge as well.
[08:14] You feel like it's, you know, all coming together.
[08:15] It feels very productive.
[08:17] So that flow state that you're reaching, that's one symptom of having this snowball effect.
[08:21] This is what's actually happening.
[08:24] Your brain has a series of connections and patterns based on all of your prior knowledge, all of your prior experiences, everything that you've ever learned before.
[08:35] Uh not just related to like work or academics, you know, anything from your hobbies, you know, favorite books, whatever it is.
[08:43] So let's just say that this is your existing pattern.
[08:44] So we call this a schema.
[08:46] This network of information we call it a schema.
[08:48] So your brain is an existing schema.
[08:51] And then new information, new information that you read from a book or you're listening to right now doesn't come in a schema.
[08:55] It comes as isolated individual dots and points of information.
[08:58] And it's up to you to figure out what the schema is.
[09:03] A schema exists.
[09:05] When you read a textbook, the author has a schema.
[09:07] They're trying to communicate that schema to you.
[09:09] They're
[09:12] trying to make you see it the way that they see it.
[09:14] when you are first learning about you know like a new complicated piece of legislature for example the person who created that legislature had a big picture understand well hopefully had a big picture understanding of all the ramifications you know of it and what what it really means so your job is not to just collect the data this is not your job right your job is to actually figure out what the pattern and the schema is here when you figure that out that is when you really truly understand That's when it clicks and you understand it and it feels intuitive and logical.
[09:46] And so when this first piece of information comes into your brain, your brain is trying to see how is this thing related to what I already know.
[09:55] What are the possible connections?
[09:58] And it's hypothesizing and it's looking for all of those things.
[10:02] And so let's say that it finds, oh yeah, this this thing could be related to this and it could be related to this.
[10:06] Great.
[10:08] So now we're consolidating this new piece of information in our schema.
[10:09] That knowledge is slowly becoming our own.
[10:14] we get a second piece of information.
[10:15] It will do the same thing.
[10:16] Let's say it can't find it.
[10:18] This information will be lost.
[10:20] If you didn't see how it connects together, you're going to forget that.
[10:22] So, let's say we come back to this.
[10:23] We've got the our third piece here.
[10:25] So, okay, this third piece kind of connects to this one, but it also connects to this one.
[10:31] So, you see now the new piece of information that we just learned because this is now connected.
[10:35] This becomes another anchor point for this one to connect with.
[10:37] So as you learn more, now that we've got this connected, we see, oh, this is actually connected to that one.
[10:45] Oh, now that I see that these two are connected, actually this is kind of a bigger group of information which widely connects to this one.
[10:51] So if this is connecting here, shouldn't there also be something here?
[10:55] You look through the textbook, you look through whatever it is, you ask on YouTube, ah, there actually is something there.
[10:59] And not only is there one, there's also this one here which relates to that as well.
[11:02] So you can see now the network is growing.
[11:04] And so as we learn more, there are more places that this information can connect to.
[11:10] Whereas when we first start, you don't have many anchor points.
[11:13] You don't
[11:15] have much leverage.
[11:17] So that new information, there are only limited places for it to fill.
[11:21] So snowballing is when you start with not much.
[11:23] You start creating a few initial connections.
[11:26] And then as you continue to move through, it gets easier and easier to build new connections because your brain is actually a a better version of itself than it was 15 minutes ago.
[11:35] There's more opportunities.
[11:38] So the strategies that I'm going to go through uh are about creating the snowball effect.
[11:45] So uh you've got paper in front of you, right?
[11:51] Hey, so we're about to enter into the strategies now and we've edited this video so you can follow along.
[11:55] So I recommend you go grab yourself some paper or ideally a tablet with infinite canvas.
[12:00] If you follow along, then the feedback that I give to them is almost like I'm giving it to you.
[12:06] So it's going to make it much more useful and relevant.
[12:07] And speaking of following along, learning to learn is just easier when there's something to follow step by step.
[12:13] Which is why for some of you it
[12:15] might be worth thinking about whether my full guided program is a good fit for you.
[12:19] Note this is a paid program, so it's not going to be for everyone, but it does make learning to learn a lot more straightforward.
[12:27] I tell you exactly how to build an entire learning system from start to finish to improve your memory and your performance.
[12:33] The idea is to prevent you from wasting time on just trying to figure out what to do next and whether you're doing it right.
[12:39] But again, it's not for everyone.
[12:42] It is suitable for students and professionals.
[12:44] Our member split is about 50/50, but it does take effort and diligence and at least a few hours per week.
[12:48] It's not an overnight solution.
[12:50] So, if you've got an exam coming up next week, it's probably not going to help you that quickly.
[12:54] Also, if you don't have anything really serious to learn, like you're not dealing with dense new information or you don't have to perform with that information at a higher level, this program is probably going to be overkill.
[13:04] But, if you are interested and you want to learn a little bit more, I'll leave a link for you in the description below.
[13:09] So hopefully now you've got your paper or your tablet in front of you and we're going to jump into the interactive strategies part.
[13:12] Uh so what I want to do is we're going to
[13:16] go through a very very simple exercise.
[13:19] I want you to think about something that you are learning or have learned that you want to recap on and write down 15 keywords of that topic.
[13:27] It could be any type of problem you're trying to solve.
[13:31] It could be a project you're working on.
[13:32] It could be a topic that you've uh previously studied that you're trying to reapply, brand new thing that you're learning.
[13:39] Uh one thing that I will say, try not to use languages.
[13:41] Uh that's because language learning has kind of its own separate stuff which we're just not going to go into in this uh workshop.
[13:48] Uh if you want to, you can also just um go to chatpt and be like, "Hey, this is the topic. Give me 20 keywords."
[13:54] And just pick from the list.
[13:55] It it doesn't matter.
[13:56] We just need to get to a list of keywords.
[13:58] Feel free.
[13:58] That's totally acceptable.
[14:01] So, what we're going to do right now is a simple activity that I call blind mapping.
[14:04] And the good thing about this is that not only is it a great first technique to start trying to expose yourself to how to forcibly make connections, but it's also a technique that you can just use.
[14:11] You can just use this every single day.
[14:12] Anytime that you need to learn anything, this is a great first step.
[14:16] You can then
[14:17] take this technique and you can build on it.
[14:20] You can make it much more advanced and sophisticated.
[14:23] Um, but today I want to at least give you this initial technique.
[14:27] If you use this technique correctly, you can learn two 300 pages of information in like two hours and you will remember like 80 to 90% of that for weeks and you will be able to answer questions about it.
[14:38] You will be able to talk about it.
[14:40] You'll be able to discuss it, work with those ideas in complex ways.
[14:44] Um, and it will feel fun and engaging.
[14:46] And I literally just did that on the plane here with a book that quickly.
[14:49] [laughter]
[14:51] Yeah.
[14:53] Okay.
[14:55] So, the way that we do this is that you simply just pick a word from that list.
[14:57] You don't have to know like have to be confident about it.
[14:59] You literally just pick a word that you feel like this word seems kind of important.
[15:02] Right?
[15:04] So find that word, put a little tick next to it.
[15:07] Now I want you to look down the list and then ask yourself when you when you say this word is important, you've already actually made a judgment here.
[15:15] You have said this is important and already screened through possible relationships and implications
[15:19] and consequences. Right?
[15:21] Things don't become important in isolation.
[15:23] Importance is only given in its relation to other items.
[15:27] So you've made the judgment, hey, this word seems important.
[15:30] So I want you to look through the rest of that list and then take the thing that it influences, the consequences of it, the things that it's related to that give it its importance.
[15:40] And you might look at look at your list and realize actually I don't have any words for it.
[15:42] That means you've missed some keywords.
[15:44] So fill it in.
[15:46] Write down more keywords that tell you why that word was important.
[15:48] So right now we have a list of words.
[15:51] We've got a tick next to one of them.
[15:53] We've got a tick next to a few other ones because that forms a little web.
[15:56] So, all we're going to do is we're going to make that web visible.
[16:00] You already know that they're connected in a certain way.
[16:01] It's in your mind.
[16:03] Just try to put it down on paper.
[16:05] Don't use any extra words.
[16:07] Don't write in sentences.
[16:10] No bullet points.
[16:10] Simply keyword line arrow to another one.
[16:13] Line arrow to another one in a simple very basic map.
[16:17] Now, I want to go back to that keyword list.
[16:19] Some of those items are not ticked.
[16:19] So look at the little
[16:21] map that you've got, the little connections, and ask yourself, what is the other item from this list that you think might be meaningfully connected to what you've already got?
[16:32] So we've built a small little schema and we're going to just extend one step out from that.
[16:36] Bring one more keyword into the fold and see how it would connect together and then just make whatever links you need to to connect it up.
[16:44] We've kind of started the cycle again by adding that new keyword in.
[16:46] it sort of opened the door for some new connections to be formed.
[16:52] So now when you look at your keyword list again, you might see, okay, now that there's this new keyword that's been added in, a couple other ones feel like they naturally might be able to follow along.
[16:59] So we're going to do that one more time.
[17:01] Find maybe two or three keywords from your list that you think are meaningfully connected to the keyword that you had and then again add them to your map.
[17:10] And then now your map should be starting to get a little bit bigger, a little bit messier, a little bit harder to follow, but the connections are at least drawn on there.
[17:18] That's what you want.
[17:19] Don't worry about getting it perfect.
[17:21] getting the most accurate answer.
[17:25] Just write your ideas down, thoughts,
[17:27] hypothesis. No one's going to judge you
[17:29] on how accurate this is. So, right now,
[17:31] you should have a map that looks kind of
[17:33] messy. There's lots of things going
[17:34] around. Your lines are probably
[17:35] crossing. So, put your hands up if your
[17:37] lines are kind of crossing each other,
[17:39] arrows crossing over other arrows. Okay,
[17:41] it looks a little bit like there's lots
[17:43] going on. You should look at this and
[17:44] feel like, okay, technically the
[17:46] connections are there, but it's
[17:47] definitely not staying in my memory for
[17:48] very long. That's how you should feel
[17:49] about it looking at it right now. So,
[17:51] what we're going to do is now we're
[17:52] going to consolidate. We're going to
[17:53] simplify. So, take that. You might need
[17:56] a brand new piece of paper or but you
[17:57] want a fresh sheet. So, you've got the
[17:59] connections technically there, but it's
[18:02] a little too messy. So, what I want you
[18:03] to do is I want you to redraw those
[18:06] connections, but arrange them in a way
[18:08] so the lines aren't really crossing so
[18:10] much anymore. It sort of represents more
[18:12] of a flow that makes sense to those
[18:14] types of connections. And the other part
[18:15] is I want you to see if you can group
[18:17] some of those together. You might
[18:18] realize that two things are connected
[18:19] because they're kind of part of the same
[18:21] group of information. So, anywhere you
[18:23] can find a way to group keywords together, group them.
[18:27] And if you're feeling like, okay, this is moving ahead pretty easily, add more keywords on.
[18:30] Feel free to just keep keep that cycle going and keep trying to map it out.
[18:35] Show those connections.
[18:37] Show those directions.
[18:38] Just make them a bit more purposeful.
[18:40] If you notice that you've got one item and then lots of arrows coming out from one item, then see if you can group those.
[18:46] So instead of one item with six things coming off of it, it might be one item with two groups of things coming out off of it.
[18:52] See how you can group things together to clean it up.
[18:54] If you feel like you're able to, you might also want to make the arrows more explicit.
[18:58] Make the direction explicit.
[19:01] Is it going from left to right or is it going from, you know, top to bottom?
[19:05] Create a direction to the arrow.
[19:07] What is the nature of that relationship?
[19:09] Are there any relationships that are even stronger than others?
[19:12] Make that line thicker.
[19:15] Really prioritize which major connections really form the foundation of this topic.
[19:19] Okay, we're going to pause there for a second and I'm just going to get a sense of how it is.
[19:22] So,
[19:25] Few things.
[19:28] First of all, um, I like to do this little scale.
[19:31] So thumbs either here or here.
[19:35] So this side or that side.
[19:39] So you're on this side.
[19:43] If you felt like this is really, really easy, very, very little effort, you almost falling asleep how easy it is.
[19:46] And then over here, this is when you're like, 'Oh, I'm like really I'm having to actually really think like I'm very active mentally.'
[19:55] That's almost to the point where it's like I'm getting kind of overwhelmed with all the different things that I'm possibly thinking about here.
[19:59] How are we feeling?
[20:01] Show me in the room.
[20:02] Can you can you point it towards me so I get a sense of the direction?
[20:06] Which direction you want?
[20:07] So, so this is easy.
[20:09] This, this side of the room is easy.
[20:12] Okay.
[20:12] This side of the room is hard.
[20:14] Very cognitive challenging.
[20:15] Put them up high so I can actually clearly see where we're at.
[20:19] Okay.
[20:19] Good.
[20:19] Good.
[20:23] Uh, so, so that, that feedback is actually very, very
[20:25] important to me because that is actually
[20:26] one of the key indicators whether you're
[20:28] doing this correctly or not. You should
[20:30] not be here. You could be here but
[20:33] hopefully you're somewhere around here.
[20:35] Right? That's what we want because that
[20:37] is a sign that your brain is working.
[20:38] That is your brain learning. Um, some of
[20:42] you may have even felt, did any of you
[20:44] feel like you actually kind of able to
[20:45] enter into this sort of flow where
[20:47] you're sort of thinking about these
[20:48] ideas back and forth and there's there's
[20:50] lots of it is very back and forth.
[20:52] You're not necessarily consuming more
[20:54] information, but you can feel the
[20:58] thoughts are starting to organize
[20:59] themselves differently. You're
[21:00] challenging them in different ways. Did
[21:02] you feel that? It's at the beginning it
[21:04] can feel quite chaotic compared to how
[21:07] you might normally learn something. So,
[21:08] these are all good. And one of the most
[21:10] important things to do as a learner is
[21:12] that you have to recognize that that is
[21:14] the feeling you want. One of the most
[21:16] common reasons why people struggle to
[21:18] learn effectively is that they will feel
[21:20] that feeling that is associated with
[21:22] having to think a lot going back and
[21:23] forth and they think, "Oh, this is bad.
[21:25] Like I'm getting this is me being
[21:26] overwhelmed. I'm not doing it
[21:28] correctly." And then they so they pick
[21:29] something that's easier, right? They
[21:31] pick something that's easier. So if you
[21:33] just chuck these keywords into chatbt
[21:35] and say, "Hey, group them for me." It
[21:37] will do that in seconds. takes very
[21:39] little effort but none of that is in
[21:41] your brain. So you you have not
[21:42] developed expertise, right? So the heavy
[21:44] lifting of your brain is what creates
[21:46] the expertise. What that's what creates
[21:47] the memory and the knowledge. So you
[21:49] want to be in this band where you feel
[21:51] your brain is really active. You're
[21:53] constantly going back and forth. A
[21:55] couple of things. First of all, this map
[21:57] that you've created is just a
[21:58] representation of your thoughts. It's
[22:01] not it's not meant for accuracy. It
[22:03] doesn't have to be accurate. It's just
[22:05] helping you think. It's a tool to help
[22:07] you learn. You might draw a connection
[22:09] there and you you have no idea if that's
[22:11] truly correct or not. You try to make it
[22:13] as accurate as you can with what you
[22:15] know accepting that probably some of
[22:17] this is wrong and that's perfectly fine.
[22:20] It's the process of trying to think in
[22:22] this way that creates the learning.
[22:24] Another question as you were doing this
[22:27] did any of you have sort of questions
[22:29] come up in your mind about like does
[22:30] this even make sense? Is this really how
[22:33] it's connected or you know like could I
[22:35] group it this way? Did anyone put your
[22:37] hand up if you sort of had some of these
[22:39] questions as you were doing this? Okay,
[22:40] so that's great. So that is now your
[22:42] brain telling you this is the gap that I
[22:45] need to fill to create a schema. So that
[22:48] is the highest yield thing that your
[22:50] brain right now is ready to catch.
[22:52] Right? So if I do this, okay, ready? I'm
[22:55] going to throw this to you. Okay, you
[22:56] need to catch. Okay, ready?
[23:00] >> Why didn't you catch it? Yeah, thank
[23:02] you. Sorry. Sorry for throwing that to
[23:04] But um yeah, that's the idea is that
[23:05] your brain is saying yes, I'm ready. I
[23:07] want to know this. I have a question.
[23:09] This is the gap. You're trying to create
[23:11] a schema. I'm trying to create a schema.
[23:12] There's a gap. I need to cross this. And
[23:14] then if you at that point say, okay,
[23:16] well, page two of the book says this.
[23:18] And it's a totally different paragraph.
[23:19] Your brain is like, what the hell, dude?
[23:21] Like I'm I was waiting right here. And
[23:22] now you've given it something completely
[23:24] random. You've broken your flow. You're
[23:26] not building a schema anymore. That's
[23:27] kind of fading away. So you will feel
[23:31] this happening. Oh, it's it's really
[23:33] easy now. Oh, I don't have to think
[23:34] about it anymore. So, it feels really
[23:36] easy. It feels really passive. It feels
[23:38] really ineffective.
[23:40] Right? So, this cycle, what we're doing
[23:43] is we're taking a bunch of ideas. We're
[23:46] seeing how it could connect together.
[23:47] We're forming hypotheses that we're
[23:49] going to change and gain accuracy over
[23:51] time. And then in doing that, we're
[23:53] starting to understand how it might fit
[23:55] together as a big picture. And then
[23:57] we're realizing the gaps in our
[23:59] knowledge. we're we're seeing the things
[24:01] we need to really look up that we need
[24:03] to learn a little bit more about. And so
[24:04] we go and do that and that becomes the
[24:06] next thing we consume. And then we know
[24:08] how to consolidate that and we work with
[24:09] that. And everything we add on it opens
[24:11] up the door for other things to be added
[24:13] on. And we continue to do that. And
[24:15] anytime we feel like, oh, it's getting
[24:17] too messy, it's hard to follow. We just
[24:19] pause. We just try to clean it up, make
[24:21] the lines a little bit clearer, group
[24:23] ideas that can be grouped, simplify a
[24:26] few things. And that is basically the
[24:28] fundamental process of how you can force
[24:29] connections with anything that you can
[24:32] learn. You can use that on a piece of
[24:34] paper. You can do that on an iPad. When
[24:35] you get good enough, you can just do it
[24:37] purely mentally for quite a large amount
[24:38] of content. Um, and and you don't even
[24:41] need the the notes as an adjunct. So,
[24:43] I'm going to give us a little bit more
[24:44] time to practice this because I I really
[24:45] the most important thing is that you
[24:47] really feel what it feels like. Tanzir
[24:49] is also going to just walk around and
[24:50] just have a look at your work. Give you
[24:51] a couple little tips here and there if
[24:53] you're getting stuck. If you also
[24:54] feeling like you're not sure how to move
[24:56] on, you can put your hand up and I'll
[24:58] come help you. But do does anyone have
[25:01] any questions about this technique so
[25:03] far or how they might apply it in
[25:04] different areas? I think it's really
[25:06] important that you have clarity on at
[25:07] least what you're trying to do so that
[25:09] you can really focus on just executing
[25:11] on it.
[25:12] >> When you're talking about drawing arrows
[25:14] in certain directions to establish
[25:15] purpose behind the relationship, do you
[25:17] also label those what I think of as like
[25:19] edges to say what the relationship is
[25:21] about or why it's related?
[25:22] >> Yeah, good question. You don't have to.
[25:24] You don't have to. So, what I found is
[25:26] that um when you're creating a map,
[25:28] you're always balancing real estate
[25:30] versus meaning. So, you want the map to
[25:33] be as simple as possible with this few
[25:36] things going on so that when you look at
[25:38] it, you can just see, ah, this is what
[25:40] the knowledge is. And eventually, when
[25:42] you have a big enough thing, your
[25:44] knowledge is going to look quite unique
[25:46] and different. The way you've organized
[25:48] and structured is going to be different.
[25:49] I can guarantee if you look at your
[25:50] neighbors maps, they don't look like
[25:52] yours do. And that's normal because the
[25:54] knowledge and the content and the topic
[25:56] is different. And even if the topic is
[25:57] the same, the way you think about it and
[26:00] the way it makes sense for you is going
[26:01] to be different. So what I found is that
[26:05] adding information onto the map to
[26:07] represent what the arrow means is not
[26:10] valuable because you will already
[26:12] remember that in the process of just
[26:14] thinking about what that relationship is
[26:16] and creating the arrow or how big or
[26:18] thick it is. Okay, let's do let's do a
[26:20] little bit more of this. Okay, so what I
[26:22] want you to try to do is just remember
[26:23] that cycle, right? So we've got
[26:25] keywords. So what we're going to do is
[26:27] we're going to
[26:29] consume information
[26:32] Right? That consumption is going to come
[26:34] from your keywords or if you would like
[26:37] you can pull out your phone or whatever
[26:38] it is and actually just look it up.
[26:41] You're going to consume information and
[26:43] then from that you're going to then map
[26:45] out the connections
[26:47] very rough and then you're going to get
[26:50] a sense of when it feels like it's too
[26:52] much,
[26:54] it's too messy,
[26:57] you're getting overwhelmed.
[26:59] Be conscious of that. Keep that in your
[27:01] mind. When you feel like you've hit the
[27:03] limit, oh, it's getting too
[27:04] overwhelming. There's too much going on.
[27:06] We're going to stop. We're going to
[27:08] simplify. We're going to condense that
[27:11] information down. We're going to tidy up
[27:13] the arrows. We're going to rearrange
[27:14] things. So, that process of doing your
[27:16] mind map, you're going to do that again
[27:17] and again and again. It's very, very
[27:19] normal. If I'm learning a big complex
[27:21] topic, within one hour, I might
[27:22] regenerate my mind map seven or eight
[27:23] times, right? And every time you
[27:25] regenerate it, your knowledge is getting
[27:27] better and better. The clarity is
[27:29] improving. So, you're going to simplify
[27:30] it. You're going to keep simplifying it
[27:32] until this is no longer true. You're
[27:34] going to simplify until you can look at
[27:36] it and think, "Yeah, this makes sense to
[27:38] me now. Feels clear. Feels pretty
[27:40] intuitive. Not overwhelmed anymore." And
[27:42] then you're going to take in your next
[27:43] round of consumption. You might have
[27:45] questions. If you have questions, look
[27:47] them up. If you don't have any
[27:48] questions, then just add on the next
[27:49] keyword that you think might be
[27:51] meaningful. And you're going to repeat
[27:53] this cycle.
[27:55] Okay? Remember, accuracy here will
[27:58] happen over time, but keep up the pace.
[28:00] Keep your brain active. Don't let it get
[28:02] stuck on making the best perfect group
[28:05] and the best perfect relationship
[28:06] immediately. It will just happen. Keep
[28:08] in flow. If one keyword is just too hard
[28:10] for you to connect, just move on to a
[28:11] different keyword. Eventually, you will
[28:13] figure out where it fits. And just keep
[28:15] that pace going. Let's see how that
[28:17] goes. Try it for about five or five to
[28:20] seven minutes and then we're going to go
[28:22] into some further applications of this
[28:23] technique. By the way, I previously did
[28:26] a workshop on this. Um,
[28:29] and I said, "Okay, I'm just going to
[28:30] give you 15 minutes to do this for like
[28:32] 20 or 25 keywords." And the guy ended up
[28:36] being in flow for an entire hour. And
[28:38] then I stopped him afterwards and he was
[28:39] like, "Oh, but it hasn't been 15 minutes
[28:41] yet."
[28:42] Uh, so when you when you really get into
[28:44] this, you know, you will feel that your
[28:46] brain is actually operating at a certain
[28:47] pitch. All right, five or six five or
[28:50] six minutes. Let's go. As I look around,
[28:52] I can see that there are some of you who
[28:54] are struggling to really connect it
[28:55] together. So, here's what I do. Okay? If
[28:59] you're struggling to connect it
[29:00] together, here's what we're going to do.
[29:02] Take a word and then form a connection.
[29:06] Three, two, one. Draw the line like
[29:09] immediately. Draw it. Just draw it. Draw
[29:10] it now. Draw it. Stop. Don't draw it.
[29:13] Hurry up. Draw it. Yeah. Good.
[29:14] [laughter]
[29:15] Pick another one. Three, two, one. Draw
[29:18] a connection. Do it. Do it. Do it. Yeah.
[29:21] So that pace of just forming connection,
[29:24] a bad schema that's totally wrong in
[29:26] every way is better than no schema at
[29:28] all. It is always easier to build on
[29:31] something that is connected but can be
[29:34] more accurate than to build on nothing.
[29:37] So this this is what we were trying to
[29:38] do just now. Um and you know, especially
[29:41] when you're when you're first starting
[29:42] this, it's not an easy thing to do. It's
[29:45] it's very a very conscious active mental
[29:48] process. That's totally normal. it will
[29:49] get easier over time. Eventually, it
[29:51] will become so instinctive to the way
[29:53] that you process information that um you
[29:56] you won't be able to really learn any
[29:57] other other way. So, for me to learn
[30:00] information now, all the stuff that I'm
[30:01] teaching you is is very automatic. But
[30:03] obviously, when I was 17 years old, it
[30:05] was super not automatic. So, for me to
[30:08] learn how I used to would take me a lot
[30:09] of effort. I really have to concentrate
[30:11] to be able to learn like I used to learn
[30:14] when I was 17 just because those habits
[30:15] are completely gone. So, even if it
[30:16] feels difficult, don't worry about that.
[30:18] What I want to know though is whether
[30:20] there's accuracy with technique. So
[30:23] again, we're trying to consume it, then
[30:24] we're mapping it out. So this part
[30:26] taking ideas and then just getting it
[30:29] into some kind of map. So let's do that
[30:32] test again. This is uh this is like not
[30:36] successful, finding it really hard to do
[30:38] it this side. And this is actually yeah
[30:42] like really easy able to just swiftly
[30:44] just take ideas, start mapping them out,
[30:46] draw relationships, draw connections.
[30:48] How do we feel about your your ability
[30:50] to do that part of the process?
[30:54] Okay. So, we want to be able to have
[30:56] this part moving fairly quickly. This is
[30:59] just a decision. We just decide to be
[31:02] fast. We we it's you can't get accuracy
[31:05] on this. Like the only the only way to
[31:08] do this badly is to not do it. So, this
[31:11] is purely a decision. It's just you
[31:13] keeping the standard in your mind that
[31:14] accuracy from the beginning is not where
[31:16] we need to go. What we need right now is
[31:18] speed, quantity of those relationships.
[31:20] And when it's on paper, you can think
[31:23] about it faster. It's much easier to
[31:24] think about those things and think about
[31:25] it in your head. Your brain is
[31:26] incredibly powerful, but it's not very
[31:28] good at that kind of mental tracking. So
[31:31] this part, we want to keep that
[31:32] relatively fast. You just continue doing
[31:35] that until it feels messy. How many of
[31:38] you So again, this to this are we able
[31:41] to detect when it's getting too messy?
[31:44] when it's like a little overwhelming,
[31:47] there's too much going on, I need to
[31:48] pause. Are we able to catch ourselves
[31:50] when this happens here to here? How are
[31:52] we feeling about that part?
[31:55] Okay, so this side of the room is like
[31:57] feel feeling really hard. This part is
[31:59] this side is really easy.
[32:03] Okay, so this one this just means that
[32:05] as you're learning, you just have a part
[32:07] of your brain that's keeping track of
[32:09] how it feels, right? when it's really
[32:12] really requiring a lot when you feel
[32:14] like there's so much I don't really know
[32:16] what to do then that's your sign you're
[32:18] entering into overload you take a pause
[32:21] and then you simplify right then as we
[32:23] simplify this is the usually the hardest
[32:25] part we're able to take that
[32:27] overwhelming volume and we're able to
[32:30] rearrange it we're able to group it we
[32:33] can simplify it we can clean those
[32:35] connections up until we get to a point
[32:37] where it feels like it makes more sense
[32:39] now [clears throat] how we feeling about
[32:41] that? This side of the room is really,
[32:43] really hard. This side of the room is
[32:45] very easy. Where are we feeling about
[32:48] that one?
[32:51] Okay, so this one is the one that you
[32:53] get better with with practice. You just
[32:55] hold yourself to that standard. So, here
[32:56] is where you have to have a high
[32:58] standard. Low standard, just get stuff
[33:01] down. Go, go, go, go, go. Getting
[33:02] overwhelmed. High standard. Try to
[33:05] simplify it, group it together, piece it
[33:06] together. Here is where the learning
[33:08] happens. This is just preparation for
[33:10] this. And then this part is where we're
[33:13] forming schemas, consolidating
[33:14] information, developing expertise. So
[33:16] the more of your time, if you're
[33:18] spending an hour learning something, if
[33:20] you can spend 45 of those minutes on
[33:22] this and 15 of those minutes on just
[33:24] doing this part, then it means you're
[33:26] going to have a very high efficiency
[33:29] high efficiency of learning.
[33:32] >> Dan, I think you were about to have a
[33:33] question. Yeah.
[33:35] >> Kind of draw it to another analogy.
[33:36] They're kind of like dealing with a
[33:38] really messy cupboard where your mapping
[33:39] is literally just pulling everything
[33:40] out, dumping it so you can see the lay
[33:42] of what's there. And when there's too
[33:43] much to deal with, that's when you start
[33:44] to group and organize and reorganize,
[33:47] put things back.
[33:48] >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. The analogy I
[33:50] usually give, and I think this is the
[33:51] perfect analogy for learning and solving
[33:52] a jigsaw puzzle. When you open up a
[33:54] jigsaw puzzle, it's just pieces. They're
[33:55] individual pieces that you don't know
[33:57] how they connect together, but you know
[33:58] it connects somehow. There is a picture
[34:00] that it forms, but you just don't know
[34:02] what it is. and you don't know that the
[34:04] one you pick up is going to you don't
[34:05] know where it's going to go. And just
[34:07] because you pick it up doesn't mean you
[34:08] know where to place it. So sometimes you
[34:10] pick it up and you just put it back down
[34:11] again because you have no idea where
[34:12] it's meant to go. And so the strategy is
[34:15] get the pieces out and then start
[34:19] arranging and grouping and organizing
[34:21] somehow. Start with the frame, start
[34:23] with the borders, group it by colors,
[34:25] group it by interesting pattern. It it
[34:27] doesn't even really matter, but group it
[34:29] somehow. And then slowly whichever part
[34:32] feels the easiest like you can form a
[34:34] picture out of just do it because
[34:36] everything you do that means there are
[34:37] less pieces left in the box for you to
[34:39] deal with. And the more that is forming
[34:41] a picture here the easier it is to see
[34:43] where it fits. And that piece that you
[34:45] initially picked up that you looked at
[34:46] was extremely random. You have no idea
[34:48] where it goes cuz it's the same shade of
[34:50] blue as every other piece. You look at
[34:51] that and you realize, oh, this shade of
[34:53] blue has a one pixel white dot on it
[34:55] that I know exactly. I've been looking
[34:57] for this pixel white dot and you know
[34:58] exactly where that fits. That's what it
[35:00] feels like when you're building that
[35:02] knowledge. But what most people do is
[35:03] they pick up a piece and they're like,
[35:04] "Okay, memorize everything about this
[35:07] piece, like ingrain this into my mind.
[35:11] Put it away. Do I remember it? Put it
[35:13] away. Do I What about now?" And you pick
[35:14] up the next piece, you know, and you
[35:16] just continue doing that. Six or seven
[35:18] pieces later, if your memory is amazing,
[35:20] eight pieces later, you've forgotten
[35:23] everything. It's it's overwhelming. And
[35:24] it's insane to expect that your brain
[35:26] could hold on to that with that
[35:28] approach, right? So when you think about
[35:30] like a jigsaw puzzle, it's it doesn't
[35:32] make sense to use that strategy. And
[35:33] learning is exactly the same thing. Your
[35:35] brain is undergoing a very very very
[35:36] very similar process, right? Yeah, good
[35:40] question. Good analogy. Any other
[35:42] questions or reflections from what was
[35:44] that?
[35:44] >> Are we able to do it again? I'm
[35:46] [laughter]
[35:48] >> you're in the flow.
[35:48] >> Oh my god, I have an idea.
[35:49] >> You're too deep in the flow. Come back
[35:52] to us, Grace.
[35:53] >> Go to the light.
[35:55] No, that's that's good. like when you're
[35:57] really getting sucked into it, you can
[35:58] feel that, you know, things are things
[35:59] are flowing. Does anyone have any, you
[36:02] know, procedural questions about this?
[36:04] An aspect about an instruction that I
[36:05] gave you that was not clear to you or
[36:07] that you did it and you felt like, you
[36:08] know, Justin, you said that it was going
[36:10] to be this effective, but when I did it,
[36:11] it it felt very different to me. That's
[36:13] important. This should work
[36:16] biologically. This I can I can promise
[36:19] you I've taught this thousands of times.
[36:21] Every single person I teach this to, it
[36:23] will work. So if you did it and you felt
[36:24] like it didn't work, we can improve that
[36:26] technique. It will 100% work.
[36:28] >> With the simplify step, how do you
[36:31] validate that you haven't oversimplified
[36:32] it and just because you recently done
[36:33] it, it makes sense to you, but tomorrow
[36:35] it doesn't.
[36:37] >> It's it's actually hard to oversimplify
[36:39] and you don't you usually don't have to
[36:41] worry about that because one part of it
[36:42] is that uh you can also test yourself on
[36:44] that knowledge later anyway.
[36:46] >> Yeah. So I mean this is kind of a good
[36:50] uh little segue. I'll just really
[36:52] quickly go through this because um it's
[36:54] kind of when you think about that
[36:55] learning system. So there is this
[36:57] initial part which is the consumption
[37:04] right so this is when you're just taking
[37:05] in information and the next part of it
[37:07] is that processing so sometimes I call
[37:09] that digestion
[37:13] but then
[37:15] I mean like it's kind of gross but it's
[37:17] like there's like a regurgitation aspect
[37:19] of this as well but I'm just going to
[37:20] call it testing
[37:24] every time you eat too much and you
[37:26] vomit, you'll be like, I'm just testing
[37:27] my [laughter]
[37:28] I'm just testing my food. Yep, still
[37:31] there.
[37:33] Um, so this this is kind of the overall
[37:35] flow. So every learning system should
[37:38] have these components. Now, normally the
[37:39] consumption part is not an issue. So
[37:41] what you need to get right with this is
[37:42] that your consumption and digestion are
[37:44] balanced. That's that's the key part is
[37:46] that these two things need to be
[37:47] balanced. So anytime you enter into a a
[37:50] process where the consumption is too
[37:52] high compared to your ability to digest
[37:54] and that is skill dependent and
[37:55] knowledge dependent like the more you
[37:57] know about a topic the more you can
[37:58] consume until you get overloaded right
[38:00] whereas a brand new subject you a very
[38:02] small amount can overload you straight
[38:04] away. So most people grossly
[38:06] overestimate the amount that they can
[38:08] consume right they're they're horrible
[38:10] overeaters. So you consume while keeping
[38:13] in mind your ability to digest it. That
[38:15] digestion is this process. This is
[38:17] consumption digestion consumption
[38:18] digestion.
[38:20] So the digestion part the way to do this
[38:23] correctly is making sure that you use
[38:24] the techniques that I just taught you to
[38:26] simplify and again those techniques are
[38:27] just the base. You can then evolve those
[38:29] many many levels beyond what I've taught
[38:30] you to increase efficiency but you know
[38:33] keeping good fidelity of that technique
[38:35] here. And then the testing part is
[38:37] saying even if you do this perfectly
[38:40] your brain will always win and that you
[38:43] will forget things and your knowledge
[38:44] will have gaps. it's it's inevitable,
[38:46] right? There's there's no way to avoid
[38:48] it. So, we need to make sure that we are
[38:50] testing ourselves on that knowledge in
[38:51] some way. Now, there are there's a
[38:53] spectrum of testing. There's very formal
[38:55] testing, which is actually having like
[38:58] questions for yourself to test, creating
[39:00] flashcards for yourself, you know, doing
[39:02] a quiz. That's a very structured type of
[39:04] test. But there are also types of tests
[39:06] that are very organic or how I call it,
[39:09] there's a win-win type of testing,
[39:10] especially in a professional setting.
[39:12] So, let's say you learn about a new uh a
[39:16] new type of technology that you can
[39:17] apply for your work. It's going to help
[39:19] you solve a lot of different problems
[39:20] and you've digested it and you you
[39:22] really understand it. Now, you need to
[39:24] test it. So, you might the next day call
[39:26] a meeting with a few of your team and
[39:29] then say, "Hey, I learned this really
[39:30] interesting thing. I'm going to teach it
[39:31] to you because I feel like all of us
[39:32] should understand this." So, that
[39:34] teaching opportunity for you is not only
[39:36] great for your team, it's you testing
[39:37] your own knowledge, right? So you've
[39:40] created a testing situation for yourself
[39:42] that's beneficial for developing your
[39:43] expertise while at the same time
[39:45] creating benefit for other people as
[39:47] well because probably you teaching it to
[39:49] them after having digested it really
[39:50] well is actually going to make more
[39:52] sense than trying to learn it by
[39:53] themselves especially if they're
[39:54] untrained in in this stuff. You can also
[39:57] test it just by the natural work that
[40:00] you're doing. There are probably
[40:01] decisions that you're making, problems
[40:02] that you're solving on an everyday basis
[40:04] that is the reason why you are learning
[40:06] this in the first place. So you can
[40:08] think about the natural things that you
[40:10] need to do as part of your work and say
[40:11] okay this is me testing myself if it's
[40:15] not enough you can ask like how can I
[40:17] test myself even more like how can I
[40:19] increase that opportunity or if there
[40:21] are little gaps how can I fill those
[40:23] gaps so you might be doing a lot of
[40:24] highle planning but you're not really
[40:26] using a lot of that small technical
[40:28] detailed information on a daily basis
[40:30] cool so just focus your testing on the
[40:33] little detailed parts that would
[40:34] normally slip through the cracks and
[40:36] that's where you could use little things
[40:37] like you know flashcards or whatever
[40:39] little other other technique that you
[40:40] want to use. But every learning system
[40:44] should be composed of balanced
[40:46] consumption, accurate digestion and
[40:49] comprehensive testing whether this is
[40:51] happening naturally as part of your work
[40:53] or as part of a conscious effort too. So
[40:56] you can look at your own ability to
[40:59] perform with knowledge and then ask
[41:01] yourself where the biggest bottleneck
[41:03] is. If you are feeling like you're
[41:05] overwhelmed with too much information
[41:06] all the time, then this is too high or
[41:09] this is too low too too low or low
[41:11] quality. 99% of people that's it. That
[41:14] that's where bang forbuck is going to
[41:16] be. And this is the thing that takes a
[41:17] long time to get good at. If you feel
[41:19] like you're getting to a really good
[41:20] level of understanding, you've got that
[41:22] expertise, you've developed it, like you
[41:24] are good with that knowledge, but then
[41:26] when it comes to actually performing
[41:27] with that knowledge, for some reason,
[41:29] you're not able to recall it as well as
[41:30] you wanted to recall it. there are
[41:32] little gaps that you're discovering
[41:33] later down the line, you need to up your
[41:34] testing and then you up your testing and
[41:37] then you realize where your next
[41:37] bottleneck is. It's actually very
[41:39] simple. So, when I coach a coach any
[41:40] type of learning, whether they're a
[41:41] student uh or a working professional
[41:43] with, you know, decades of experience,
[41:45] all I have to do is just ask them a
[41:46] series of questions. Where are you
[41:47] finding the problem? Where's your
[41:49] current barrier? And that tells me very
[41:51] accurately where to focus in on, right?
[41:53] But again, for most people, it's just
[41:54] going to be about balancing. So, there's
[41:55] a couple things um couple more things I
[41:57] want to talk about, which is just ways
[41:59] of applying this technique in slightly
[42:01] different ways. Um, but I'm wondering uh
[42:04] would it be helpful for you guys for me
[42:06] to do a demonstration of the technique
[42:07] that I just showed you? I can just learn
[42:09] any topic you want me to learn on the
[42:11] spot and I'll just show you how I do it
[42:13] if it would help you to get a sense for
[42:15] it. Yep, I'm seeing some nods. So, if
[42:17] you just give me a topic and I'll just
[42:18] show you what I do.
[42:19] >> What about?
[42:22] >> Yeah, we can we can go through. I have
[42:24] been studying it a little bit. So, but
[42:26] um usually because I do tend to do
[42:28] things for accountants a lot of times.
[42:29] Uh anything to do with accounting I'm
[42:30] just like pretty bad at.
[42:32] >> GST.
[42:33] >> Great. I hate it.
[42:36] >> Let's let's learn about it. Okay. So,
[42:37] what about GST?
[42:40] >> So, give me give me the give me the word
[42:41] to start with. GST.
[42:43] >> So, oh like
[42:44] >> yeah, give me the words.
[42:45] >> No, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah, I do know
[42:47] enough to know what it stands for.
[42:50] Um so, I had here taxable supply.
[42:53] >> Okay.
[42:56] Yep. Keep going.
[42:57] >> Um,
[42:59] GST credits.
[43:00] >> Credits.
[43:02] >> GST free items.
[43:05] >> Okay. Yep.
[43:06] >> Then there's um what it applies to like
[43:09] motor vehicles.
[43:10] >> So application. Can I call that?
[43:13] Applications.
[43:14] >> Okay.
[43:15] >> Then you got like atto.
[43:17] >> Yeah.
[43:20] >> Companies.
[43:22] >> Yep.
[43:26] business owners.
[43:28] >> Okay.
[43:30] >> And then just like taxpayers.
[43:33] >> Okay.
[43:42] Any Let's get two more.
[43:46] >> Okay. Any Let's get two more.
[43:46] >> Say cash flow
[43:52] >> payment.
[43:59] Okay, let's just say paint plans here.
[44:02] Okay, so that's just my very rough map
[44:04] of like random ideas as you were
[44:06] speaking that it's kind of like I don't
[44:08] know if it's right, but don't really
[44:09] care. So there's a couple things that
[44:11] for me stick out because I actually
[44:12] don't know what taxable supply means. So
[44:14] what does that mean?
[44:15] >> So it's a good that um you'd have to pay
[44:18] tax on. Okay. So, it's like a eligible
[44:20] like something that you would have to
[44:21] Okay. So, Okay. So, so I'm seeing that
[44:24] there's a link between taxable supply
[44:25] and GST free. Is that is that the case?
[44:28] Is there a link between So, if if
[44:29] something is GST free, does that mean
[44:30] that it does it it is not something
[44:32] that's taxable supply?
[44:33] >> Yeah, that's right.
[44:33] >> Basically, okay.
[44:34] >> Like the opposite,
[44:35] >> right? Okay. So, that I can see could
[44:37] connect into here. So, that so this and
[44:40] this are going to be connected together.
[44:42] And I think that's really kind of
[44:42] talking about uh eligibility is really
[44:45] the word that I'm looking for there. So,
[44:47] I'm going to have something that's
[44:47] called eligibility.
[44:50] And then from here, there's going to be
[44:52] free versus taxable supply.
[44:55] >> Okay. Um,
[44:57] what what where does cash flow fit into
[44:58] this? Why is that? How is that related
[45:00] to the situation?
[45:02] >> So, I think because what I'm explaining
[45:03] is the clients, they don't they don't
[45:05] understand it themselves. And what
[45:07] happens is they end up spending the
[45:09] money that they should have actually
[45:10] given to the ATO,
[45:12] >> I think. And then because they're
[45:13] actually meant to hold 10%
[45:15] >> right
[45:16] >> of what they're selling,
[45:17] >> right? So this this cash flow part is
[45:19] relevant because it's about how the
[45:20] business themselves actually manages
[45:22] their own finances in order to meet
[45:24] their GST obligations, right? So
[45:26] actually it's like kind of GST applies
[45:27] to certain things. Okay. Credits. Tell
[45:29] me about credits.
[45:30] >> Credits they'll they get back GST
[45:32] credits on things that they bought that
[45:34] has GST on.
[45:35] >> Right. Okay. So So this applies part is
[45:38] probably this eligibility. So that's
[45:40] kind of the same thing. So this and this
[45:42] probably should be here.
[45:44] >> Yeah.
[45:45] >> Free versus taxable supply. And then
[45:47] when you spend it, you're going to get
[45:49] these credits. But actually there's a
[45:51] part that's kind of bigger here which is
[45:53] kind of about your financial
[45:55] >> finance management I think.
[45:57] >> And then this is actually about your
[45:58] cash flow management as well as the
[46:01] credits that you can have. And when you
[46:03] do do it, you have to pay it back to the
[46:04] ATO which is here. And probably you can
[46:06] pay that with a payment plan, right?
[46:07] >> Yeah.
[46:08] >> Okay. So this I can get rid of on this
[46:11] side.
[46:15] Okay, I don't need this anymore.
[46:18] I rearrange that. What does that say?
[46:20] Taxpayers. Oh, what does taxpayers have
[46:22] to do with this?
[46:23] >> So that's just us like as consumers. So
[46:26] because the the overall tax is meant to
[46:28] get passed down to the consumer,
[46:29] >> right? So it's like you give it to the
[46:30] ATO and then that's going to go.
[46:33] >> So the the taxpayer pays
[46:35] >> as the good. Yeah, they're pretty much
[46:37] buying it from the business,
[46:39] >> right? Okay.
[46:40] >> And the business is meant to hold it to
[46:42] the
[46:42] >> Yeah. So, I see. So, I I feel like in my
[46:45] mind there's some kind of business
[46:46] versus payer kind of balance here. So, I
[46:49] almost wonder if it's actually worth
[46:50] having something that's kind of like h
[46:53] GST.
[46:55] So, I almost wonder if there's actually
[46:58] an element of like the business versus
[47:01] the payer.
[47:02] >> Yeah. Consumer. Yes.
[47:03] >> Um, and you know whether that then
[47:06] connects with something else again
[47:07] because obviously business connects with
[47:08] the finance management part here. So
[47:10] maybe what I would do is I would
[47:11] rearrange this. So instead of being up
[47:13] here, I actually swing it down so it's
[47:15] down here. It'll be easier to connect it
[47:17] later. But then this payer thing like is
[47:19] there much more to do with this or is
[47:20] this literally going to be the only
[47:21] keyword because if it is, then I don't
[47:22] need this to be its own whole new
[47:24] concept. I can try to chuck it somewhere
[47:26] else, you know? So these are the types
[47:27] of thoughts that I'm having in terms of
[47:28] how to arrange it. But do you sort of
[47:30] see how a sign is take a certain type of
[47:32] shape?
[47:33] >> Right? I mean, you may not all be
[47:35] thrilled about GST. Um, probably no more
[47:37] thrilled than I am. But, um, you know,
[47:40] compared to starting with this and
[47:42] getting to this where I can look at this
[47:43] and even if it's not completely correct,
[47:45] I can look at this and feel like, yep,
[47:46] that makes a lot of sense to me. That's
[47:49] fairly intuitive. I feel very logical.
[47:51] I'm fairly confident that if I rub that
[47:53] out, I can reproduce like 90% of that
[47:55] from memory without really having to
[47:56] spend too much effort. And that took all
[47:58] of what you know two two three minutes
[48:00] you know to do that right so it's not
[48:02] it's not technically difficult it's just
[48:04] that I'm not letting myself get stuck in
[48:06] just oh what is this what is this I'm
[48:08] just saying oh it might be this it might
[48:10] be connected here or maybe that's here
[48:11] and I'm just looking for opportunities I
[48:13] can simplify and group it
[48:14] >> so you sort of keep moving on the go
[48:16] >> I'm just keep keeping moving so that
[48:17] that pace that I was doing right now
[48:19] it's a little bit faster because I can
[48:20] just ask a question and you tell me
[48:22] straight away but honestly like these
[48:24] days just ask chat and it gives you the
[48:25] answer is basically the same Right. So
[48:28] that that is this process of exactly
[48:30] what I did. This is exactly what I would
[48:32] just do when I'm learning something.
[48:35] Right? And you can just keep doing this
[48:36] like you 50 or 100 keywords later, you
[48:38] can just keep doing it. And all that
[48:40] happens is that your map gets denser and
[48:42] more intricate and there's more
[48:43] structures and layers that are added
[48:45] added on top of it. And then you you
[48:47] know you should feel that as you are
[48:48] learning more and more, it's getting
[48:50] easier and easier and easier because
[48:51] you're getting more and more anchor
[48:52] points. If you feel like you're learning
[48:53] more and more and you're getting more
[48:54] overwhelmed, it means that your
[48:56] consumption is too high compared to your
[48:58] digestion part.
[49:00] Okay. Did anyone have any questions
[49:01] about the way that I was just doing
[49:02] that? Any differences to how you were
[49:04] doing that? Any questions you want to
[49:06] ask about this?
[49:09] Feeling pretty confident. Did you have a
[49:11] question?
[49:11] >> I was just going to say like I'm
[49:12] assuming this is just one tool. Like you
[49:15] couldn't have read your 200 pages before
[49:17] and done this on the fly and memorized
[49:19] it just like that. actually for just
[49:21] that book I did. You did?
[49:23] >> Yeah. So, it's a power like this is
[49:25] probably powerful enough that um you
[49:28] know if you just learn to do this really
[49:30] well it it could be that this alone is
[49:32] enough for you to surpass every learning
[49:34] related challenge you will ever have. Um
[49:36] so it's it's it scales quite high with
[49:39] your with your level of skill. There are
[49:41] other techniques that you can add on
[49:43] little adjunks and especially once you
[49:45] start getting to that diminishing return
[49:46] point where your skill level is really
[49:48] good. There are tiny tiny little
[49:49] optimizations depending on the context
[49:51] and the type of knowledge and the way
[49:53] you need to use it that makes little 1
[49:55] 2% adjustments and those things do stack
[49:57] up. You know you you can get a lot of
[50:00] improvement just through that. But most
[50:01] people just getting that, you know, high
[50:04] yield improvement of just learning to do
[50:06] this like bread and butter is going to
[50:08] be a complete lifecher in how they can
[50:10] process information. I mean, if you're
[50:11] sitting there in a meeting and you're
[50:12] learning something for the first time,
[50:14] talking to a client, you know, whatever
[50:15] it is, and you're just sitting there and
[50:16] they're talking to you and you're just
[50:17] like collecting information and mapping
[50:19] it out and you're like, "Okay, yeah, I
[50:21] have six questions that I need to ask
[50:22] you." And then the questions you ask are
[50:24] just so targeted and so pertinent. It
[50:26] just shows you exactly that you know how
[50:28] to think about it. That is first of all
[50:29] very impressive. That creates a lot of
[50:31] trust in the person. They know they know
[50:33] that you are thinking deeply about it
[50:34] and it means that you walk away from
[50:36] that with usable knowledge, not just
[50:39] damn I need to spend an hour later going
[50:41] over my notes to figure out what just
[50:42] happened.
[50:44] >> Yeah.
[50:44] >> I have a question about I mean this is
[50:45] obviously fantastic for kind of building
[50:47] relational knowledge. Uh what how do you
[50:51] approach it when you get to the point
[50:53] where you're reaching like discrete
[50:55] facts?
[50:55] >> Very technical, very detailed stuff.
[50:57] Yeah, good question. So, there's two
[50:59] things about that. The first thing is
[51:00] that most of the things that we think we
[51:03] have to memorize because they're so un
[51:04] disconnected and discreet.
[51:06] [clears throat] It's just that we
[51:07] haven't found the connection for it. And
[51:09] so, I always say that don't make the
[51:11] judgment on whether it needs to be
[51:12] memorized or whether it can be connected
[51:14] based on how you feel about it when you
[51:16] first interact with it. When you have
[51:17] that jigsaw piece and you first pull it
[51:19] up, every single piece feels
[51:21] disconnected. But some of those like at
[51:23] least half of those you will be able to
[51:25] look it up like look at it and then it
[51:27] will connect. So it could just be that
[51:29] it's only discreet and irrelevant for
[51:31] you at your current point of learning.
[51:34] >> Have you done a a PhD or
[51:36] >> no? Uh have you done like you've done
[51:38] research you're published right? So like
[51:40] when you do when you do research and
[51:41] you're doing some kind of like
[51:41] literature review you you gain very deep
[51:43] knowledge about this singular thing that
[51:45] probably no one else really cares about
[51:47] you know and you become really
[51:48] passionate about this one tiny little
[51:49] thing. Those little discrete facts are
[51:52] relevant for you. So when someone tells
[51:54] you, hey, there's been this new solution
[51:57] that's come out that changes the
[51:58] chemical composition of this one little
[52:00] thing by like a tiny little fraction. No
[52:02] one else cares. No one else sees why
[52:03] that's relevant. But when you look at
[52:05] you think, oh wow, that that's
[52:06] significant because that means that
[52:07] instead of doing it in this process, I
[52:09] could actually change it to do this
[52:10] process. Like you know that might mean,
[52:11] you know, you can see those implications
[52:13] and that's just because you have the
[52:14] relevant anchor points. So the first
[52:16] thing is try to build the anchor points
[52:18] and then after you've done your best
[52:20] attempt at really connecting it
[52:21] together, then see what's left. Those
[52:23] are the true discrete details where
[52:26] either it's so far from what you need to
[52:28] know that to get there would just take
[52:31] way too long or it truly is a very
[52:33] irrelevant detail that you need to know
[52:35] purely probably because you're going to
[52:36] get assessed on it.
[52:38] >> Um and for those details, smash them
[52:40] into flashcards.
[52:42] >> Van had a question about bullet points a
[52:44] bit earlier. Oh, is this about was this
[52:46] a question about um when you're reading
[52:48] like a book and you're
[52:49] >> Yeah. Okay, cool. I'll get into that.
[52:51] So, the question the question that Ben
[52:53] had uh and this is like such a common
[52:56] situation to find yourself in is that
[52:58] when you are taking in information, it's
[52:59] coming at you linearly. Obviously, when
[53:01] I say create a list of keywords, you
[53:03] know, it's it's all omniirectional. You
[53:05] can cut, you know, start anywhere, but
[53:06] when you're reading a book, there's a
[53:08] beginning and an end. So, this is
[53:09] related to a topic that I call order
[53:11] control. It's a method called order
[53:12] control. It basically says that you take
[53:14] control of the order in which you learn
[53:16] it. So you can be reading a book.
[53:18] There's a couple things that you could
[53:19] do. You could, for example, just skim
[53:21] through the book, collect the keywords
[53:24] very quickly. You could say, "Hey, I'm
[53:26] about to read this book and tell Chacht
[53:28] to generate you the most important
[53:28] keywords for it." That would also be
[53:31] perfectly viable. That is actually like
[53:32] that very technique just using chatbt or
[53:35] LLM to just generate keywords for you to
[53:37] kickstart your learning is probably one
[53:39] of the single biggest time saves that an
[53:41] LLM can do for you and generating
[53:43] expertise because that process of just
[53:45] getting keywords does very very little
[53:48] for your learning. There's not really
[53:50] much engagement. There's not meaningful
[53:51] schema connection happening there. It's
[53:53] just preparation. So if you can cut that
[53:54] down to five seconds, good. you like you
[53:57] should do that as long as you're not
[54:00] using it for the schema part, the
[54:02] forming and the simplifying part. That's
[54:04] the part you need to do yourself.
[54:07] Um so yeah, you can just go through and
[54:09] then you know pick through what the
[54:10] keywords are or if it's small enough. So
[54:14] let's say it's not like a three 400page
[54:15] book, but it's kind of like a 30 40 page
[54:18] report, right? And you feel like okay,
[54:20] there's a discrete amount of information
[54:22] here. You can just try to do what I sort
[54:24] of did here where as Anthony was giving
[54:26] me each point, I was actually just kind
[54:29] of making like my little map as I went
[54:31] and then just work on your map directly
[54:33] if it's a small enough cluster of
[54:35] keywords. Yeah. And you can just make
[54:37] that judgment yourself. Okay. There was
[54:40] a there was a question that but she's
[54:41] gone now but um it was about sort of
[54:44] applying this for different different
[54:45] context like if you've got an assignment
[54:46] that you need to do um especially if you
[54:48] need to do some kind of writing. So this
[54:50] is a a technique that fundamentally just
[54:53] helps you to organize your thoughts. It
[54:55] gives your thoughts structure. It tells
[54:57] your brain how to think about this
[54:59] topic. So the application of this is
[55:01] anytime you need to have organized
[55:03] thinking. You need to create a plan for
[55:05] something. You need to do a solution
[55:06] design. You need to uh create you know
[55:09] make a high stakes decision. You need to
[55:11] fully understand a client's problems
[55:12] very very deeply. You need to you know
[55:14] learn a difficult concept. You need to
[55:16] go through a new research article. you
[55:18] need to, you know, understand a brand
[55:20] new library or new technology that's
[55:21] come out. It's fine. Every single
[55:23] situation of those, especially writing,
[55:26] you know, you need to write a report,
[55:27] you need to write something in a way
[55:28] that's very compelling. If you need to
[55:30] organize your thoughts, start with this.
[55:32] Just write down the key words of
[55:33] everything that you know you need to
[55:34] include. Map it up till you get to a
[55:36] point where it feels intuitive to you.
[55:38] And when it's intuitive to you, the
[55:39] expression of that knowledge is actually
[55:41] the easy part. You know, it's just a
[55:43] matter of how you want to express it.
[55:46] And then that is when you become a true
[55:47] expert. An expert is able to use that
[55:49] information very fluidly. You can say,
[55:51] "Hey, okay, this is the way that I'm
[55:53] thinking about the topic. Here's how it
[55:54] all makes sense. Here's a lay of the
[55:56] land." You can present that to a client.
[55:58] You can present it to a stakeholder. You
[55:59] can present it to yourself. And they
[56:00] might say, "Okay, well, yeah, I don't I
[56:02] don't know about this part, but what
[56:03] about this? Have you thought about this
[56:04] thing?" And then you can say, "Oh, okay.
[56:05] Well, in that case, you just move this
[56:06] here and move this here." And, you know,
[56:08] we change this out. So, it gives you
[56:09] that fluidity of knowledge, and you can
[56:11] develop it very very quickly. And uh I
[56:13] do want to you know make it clear that
[56:15] right now for the purposes of the
[56:16] workshop we only use you know 10 15 20
[56:18] keywords but as you continue learning
[56:21] this list will just grow. So you can get
[56:23] really into very detailed technical
[56:26] stuff here. It's just that the map would
[56:28] grow um and you can end up with 200 300
[56:31] keywords no problem.
[56:33] >> Do you find that there's an upper limit
[56:34] of how big a map like this would be
[56:37] useful or is it just as far as you go?
[56:39] >> Yeah. Yeah. No actually the answer is
[56:41] yes. um there is kind of an upper limit.
[56:43] I found that uh when you think about a
[56:46] topic, the topic is probably the bounds
[56:50] because the reason we call it one a
[56:52] topic is because we understand that
[56:53] there are certain connections within
[56:55] that and relationships that mean they're
[56:56] relevant to each other as opposed to
[56:58] another topic where there's like a clear
[57:00] enough separation. So for example, if
[57:02] I'm starting from like a textbook, you
[57:04] know, there might be one or two chapters
[57:05] covering our topic. So that would be the
[57:07] bounds for how I want to do it. I've had
[57:10] people say like, "I've got my like
[57:12] entire medical textbook. Can I just
[57:13] learn all of it through a single mind
[57:14] map?" It's like you theoretically could,
[57:17] but you're going to reach such a, you
[57:20] know, overwhelming amount of information
[57:22] all trying to be condensed into a single
[57:23] map that's probably beyond like a
[57:25] biological human limit of what your
[57:27] brain can actually process and so you
[57:29] just arbitrarily make the decision to
[57:31] keep it small. Uh, but pro tip here is
[57:34] bite off more than you think you could
[57:36] chew initially. And originally you may
[57:38] feel that you can only learn like this
[57:40] amount and connect it together. But
[57:42] that's because you're probably not used
[57:43] to thinking in this way. You should be
[57:46] able to cover like essentially like an
[57:47] entire topic, four, five, six times more
[57:50] than you normally would be able to and
[57:51] make it make sense if you do this. Yeah.
[57:54] The the problem is if you take a too
[57:57] small of a bite, there's actually not
[57:58] enough connections in there for you to
[58:00] find meaningful patterns in. So you
[58:01] don't get the full advantage of it.
[58:05] Okay, we are uh a little over time
[58:07] though, but um thanks everyone for your
[58:10] engagement. Um if you have any other
[58:12] questions or things, you know, we'll um
[58:13] we'll also be sending out an email
[58:15] afterwards. We'll we have a little
[58:16] survey in there just just get your
[58:17] thoughts, a little bit of feedback as
[58:18] well, just understand how the workshop's
[58:20] been for you. So, if you can respond to
[58:21] that, that be really appreciated. But
[58:24] you can also just reply back if you've
[58:25] got any questions about things, you
[58:27] know, you're applying this yourself and
[58:28] you're trying to use it, happy to help
[58:29] as well. Okay, thank you everyone.
[58:33] >> [applause]