The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast! By Josh Kaufman - A book Review

This is the book I have been reading for the last couple of days on fast skill acquisition.

I have been skeptic about the book title and how you can acquire a skill in twenty hours or less.

However, as I went through this book I found how the writer has defined himself as a multi passionate person. In addition, unlike many people he found this is a gift rather than an annoying virtue.

As the author describes himself, as he loves learning many things and that he is a passionate DIYer, he points out that he still finds this gift as a valuable way to live.

The only thing that stops him from making what he wants is that he only have limited amount of time to learn all his to do list of learning.

Also, as he had his first daughter he found how it's time demanding to be a father. Therefore, he went through the entrepreneurship way and left his corporate job to start his own business.

On his way to overcome this major problem, he has developed many strategies that helped him learn new skills faster. He has found the code of how to learn and work smarter not harder.

By analyzing the process of learning a new skill into small tasks and finding a way to perform deliberate practice, he has improved the way he learned and practiced those skills.

And by making up his mind about each skill he needs to learn he knew exactly how much he needs to learn and what is the threshold on which he can say that he has efficiently acquired that new skill.

This point is very important as you learn a new skill. If you look at it, when you learn at school or college, you start a course on some title and continue learning as you go through the specific curriculum to achieve a certain point of knowledge that makes you able to pass exams at the end of the course.

But what about skills that you need to learn on your own?

What about skills that you have decided to begin learning either because you need to learn them or because you just love to learn this new skill as a hobby.

When you set your target level on this kind of knowledge you know when to stop and how far can you go right from the beginning.

The author started the book by stating his circumstances and portraying himself as a multi passionate person.

Then he went through the process of efficient skill acquisition.

Then he started to mention his experience of learning six different skills that he wanted to learn from scratch for helping his business, for improving his lifestyle or for learning them as a new hobby he liked to learn.

The book is so informative. It is of a light style that lets you go through it without feeling bored even when mentioning technical details about each one of the skills he wanted to learn.

For me, I found some of those skills interesting that I found how I could start learning them efficiently when I decide to learn them someday.

And for other skills I'm not interested I went to read all his experiments with the process to find more interesting details about his own experience.

I believe that anyone who reads this book can feel the same for some of those skills as he finds them interesting and for those that might not be very interesting he can find the process so interesting to hear about.

In general, the book is a great read and I recommend it for acquiring new skills.

Please take a look on my Amazon Author page and check my books on learning and hobbies. Thank you for reading.

http://amazon.com/author/ahmedebeed

When your mind amazes you, be ready to be amazed

Today I’ve discovered something that has really amazed me. I’ve bought a new computer that has an English keyboard layout and doesn’t have Arabic letter printed on it.

First when I bought this computer, I didn’t bother about it a lot. I loved the keyboard button buttons and I thought I would get a virtual keyboard software to help me write in Arabic.

But today I wanted to write in Arabic on this new computer and I just started immediately. I just started that without thinking or remembering that my keyboard doesn’t have Arabic letters.

I only realized that after I already started typing on the keyboard.

I remembered this problem and thought that I would run the virtual keyboard. But what happened has just amazed me and made me eager to give it a try.

I found that my fingers knew positions of Arabic letters without looking at the physical keyboard.

Most writers can write without looking at the keyboard. I didn’t believe that I could be one of those people.

I’ve seen some progress in my typing speed and accuracy as days pass. But I couldn’t believe that I could fully type without looking at the keyboard.

And now this was the real test for me. As I started typing on the keyboard with letters other than that layout, I already have I realized how my brain amazed me.

At the beginning I couldn’t find all the letters accurately. But my feeling that I knew where the letters on the keyboard has encouraged me to continue and write all that I want.

Through trial and error, I could manage to complete the post I wanted to make, and I’ve been amazed.

The point here is that you can be amazed with what your own brain can do. Someday when you find that you can do something that you didn’t expect you could do, here when you’d be amazed.

Keep learning and practicing all the time. Just as you grow your muscles, Neuroplasticity will continue to shape your brain according to the skills you keep practicing.

Focus is the right word for success. You need to focus on the skill you need to master.

Keep doing and get ready to be amazed.

Mind to Matter

Only after one day of talking to a friend about that new topic I'm indulged in these days that I came to that great book.

And also in coincidence with the fact that I've just finished reading another book and I've been making the decision of what to read next.

And the answer has come to me in that best seller published June 2018, Mind to Matter.

It starts with mentioning that knowledge is the process dynamic change of mind.

That while you learn new things your brain makes new connections for them.

One Nobel prize winner physician stated that when you focus your attention learning new subject for one hour your brain doubles its connections for expanding neural circuits those involve that subject.

Also after you leave that subject without reviewing then your brain breaks those circuits after hours or days. 

This means that learning is building new connections while remembering is maintaining them by continuous reviewing.

Mind to Matter

Dowson Church

To gain more from your training and knowledge you need to get your body involved in the process.

Your body makes its experience by feeling the emotion.

The feeling is the chemical change in body due to the active involvement of the body.

That means that in order to enhance your learning process you need to be actively engaged into that process in different ways

How to reprogram your brain

Your mind is the ultimate computer and your best one. But in many cases your brain just seems to have its own brain and way of doing things.

In many times you can feel that your brain can make decisions turns out to be against your good.

So how would you reprogram it to perform what you really want?

In computer science and engineering, Software refers to the code that controls computers and is written for them to make them work. That code can be stored on drives and updated when needed. Without that software they are worthless.

In embedded systems arena, Firmware refers to the embedded software code written to processors and microcontrollers embedded in devices to perform specific functions.

Firmware is stored on more hardware drives and can be updated just as software.

Application Specific Hardware, is the hardware that has been built for certain application and cannot be changed.

The human brain differs from all those types of systems.

The human brain is plastic. Neuroplacticity and Synaptic plasticity are the phenomena describing how the brain builds new connections to perform new functions.

The process of making new connections in the brain is not something as fast as downloading new software on your computer, nor is it as simple as reprogramming firmware on embedded systems applications.

But it’s not also strict and cannot be changed like application specific hardware.
Instead, brain circuits and connections are plastic and can be changed to perform and optimize performance.

It only takes time for these circuits to build.

Myelination is the process of adding matter around synapses to enhance signals sent between neurons.

Myelination is performed by repetition.

So what to do to reprogram your mind to do something?

Just do it. Don’t get depressed, don’t get frustrated because you are not able to do it.

You just need to start and repeat. Myelination will take over and your brain will be changed as you wish. And then wait to see the fruits of that change in your behavior, skills and performance.

Check our books on Amazon we created on our way to find happiness.

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How the world is formed just as brain connections are

Today I had a thought of something that I wanted to share with you. It’s part philosophical and part Neuroscience. So let’s begin.

How the world is shaped

The world is formed by people’s behaviors. Famous people make trends and fashions. Media is forming crowd mind. Inventors are changing people’s lives by their new gadgets and tools.

But how does all that happens?

It all happens by coincidence. People see their each other and are influenced by most dominant power on the society.

Most people are reluctant to change and hate to make any shift in their lives except when they have to.

Only pioneers and people who literarily think out of the box who like to make thing by their own in new ways of doing and thinking.

When those people first start to make something that is different than what most people do, they face negligence, irony, prevention, backlash and then if pioneers survive after all that they win.

They make their point and then what they were trying to prove or change becomes part of the society. 

Things that have been refused become accepted to the crowd minds.

For example, if someone has been dreaming of making a machine that could make people fly from one place on earth to another that would be a total daydreaming in times the nineteenth century.

But after Wright Brothers’ experiment that proved controlled flight to be possible now in the twenty first century commercial flight is a fact and part of our daily lives.

When someone like Elon Musk wanted to introduce new products to the people in form of online banking, reusable space rockets or elegant powerful electric cars many people stood in his way all the time and many others just thought he was crazy.

Just when he made his products ready to the market is when they became reality and part of our lives.

When people react to regimes of their countries you can see how they tend to behave just as they were told to do. Most of them do so.

It just happens that minority of them don’t find it normal to act like part of the flock. So they behave different.

They may refuse to obey rules, they may try to make revolutions. At the beginning, those people are fought by the regimes themselves for obvious reasons and also by other people of the society who hate those people being different.

It may happen though that those people with revolutionary ideas spread them and make large supporting base for them in the society.

This could result in a great social revolution and complete change in systems. That’s why people having different way of thinking are disliked by regimes like this.

They may end up with more supporters as they resist and fight for their ideas.

So it all may happen by coincidence. One person gets and idea by coincidence that can change a whole society or may even change the world.

Brains Altered by Coincidence

Also in Neuroscience, coincidence plays a major rule in brain circuits’ formation.
According to Hebb's Rule, Neurons that fire together wire together.

The child brain at early stages of life have too many Neurons generated by so little brain connections between those Neurons.
Coincidence Neurons firing at the child’s brain make Neurons with closely firing times have more tendency to wire together forming early brain circuits.

Also in grownups, coincidence in internal brain events or stimuli in the environment that can cause Neurons firing result eventually in changing brain circuits to make new structures according to Neuroplasticity.

In other words, you may have your brain changed by a sudden sound coming from the window, a news headline your eyes catch on the fly, or by something you eat for breakfast.

Unless you control what gets into your mind you may end up in the mental rollercoaster.
But I believe that all coincidences cannot be totally prevented on the world level and on the brain level.

Check our books on Amazon we created on our way to find happiness.

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Decisions and Neuro Association that Shape our Destinations

Why are we so reluctant to change?

Why is it so hard for us to pursue something new as a change?
Why people resist change even if it were for their own good?

Steady state is normal, change is abnormal

Bodies consist of billions of cells that maintain their states through a cellular process called ‘Homeostasis’. 

This process is responsible for keeping all cell conditions as constant as possible. Temperature, pressure, substances concentrations and energy consumption are all maintained by this process to be the same.

Our brains tend to maintain the same actions by the already built neural connections and networks.

Change is Unavoidable

Change is essential and is also unavoidable. Change must happen for things sooner or later. If things don’t change for the better they will change for worse.

Even in body and mind. Homeostasis is a process to maintain steadiness but it causes change on the long run.

Suppose you run for a long range you are not regularly running. You notice that muscles of your leg start to feel pain. But what happen inside is that they use large amount of energy. Then cells start to build new energy generating bodies. The overall result is cell growth due to Homeostasis.

In the manner, brain –which is so reluctant to change-, adapts itself to any new situation or a new skill you are trying to master.

Think about driving your car for example. When you start to learn to learn how to drive, you were struggling and paying so much attention to the road and at the same time you wanted to give the correct push on the pedals but you and all the beginners may put a sudden maximum push on the gas pedal making the car jump or push the brakes suddenly that makes the car bounce.

You were watching all mirrors and trying to see other cars and all the pedestrians. 

After you get acquainted with driving and you got familiar with your car you can get the sense of confident with driving.

Now you have optimized your push on pedals and you can even drive without looking at the mirrors.

Why all that has changed?
Your brain is the best servant and smartest computer ever existed.

Neuroplasticity in its simplest form

Uniqueness of our brain and its intelligence comes from its sophisticated neural structure. Different from any computer or processor, the human brain stores data, learn and master skills by altering its connections.

Learning is Remembering

Your brain structure actually differs as you store new memory or learn new skill.

Yes. Learning new skill, mastering an existing one or just remembering a memory is the process of building new connections or optimizing existing neural networks.

All those facts about body and the brain makes clear evident that change is unavoidable. Change can take place to the better or to worse.

Then it’s our mission to conduct our mind and body change into better states through better habits.

Your habits shape yourself

If you have the habit of eating more than your needs, your body will gain more weight through process of homeostasis as a way of storing substances.

If you have the habit of watching TV and listen to useless material or news your brain will change to master those skills through Neuroplasticity.

That’s why we must use Homeostasis and Neuroplasticity for our own good. Here comes the importance of habits.

Your daily habits make who you are

Your own self who you know today is results of your tiny daily habits ten years ago. And your future self after ten years from now are the result of you daily habits you have today.



Decisions shape your habits by converting the track of your actions from unconscious to mindful conscious actions.

Decisions are not just words you say but they are long time commitment to shape your habits even if they feel hard to change at the beginning.

Don’t forget to check my books on Amazon. And live with passion

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المصداقية العلمية لأهمية التفكير الإيجابى The power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility

الأربعاء 2 من صفر 1438 هـ     2 نوفمبر 2016 م

بسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة و السلام على رسول الله سيدنا محمد
صلى الله عليه وسلم

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أنهيت اليوم سماع كتاب مسموع للكاتب ديفيد شوارتزبعنوان 

The magic of thinking big

 وهو كتاب يتحدث عن أهمية التفكير الإيجابى والتفاؤل والتحفيز الذاتى ودفع الكسل والتفكير التشاؤمي

وقرأت اليوم كتاباً آخر رائعاً بعنوان 

 The brain that changes itself           

المخ الذى يغير نفسه

وهو يتحدث عن موضوع لا يعلمه الكثير من الناس حول العالم  Neuroplasticity                     وهو اللدونة العصبية

وهو الكتاب الذى أثبت أظهر المصداقية العلمية لأهمية التفكير الإيجابى

حيث أن المخ - وعلى عكس ما يعتقد الكثير من الأشخاص - يغير من تركيبه المادى ووصلات اتصاله العصبية باستمراروطوال فترة حياة الإنسان وذلك تبعاً لأفكار الشخص والمهارات والعادات والوظائف التى يؤديها 

أعتقد أنه من المهم والضرورى جداً لكل البشر فى العالم أن يعلموا بهذا الموضوع الذى يمكنهم من الإستغلال الأمثل لعقولهم وفى تربية أطفالهم وتعاملهم مع أنفسهم


يمكنك الآن الإستماع إلى الكتابين المسموعين مجاناً تماماً من خلال التسجيل فى موقع الكتب المسموعة الشهير 

Audible

والذى يمكنك من خلال التسجيل فيه الحصول على كتابين مسموعين مجانيين كما يمكنك الإحتفاظ بالإشتراك أو إلغاءه فى أى وقت تشاء

وكنتُ قد كتبتُ عن هذا الموضوع من قبل ، وهو قدرة المخ على التكيف والتأقلم مع المواقف المختلفة حتى ما ينتج عن التأثيرات والحوادث الخارجية مثل الإصابات والداخلية مثل السكتات الدماغية

مثل هذا النوع من التأقلم ينتج عن تطور مخ الإنسان فى أى عمر وفى جميع الأحوال والظروف ، وهو ما لم يعلمه العلماء سوى منذ وقت قليل ، حيث كانوا يظنون أن نمو المخ وتطوره يتوقف عند سن معينة

ويؤدى هذا التطور فى المخ إلى إمكانية التعافى الكلى أو الجزئي من عواقب هذه الحوادث والإصابات باستخدام التدريب المستمر أو باستخدام الوسائل والأجهزة المساعدة التي تؤدى وظيفة تعويضية محدودة ثم يتأقلم المخ مع الوظيفة الجديدة حتى يصبح فى الإمكان الإستغناء عن هذه الوسائل

وكما تصلح وسائل تطبيق اللدونة العصبية فى هذه الحالات فإنها تصلح للتطبيق على الأشخاص الأصحاء بدنياً ونفسياً لتحقيق التوازن الاجتماعى والنجاح على المستوى الشخصي والمهني

ووجدتُ تعليقاً من مجلة نيويورك تايمز على الكتاب الذى نشر فى عام 2007 يقول أن هذا الكتاب يعد الدليل والمصداقية العلمية لقوة التفكير الإيجابي

حيث ظلت الدعوة للتفكير الإيجابي والتفاؤل موضوعاً محصوراً على الكتاب والمحاضرين فى مجال التنمية البشرية ومساعدة الذات . وعلى الرغم من فاعلية هذه الدورات والكتب فى تغيير حياة ومساعدة الكثير من الناس إلا إنها كانت لدى البعض الآخر مثار توجس وتساؤل عن أهميتها وصدقها

أما الآن فقد وجدت نظريات التفكير الإيجابي مصداقيتها العلمية والطبية فى موضوع اللدونة العصبية التى تثبت تطورالمخ وتغيره للأفضل - أو للأسوأ - نتيجة الظروف المحيطة به كما أنه يتغير كرد فعل لطريقة التفكير التى ينتهجها الإنسان 

وليس هناك دليل على مصداقية اللدونة العصبية أوضح من الأمثلة التى نراها فى أنفسنا وفى حياتنا اليومية فى أشخاص يمارسون وظائف معينة لفترة طويلة حتى وصلوا فيها للإتقان لدرجة ممارستهم لها بدون تفكير 

مثل السائق الذى يحفظ الشوارع عن ظهر قلب والبائع الذى يعرف أسعار المنتجات بصورة مذهلة وغير ذلك من الأمثلة

فالتفكير الإيجابى يعمل على التغيير الإيجابي والنمو للمخ 

كما أن التفكيرالسلبي يعمل على تطور المخ أيضاً ولكن بصورة سلبية سيئة 

I listened to the audio book The magic of thinking big for David J. Schwartz.

The first book introduces the importance of positive thinking and self confidence as a way of personal development in all fields.

Today, I also read the second book The brain that changes itself that introduces Neuroplasticity.

You also can listen to the 2 audio books for free by only registering at Audible, the famous audio books website owned by Amazon.

Once you register, you can get any 2 audio books for free and then it's your choice to keep your account or cancel at any time and still keep the books.

I've wrote about that second book once before because the subject it introduces is very important but still unknown to many people.

Neuroplasticity is about how the brain cells change the way they connect to each other creating hardware brain connections to achieve functions that is repetitively used.

This means that you can rewire your brain at any stage of your life and to the way you like by changing the way you think and act.

Change the way you think your brain will follow that change. 

If you change your habits, your brain will change its connections to optimize the performance of this habit.

If you change your job, your brain will do its best to make sure this job is well done.

I think this subject is so important that every human on the planet should know about it.

It can help us all know how to deal with our brains and minds. It can help us improve the way we think and accordingly the way we live and raise our children.

إذا أعجبتك هذه المدونة يمكنك دعمنا بأحد هذه الطرق المجانية لاستمرار نشر مثل هذه المقالات

اترك تعليقاً لنشر وجهة نظرك بخصوص هذه المقالة

قم بشراء كتابنا على موقع أمازون أو مشاركته مع أصدقاءك من المهتمين بكتب الإلكترونيات

Learn By Making

قم بالضغط على الروابط الخاصة بالمواقع الداعمة لنا بدون إضافة أى تكلفة عليك إذا قمت بالشراء من هذه المواقع . وفى الحقيقة معظم الخدمات والمنتجات المعروضة هنا مجانية تماماً مما يعنى أنك لن تقوم بدفع أى مبالغ وفى الوقت نفسه تقوم بدعمنا وتستفيد من هذه الخدمات

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هذا الرابط خاص ببرامج كيندل المملوك لموقع أمازون

برنامج كيندل مجانى تماماً ويمكنك من قراءة الآلاف من الكتب الإلكترونية ويعمل على كل الأجهزة . على أجهزة كيندل وعلى الكومبيوتر الشخصى والتالبلت بجميع أنواعه والهواتف الذكية  آيفون وأندرويد. كما أنك يمكنك القراءة على أى من هذه الأجهزة بدون تثبيت أى برامج من خلال القراءة على متصفح الإنترنت من خلال 

Kindle Cloud Reader

كما أن هناك العديد من الكتب الإلكترونية المجانية تماماً كما أن هناك الكتب المتاحة لكى تشتريها من موقع أمازون الشهير

Join Amazon Kindle Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial

هذه الخدمة مقدمة من موقع أمازون للإشتراك الشهرى مع عرض الإشتراك لأول شهركامل مجاناً مع إمكانية الحصول على العديد من الكتب المدفوعة مجاناً تماماً مع إمكانية إلغاء الإشتراك فى أى وقت بدون دفع أى مبالغ

Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

خدمة أمازون برايم هى أحد الخدمات المميزة التى يقدمها موقع أمازون الشهير و التى تتيح من خلالها العديد من العروض والتخفيضات القيمة والمنتجات المميزة وخدمة الشحن المجانى والشحن فى يوم واحد عند الشراء

أيضاً هذه الخدمة مدفوعة ويمكنك تجربتها مجاناً لمدة شهر بدون دفع أى رسوم أو مبالغ إضافية مع إمكانية الإلغاء فى أى وقت

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Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

موقع أوديبل هو أحد مواقع أمازون وهو مختص بالكتب الصوتية المسموعة بكافة أنواعها 

Audio Books

منها الكتب العلمية والروايات والكتب التاريخية والدروس والبودكاست

يمكنك الإستمتاع بهذه الفرصة الدائمة للإشتراك المجانى لمدة شهر فى هذا الموقع مع إمكانية تحميل أى كتابين مجانيين مع إمكانية الإلغاء فى أى وقت خلال هذا الشهر وبدون أى رسوم

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إذا كان لديك مولود أو تتوقع مولوداً جديداً يمكنك الإشتراك المجانى فى قائمة المولود من موقع أمازون والتى يمكنك من خلالها الإطلاع على أحدث العروض والمنتجات الخاصة بالمولود مع إمكانية عمل قائمة الأمنيات وجعل هذه القائمة ظاهرة لأصدقائك  مما يمكنهم من معرفة أفضل الهدايا للمولود أو مختفية ولاتظهر إلا لك فقط

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The Amazon Prime is a special paid service from Amazon that offers good promotions and one-day free shipment for Amazon Shoppers. You can try this service for 30 days. You can cancel you subscription anytime.

Shop Amazon - Give the Gift of Amazon Prime


Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks


Audible is the audio books website from Amazon. Many Kindle books are sold on Audible. You can try this service for free and get 2 free book. You can cancel you subscription anytime.


Shop Amazon - Create an Amazon Baby Registry

If you have a new baby borne or expecting one, you can create your free baby registry to easily save products and get offers and promotions on baby requirements.

  4. Visit our new website outatime.tech.

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