How to Pwn Course.page

Purpose: I want to create a course that teaches you how to learn, how to think, how to succeed, how to excel at something. The journey from a student to a master. Students of the course will be encouraged to apply the principles to specific domains and then be able to present the results of their learning to others in a simplified and digestible but justified way (perhaps that assumes the background of this course). I don't have any particularly original ideas here, but I currently see a problem that each domain tries to invent and interpret these ideas for itself. I believe these ideas should form the basis of an elementary through secondary education, heavily complemented by factual information and deeper theoretical frameworks for useful things like English grammar, etc. Ambitious? Yes. Maybe it is just a way of defining all the things that seem important to me, so as not to lose them.

Background: In order to teach these things it only makes sense that I'm a master of something myself. Being a master of mastery alone is kinda lame. I need to work on this. 

Theme: I strongly believe in the power of context in aiding understanding and memory as well as the ability of setting to create a more compelling and entertaining story to ideas. I just finished reading a prime example: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. (In fact, it does a lot of what I want to do, and in a highly entertaining story. But I don't think it's enough, so I carry on.) Not sure what a good theme here is, but 

Inspirations-People & Their Words (in some approximation of a chronological order of me learning it): _Art of Problem Solving_, _Godel Escher Bach_/computer science, Richard Feynman, _Getting Things Done_, _Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_, _The Game_, Malcolm Gladwell, Sean Plott, _Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle_, Supermemo, AllJapaneseAllTheTime, Cal Newport, Tony Buzan, _Brain Rules_, Tim Ferriss, _The Talent Code_, _The Art of Learning_, _Drive_, _Talent is Overrated_, Elliot Aronson, Less Wrong, Charlie Munger, Think and Grow Rich. What do these have in common? They all shed light on how we can affect our selves and our environment to lead to a better life. 

Inspirations-Domains: math, foreign language, chess, Starcraft, poker, martial arts, diet, business

Outline:

- What do we seek? - basic philosophy 
- Possibility space - convey the idea that even if we could break down things to their parts, and understand their interactions (reductionism), we wouldn't be able to find the optimum (via utilitarianism) due to combinatorial explosion. Understanding how to search this space is our quest.
- Bayesian thinking
- Models & scientific method - random studies, what do scientific fields do (how theory/models and experiment tie together)
- Human motivation, cognitive dissonance - change your attributes to change your behavior
- Evolving - incremental steps, kaizen method
- Efficiency - 80/20 principle, Minimal Effective Dose, spaced repetition
- Creativity - coming up with hypotheses for scientific verification, art begins with knowing how to do technical things very well 

Similar attempts:

- Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner in Berkshire Hathaway, explains how he applies several mental models to the world: #d/102
- As mentioned before, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is an *entertaining* introduction to rationality, which I think is a decent approximation. It can appeal to many people as a way of taking control of and understanding their world through good science/logic/probability. It opens the door for a strong course for learning all of this stuff. The raw material is available in the form of the Less Wrong stuff.
- My friend John is interested in something similar, which I'm not familiar enough with to explain. One of the basic tenets is being good at asking the right questions. I feel like the Munger applying-things-to-models one good way to generate them, but I won't put words in his mouth.

Random crap I come across which may or may not be useful or relevant:

Why Chinese mothers are superior
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

"What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences."

"Western parents worry a lot about their children's self-esteem. But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child's self-esteem is to let them give up."

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/ace-tough-job-interviews/

Good thing to consider: That last line — “There’s a game going on around you that you don’t even know about” — is a profound truth that most people never realize. They truly believe that if they simply try harder, they’ll get a promotion and make more money.

Also contains stuff about "invisible scripts" and putting definite plans into action

Scott H Young (newsletter) creativity as two-flow theory: creation and destruction. One day per week of brainstorming (quantity only) -- no actual writing, "minimal creative act"

Not exactly genius comic writing, but here's something I started earlier:

characters:

* Po (voiced by Jack Black) - wants to be a master of kung fu
* Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers, etc.
* Daniel Coyle - The Talent Code
* Dan Pink - books about motivation
* Doidge - The Brain That Changes Itself
* Day9 - Sean Plott, pro starcraft player and analyst
* Piotr Wozniak -  creator of Supermemo
* Khatzumoto - All Japanese All the Time
* Tim Ferriss - Guy who does lots of self-experiments in an attempt to achieve extreme things, author of bestselling books
* SHY - Lifestyle blogger
* Kaizen - A philosophy of doing the first step. Don't have a figurehead yet.

Unlike the old days, where all learning came from years of training with the local master or in solitary practice, Po now has published books and the internet, giving him countless sources of potential wisdom.

Gladwell: Do it for 10000 hours, then you got it
Po: Do what for 10000 hours?
Gladwell: Um, the thing? Kung fu? Practice makes perfect, right?
Day9: Practice does not make perfect.
Po: How many hours have you played Starcraft?
Day9: Umm... *thinks*  about 10000?

Coyle: I have a code, a Talent Code
Po: Uh, like a cheat code? Up up down down left right left right B A? What is it?
Coyle: Myelin!
Po: A drug?? 
Coyle: No, some stuff in your brain
Po: How do I get it? 
Coyle: Master Ericsson told me deep practice
Po: Ok, first step?
Coyle: Just mimicking someone will get you pretty far.
Po: Mimicking people usually gets me punched in the face. I'm not so sure it helps my brain.

Po loads up some kung fu videos on YouTube

Po: I tried that flying scissor kick but all I managed was to break some furniture in my house and bruise my knee.
Khatz: Little kids can learn a language. Why can't you learn kung fu?
Po: Maybe I can only do that as a kid.
Khatz: No, you can pretend to be a kid who must learn kung fu to survive. Surround yourself with kung fu and you can't help but to pick it up.
Doidge: If you impede your other means of survival, then your brain will adapt to make room for learning kung fu.
Pink, Coyle, etc: Also, kids lack that filter that keeps them from creativity. As we know (from kid's movies), creative kung fu is the only way to beat someone with more solid training.

SHY: Do the one important thing a lot. Do basic kicks for several hours a day.
Tim Ferriss: Do the one crazy ass thing I read in some random study. I won the world kung fu championship after trying it once. 
Kaizen: Do the one simplest thing. Just move your foot once a day.

## Ben Tilly on mastery

> This is not a story about Perl. Or Perl programming. Or even computers.
> Rather it is a story about the road to mastering any logical subject.
> 
> As my bio says, I once studied math. One subject in math is analysis. This is the true story of a student that my first analysis professor once had.
> 
> This student was a physics student. He did not really want to take analysis. But he decided that if he was taking it, then he might as well truly learn it.
> 
> When he sat down to do his first homework he realized that he did not understand what it meant to prove something. So he went to the professor and asked what a proof was. The professor answered, "A proof is an airtight demonstration that a thing must be so." The student asked what could be assumed. The professor answered, "You may start with the axioms and the theorems we have proven from the axioms." The student asked if you had to accept the theorems, the professor said, "You need not accept anything that you have not been fully convinced of."
> 
> The student's first homework set was 20 pages long. The other students needed 5. The student was concerned and asked the professor, "My homework is so much longer than theirs is. Am I doing something wrong?" The professor said, "You may take as long to do it as you need to. Did you keep in mind what I said about axioms and theorems?" The student answered, "I did, but I didn't feel that I understood the theorems so I worked from the axioms only." The professor answered, "That is good but learn to build on what you already know." The student promised to try.
> 
> The student's first homework was perfect. As the course progressed the student continued to try. Homework by homework he maintained excellent work, and step by step learned to organize his thoughts so that he could build on previous results in class and in his own work. And step by step the length of his homework fell.
> 
> By the end of the course the other's still needed 5 pages for their homework. But this student did not. He no longer needed 20. He no longer needed 10. Instead his perfect assignments fit comfortably on a page with room to spare.
> 
> The professor congratulated him on his progress and asked him about the cause. The student said, "Well I know the subject so well that I know exactly how to do each problem, and I do that and no more."
> 
> Here then is the moral for Perl programmers. When you see the code of master Perl programmers you may be amazed at how few strokes of the keyboard they require to solve a problem completely. Many in error think that they should therefore constantly try to cram as much into as little room as possible.
> 
> This is a misguided path.
> 
> Instead strive to understand fully and completely the tool at hand. Explore exactly how it works and what it can do. In addition constantly learn how to build on what you and others have done before. Aim for clarity and comprehension, and mastery shall surely follow.
> 
> This is a true path.