
How to Learn Everything: The MasterClass Diaries - prostoalex
https://longreads.com/2020/08/20/how-to-learn-everything-the-masterclass-diaries/
======
phobosanomaly
I've personally found that a necessary prerequisite to listening to an expert
talking about something (at least for myself) is to read some books on it.
It's boring, and it sucks, and it takes forever, but that repetition of just
jamming things in your head and then going over them over and over again is a
necessary prerequisite to being able to really 'get' what someone is saying at
a master level.

For example, I wouldn't pay to see Gordon Ramsay teaching something without
first working through Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and The Food Lab. And by the time
I've worked through the books, I know if I'm actually interested in the
subject, or if it's just something that I've convinced myself is interesting
based on seeing someone doing it on YouTube.

That's just my own philosophy on it. You gotta chop the mesquite before you
can smoke the ribs.

~~~
powersnail
This is why the original concept of master class --- a master giving class to
musicians/artists --- are only opened to the brightest high-level students.
It's sort of pointless to hire the top talent in the field and let them coach
complete newbies.

I think whether the prerequisite is specifically to read books depends on the
field. In fact, the first thing to do, in my opinion, is to ask someone
already in the field what's the best way to get a taste of this activity. But
the general message, "chop the mesquite before you can smoke the ribs", I
agree very much on.

~~~
simsla
On the other hand, my university was in the habit of using the best professors
to teach the intro / first year courses. Because those are the courses where
you tend to lose the most of your students.

~~~
Ma8ee
They used the professors best at teaching. There are probably other professors
better at doing research.

------
roywiggins
Compare to [https://masterwiki.how](https://masterwiki.how)

> MasterClass is an exclusive online education platform that costs $180
> annually to learn (relatively ordinary skills) from A-list celebrities.
> masterWiki is the direct adaptation of MasterClass' video courses translated
> into wikiHow-style how-to guides, made available at no cost to you.

~~~
holyjaw
The posted article is a fun and interesting read about the author's
relationship to themself and their family as impacted by their viewing of
various classes.

I struggle to find a relevant comparison here, other than that both the
article and your link (of a parody / theft of another company's intellectual
property) are related to MasterClass.

~~~
kd5bjo
It actually serves as a nice contrast in some ways. Compare the article’s
description of the experience of going through the classes with the takeaways
from a sample of the wiki entries.

The real benefit of having true experts teach something is all the tacit
knowledge you get from hearing how they think about and approach their craft,
not the explicit instructions they might give.

~~~
donw
> The real benefit of having true experts teach something is all the tacit
> knowledge you get from hearing how they think about and approach their craft

I think that's part of it, but only a part.

The real value of teaching lies in tight feedback loops.

Learning, as a neurological process, is entirely predicated on feedback loops.
Our brains observe some system, make a prediction as to how that system will
iterate, and then adjust their prediction mechanism based on the observed
outcome.

Maybe to give an example, I learned to dance (Lindy Hop) by working with
coaches. My nephew learned to dance by watching things like Masterclass.

He has spent much more time on watching videos than I have in working with
coaches, and has been interested in dancing for far longer, but I am the
better dancer. By a wide margin.

And that is not due to natural talent -- if anything, I would say that I am
less coordinated than he is.

The advantage I have is -- partially! -- due to my instructors sharing a bunch
of tacit knowledge. The structure of music, why jazz is polyrhythmic and how
you can use syncopated steps to move between rhythms and melodies, etc.

But most of it comes from my instructors watching me flail about, and giving
me immediate feedback on how to be less dangerous to my follow (the person
dancing with me). And then watching me apply that feedback, correcting me
again, and repeating that loop until I get it right -- which means than I then
know what "right" feels like.

Online learning -- especially through watching videos -- completely lacks that
realtime feedback.

It's possible to do! But most of the online course offerings that I have seen,
don't. They are little more than recorded lectures and multiple-choice
quizzes.

Moreover, now that I have a solid foundation -- built by working with coaches,
and understanding the "why" behind the techniques -- I _can_ leverage dance
videos to pick up new moves, because I know what to look for an how to apply
it.

~~~
okamiueru
I think you bring up very valid points.

The overall takeaway shouldn't be to have personal instructors in order to
learn things effectively and well. I think that will always be the case. The
constraint there is mostly with accessibility and availability

What you intend to learn, and whether a self-learned/video watching approach
can be effective depends entirely on how to close the feedback loop, and make
it accurate. For couples dancing, it's very hard to know when you're doing
things right (how is it supposed to feel? What is the correct tension for
proper leading? Etc). So, it makes it almost crucial to have some (semi)direct
guidance in order to make the practice sessions effective.

However there are many other areas in which it is easier to close this loop,
as well as more correctly assess the result. This will of course never be as
good as having an expert's guidance, but the cost/benefit in terms of time
spent / skill gained is more amenable that it is for dancing.

I'd say (I might be wrong) that this applies somewhat to art, technical skills
like math and programming, and other knowledge based domains.

Fields requiring physical accuracy and dexterity is a bit harder. Like music
instruments or dancing.

------
jamestimmins
A really lovely read. I appreciate how naturally she frames her own growth in
the face of professional and personal setbacks against different masterclass
courses.

I love seeing this kind of writing on Hacker News.

------
glaberficken
Learning anything for me always follows this sort of structure (I'm sure
someone will tell me there's some well known name for this because it seems so
"self obvious").

Step0: Select the simplest achievable task in the domain of the new thing you
are trying to learn.

Step1: Gather all the stuff you think you will be needing to accomplish the
task (tools, materials, software, instructions, time!, etc).

Step2: Hit a road-block. It can be the lack of an indispensable tool or a lack
of knowledge of a particular detail.

Step3: Fix the blocker (fill the knowledge gap about the new detail,
buy/borrow the missing tool). If multiple roadblocks: Solve the one that seems
most fundamental first; If stuck at blocker: seek help from others, sleep on
it, give up (some things are too hard with your present knowledge).

Step4: If task still not completed GOTO Step3; If task completed: Select a new
more advanced task and GOTO Step2.

~~~
fxtentacle
My way of learning is the opposite. I pick a task that is incredibly cool and
motivating and surely way out of my skill set. Then I try to find examples by
true masters of things that turned out similar. Then I try to imitate what I
can from them. In the end, my result is very so-so in comparison with the
masters, but I still feel happy about having learned many useful things.

------
milchek
‘...By this point, I have realized that there are two kinds of teachers. Some
focus on transmitting their skills. They seem to be saying to the student:
“this is how to do what I do.” Others offer themselves as models to be
imitated: “this is how I became who I am.”‘

This part struck me. For topics like computer science (or any science) we need
more of the former, for anything related to the subjective experiences of
creativity or even life, we need more of the latter. Even then, “this is how I
became who I am,” can only get you so far, because you need to learn to become
who you are and not someone else.

~~~
josephg
I spent a couple years as a programming teacher, and really struggled to find
the right balance there.

As an example, about 9 months in I had a student ask how they should approach
a problem. I'd say "What are all the ways you can think of to do it?" and
together we'd brainstorm a few viable approaches. "So which one should I do?".
What do I say to that? Do I tell them which approach _I_ think is best? I was
originally self taught, and I got good in part thanks to those moments. When
you pick something yourself but you aren't sure if its the right choice, ..
well, thats when learning happens. Next time you choose differently and over
years explore the space. But at the same time, getting advice can really help
a novice improve.

Despite being pushed I didn't answer the student about which approach I
recommended, and I still wonder if it was the right choice. I'd like to think
that my teaching approach resulted in my students spending more time gazing
into the belly of the beast. But maybe I just didn't give them much as much
instruction as they needed. I can't tell.

~~~
heymijo
From someone versed in teaching, here's my unsolicited analysis of your
teaching:

On the spectrum from direct instruction (I tell you/show you what to do) to
inquiry (I set up a situation for you to use some of your prior knowledge to
learn something new) it sounds like you leaned towards inquiry here.

You experienced the power of this yourself when you were younger so it's no
surprise it informed how you chose to help/not help.

You used a mix of collaborative and cognitive questioning to both engage the
learner in the problem and help them think through it.
\------------------------

Next I'd like to ask you some questions to help you think through two
important teaching concepts: 1) Productive struggle 2) Feedback

Was the student at a complete loss with what to do? Given time to take a
break, maybe even sleep, and revisit the problem, do you think they still
would have been at a loss?

If no, then give them time and space to think through it on their own or use
cognitive questioning as you did to help them think through it.

This gets us to the concept of productive struggle. It is just as the name
sounds. This concept has well researched benefits for learners.

If the student had no idea what to do and you suspect would merely get
frustrated then that's struggling and its not productive. It's the kind of
situation that leads to poor first order outcomes and has second order
outcomes like making someone hate the thing you are trying to help them learn.

In that event it would be best to either help them through the problem with
advice or find a different problem for them to work on that they have enough
prior knowledge to productively struggle with.

Next up is feedback...

Did the student get any feedback after they made their choice? If it was
programming could they run their code and see if it worked? Was it a binary
right/wrong?

If it didn't work did the student have enough prior knowledge to work around
any roadblocks they might encounter?

These questions take us back to the concept of productive struggle.

1) productive struggle is good 2) feedback or advice should be timely and
based on what a learner needs to keep them from struggling unproductively

There are related ideas...some lessons you may have a focus and so you tell
the student certain things that aren't the focus of the lesson instead of
putting them in an inquiry situation. This is another skill needed for
effective teaching: creating, selecting, and sequencing a curriculum.

Implied in all of this is the importance of knowing the content, how you want
to teach, your learner's prior knowledge, and how they are reacting to the
problem.

~~~
philoclea
Love this breakdown. And to josephg's post:

When I was picking a dissertation topic I'd suggest things to my advisor and
she'd say brightly, "Why don't you go do some research on that, come back in
two weeks and tell me what you found?"

I'd go off to the library for a couple of weeks, do the reading, come back and
say, "You know I think X is a terrible topic, the scholarship on it all seems
to drag."

"Oh yes," she'd say, with a look that said this was the worst topic in the
world.

"So why didn't you just tell me that in the first place?"

Then she'd get diplomatic. "You're young, maybe you see something that I
don't!"

I realised though that it wasn't just that. Had she told me my idea about
topic X was a loser, I'd have thought that my advisor was crushing my
creativity and ingenuity. I really had to figure out on my own how much the
topic sucked. It had to come from my own discovery, not from her authority.

Anyway, I do this now and it drives my students nuts, because they want me to
hand them a paper topic, ideally tell them what books to read, and send them
off so they can execute the steps. Meanwhile, I want them to spend time in the
messy, difficult process of working things out. I think my process probably
results in more failure (at least as far as the grades are concerned), but the
good work is so much better.

~~~
heymijo
_I 'd have thought that my advisor was crushing my creativity and ingenuity_

Thanks for sharing this story.

I think a lot of about potential impacts like this on students/learners. My
goals when teaching are to nurture agency, autonomy, and a positive
disposition towards what is being learned in addition to a student learning
the content or practices/skills.

People often misconstrue this as wanting to make learning "fun" for students.
For me it begins with inversion, look at how to crush a student's spirit,
agency, and disposition towards a topic. Don't do that.

Then find ways to put them in situations where they can struggle productively,
be creative, show ingenuity, and see the fruits of doing so. Sometimes
students aren't aware of their own ingenuity, creativity, or their own
productive struggle so that gives me an opportunity to go meta with them and
help them see it.

~~~
philoclea
Yes, I love this! I try to convince my students to work on something they find
interesting, even to take risks in doing so. My experience is that they tend
to do better work when the topic reflects their own curiosity, obsessions.

Unfortunately the educational system I work in prioritizes conformity. I don't
blame them for having a hard time taking a risk.

~~~
heymijo
_Unfortunately the educational system I work in prioritizes conformity._

I feel that in my bones.

If you see this I'd be curious to hear more about your education experience.
Drop me a line at heymijo.hn at google mail if you'd like to continue the
discussion :)

------
sowbug
_Now we put eggs in water with a tiny mechanical device that plays “Killing Me
Softly” to let us know they are soft-boiled. You could say our standards have
fallen._

For those of you who had to stop and shop at this point, here's what I found:

UK: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/BrainStream-Beep-Egg-
Timer/dp/B001U...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/BrainStream-Beep-Egg-
Timer/dp/B001U0O0F0)

US but unfortunately not featuring the Roberta Flack classic:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WDE24G4/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WDE24G4/)

~~~
roel_v
I had one of those many years ago, but they're not very good. The sound is
muffled a lot by the water and it's just not accurate all together. The
Android app 'Egg Timer' gives much better results.

I do still see the appeal of the singing egg, though.

~~~
philoclea
I didn't have space for this in the essay, but the mechanical egg also plays
"The Final Countdown" when the eggs are supposed to be hard boiled.

It's honestly _not_ a great way to cook eggs, but don't underestimate the joy
of hearing those opening notes in the morning...

~~~
fxtentacle
By now, you have probably conditioned yourself to associate the sound with the
pleasant experience of eating the food, not unlike Pavlov's dogs.

~~~
philoclea
Other way around: the egg is so-so, but every time I hear the song I'm a
teenager again (not that I'm that old, but that's when I was getting to know a
lot of classic rock & similar), so it makes me feel young and full of
potential.

Unlike... that egg.

------
Rolpa
"I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the
thing they want to be successful at."

[https://m.xkcd.com/874/](https://m.xkcd.com/874/)

------
webmaven
Despite the au courant reference to the global pandemic, this seems _very_
familiar (particularly the bits about Wintour, Gladwell, & Ramsay), but I
can't recall where I read it (sometime 5-10 years ago, maybe), and a cursory
google search doesn't pull up anything.

Still, the deja vu was pretty darn strong. Perhaps the writer had a blog that
has since been deleted, and she recycled an old post.

~~~
philoclea
Hmmm... this has me wondering. I've been writing about teaching and learning
for a while (my dissertation and book were on the topic in the early Middle
Ages). MasterClass has only been around for five years though, and the Wintour
course came online last year. It's possible there were review pieces out. I
did do a bunch of searching on MasterClass last year, because I was tempted by
it but found it a bit pricey and wanted to know if there was any substance to
the courses. Most of what I found were _very_ brief reviews though.

------
comeondude
Play. That’s how.

------
johnnujler
This was beautiful! In fact, a note to all the YouTube productivity gurus who
think they are giving us a master class on productivity or VCs on twitter who
sell their (obvious but apparently profound) wisdom thinking they are doing a
service to humanity. At least IMO things that are best learned in the form of
a class are vocational stuff and hard sciences, anything other than that like
a course on confidence, productivity, loving yourself, learning to learn etc
should be f*cking banned into oblivion.

~~~
smabie
Or you could just, like, not watch/read those videos/posts/tweets if you don't
like them?

Also, there's a lot more academic fields than the "hard" sciences and
vocational stuff.

~~~
johnnujler
Cute!

How do you say you don’t like a video/post/tweet without reading/watching
those videos/posts/tweets?

Yes there’s a lot more academic fields than the “hard” sciences and vocational
stuff, add them to the list too. That was not a treatise on
teachability/learnability of a subject.

I seriously didn’t get your point, you thought of being sarcastic and bitter
because I ranted about how I disliked VCs and Productivity gurus? Thanks, got
your point, be well.

