Have you ever wanted to learn and master a Skill in a matter of months, instead of a lifetime?

Tim Ferriss – the author of The 4-Hour Chef and The 4-Hour Workweek, claims that he has discovered the secret to acquiring the skill of meta-learning.

Meta-learning is essentially the skill of learning how to learn. Tim Ferriss is so confident in his framework that he believes anyone can become world-class in any skill in 6 months of less.

How to become world class?

How does one become great at a skill? According to Ferriss, it’s very simple. He’s broken down the framework for accelerated learning into 4 parts. He likes to call this framework: D.S.S.S

D.S.S.S stands for Deconstruction, Selection, Sequencing and Stakes:

Deconstruction:  Ferriss believes that most skills are overwhelming and in order to successfully to learn them,  you need to break them down into smaller pieces. Deconstruction means you have to break down a skill into sub-skills.

Sub-skills are smaller activities one must learn to master the overall skill.

Once you’ve broken down a skill, you will be able to identify the key quality characteristics of the process to master. You’ll need to figure out what the best practices are to learn a particular sub-skill and figure out what elements appear essential to producing the results.

Selection: Ferriss believes you need to find the minimum effective dose to successfully acquire a new skill. You want to use a few tools and be very good at those tools. Using the power of Pareto’s Principle (80/20 rule), where 80% of the effects stem from 20% of the causes, you can drill down to those few vital sub-skills required to become competent in a skill.

Sequencing: Once you’ve identified the 20% you need to learn, the next task involves learning the sub-skills in the most efficient order. You don’t need to always go from Point A to B in a straight line. If you’re learning chess, you might focus on endings rather than openings. The trick is to find  the best sequence, and to do so, Ferriss suggests brief test periods.

Experiment. Measure results and repeat using a different sequence until you find the one that provides the fastest and most reliable results for you.

Stakes: Ferriss knows that most people fail with their goals because there aren’t any consequences to failing them. Giving yourself real consequences will accelerate your desire for learning the skill. Ferris recommends stickk.com as a  tool to force people to deal with consequences of an unaccomplished goal.

On stickk, a user creates a goal and chooses an “anti-charity” which will  benefit from the money if the goal isn’t accomplished.

Deconstruct, select, sequence and add stakes. It’s really this simple. What do you think of Tim Ferriss’ meta-learning strategy? If you’re on a mission to learn rapidly, it’s really worth trying D.S.S.S method

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