Tim Ferriss is well known for ideas like the 4-hour workweek and the 4-hour chef. His general goal is to learn new skills quickly, and to do so he starts by deconstructing the skill to its core idea.

The thought here is pretty simple, you want to break down very large ideas into smaller chunks so you they're not as intimidating:

It also means identifying why you might fail before you start. What are the reasons you've quit? What are the reasons others might fail? The goal is to avoid those problems for at least five sessions... In cooking, for instance... it's also a matter of realizing that cooking isn't just one skill. For most people it's shopping, prep, cooking, and cleanup. So you need to take those away so you're only focusing on the cooking in the beginning.

It makes sense that when you're trying to learn a new skill it's best to cut away everything that doesn't matter, but it's hard in practice. Oftentimes we'll over prepare, buy a lot of extra accessories we don't need, or concentrate on a big picture idea that's too hard to grasp when starting out. This idea keeps it small at the start.


Tim Ferris shares how to master any skill by deconstructing it | YouTube via The Next Web