Get Better at Anything

12 Maxims for Mastery

By: Scott H. Young

Narrated by: Scott H. Young

The author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Ultralearning explores why it’s so difficult for people to learn new skills, arguing that three factors must be met to make advancement possible, and offering 12 maxims to improve the way we learn.

Life revolves around learning—in school, at our jobs, even in the things we do for fun. Yet learning is often mysterious. Sometimes it comes fairly effortlessly: quickly finding our way around a new neighborhood or picking up the routine at a new job. In other cases, it’s a slog. We may spend hours in the library, yet still not do well on an exam. We may want to switch companies, industries, or even professions, but not feel qualified to make the leap. Decades spent driving a car, typing on a computer, or hitting a tennis ball don’t reliably make us much better at them. Improvement can be fickle, if it comes at all.

In Get Better At Anything, Scott Young argues that there are three key factors in helping us learn:

See—Most of what we know comes from other people. The ease of learning from others determines, to a large extent, how quickly we can improve.

Do—Mastery requires practice. But not just any practice will do. Our brains our fantastic effort-saving machines, which can be both a tremendous advantage and a curse.

Feedback—Progress requires constant adjustment. Not just the red stroke of a teacher’s pen, but the results of hands-on experience.

When we’re able to learn from the example of other people, practice extensively ourselves, and get reliable feedback, rapid progress results. Yet, when one, or all, of these factors is inhibited, improvement often becomes impossible. Using research and real-life examples, Young breaks down these elements into twelve simple maxims. Whether you’re a student studying for an exam, an employee facing a new skill at work, or just want to get better at something you’re interested in, his insights will help you do it better.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Great Book Overall

I liked how the author went into depth for each maxim, with plenty of great different examples. Overall is great, but at certain portions the book does feel a little "stretched out". But a great resource nonetheless!

I've read Ultra learning many times and..

this book is a really good rehashing of what Scott teaches in his first book. As the world and tech advances the need for life long students in pursuit for knowledge will not abate but become more pronounced and aggrandized. I pride myself in finding books for life and this is one of those!

Getting Better is Always Better

It would be ideal to take notes while listening to the audiobook. There's a lot of useful information to ponder and/or do more further research. The next step is to practice what we have learned.

Face your fears and get better at what matters most for you

Scott does a fantastic job at explaining useful knowledge on the field of psychology, education and more to understand how we can get better in any discipline, in accordance with the way we learn things, and offers specific strategies on how to improve, 10/10.

Clarity about best practices using research and histories of a great variety of masters in their fields

Just a few chapters in, but as a fan of author's first book, Ultralearning - it is a pleasure to update strategies and be inspired by compelling detailed examples and methods of mastery. Young is a skilled and passionate narrator on his subject and practices the methods he uncovers in his research.