What if I told you the biggest benefit of self-learning, is also, its greatest curse.

Self-learning gives us vastly more flexibility and autonomy over our learning than traditional schooling or work training (Yay!). However, this also increases our room to make mistakes and adopt faulty beliefs (Nay!).

Over my years of self-learning, I have witnessed—and made—many mistakes. This article is my attempt to forewarn you of six of the worst mistakes so you can hopefully avoid them. And even if you don't, at least I'll make it entertaining.

Mistake #1: Being Perfectionist About Your Plan

Improving is awesome, until it isn't...

While planning our self-learning quests, it's easy to get caught procrastinating when perfecting your plan. That's something video game developer 3D Realms learned the hard way in the development of the highly anticipated sequel to the hit game Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever. Here's a list of their game release dates:

• Duke Nukem: released, July 1, 1991
• Duke Nukem II: released, December 3, 1993
• Duke Nukem 3D: released, January 29, 1996
• Duke Nukem Forever: released, June 10, 2011

Notice any discrepancy? Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to take a couple of years to develop. But the team fell into a trap: they wanted the game to be perfect, incorporating every new idea, technology, and trend emerging in the gaming world.

As new gaming engines were released, the developers would scrap large portions of the game to rebuild it with the latest technology. They would re-do character sprites tens of times. They would rewrite scenes over and over.

This constant re-planning and reworking led to the game being in development for over 14 years, earning it the label of "vaporware" and a reputation as one of the most delayed games in history.

I'll let this image show you how Duke Nukem Forever was received when it was finally released in 2011:

The game felt outdated, clunky, and overstuffed with features that were no longer relevant. The obsession with creating the perfect game had ironically resulted in a product that failed to meet even basic expectations. Aye, at least they got their name right, because it really did take forever to come out.

Many people approach self-learning with the same perfectionism as the developers of Duke Nukem Forever. The reality is that much of your learning plan will change as you gain more experience and knowledge in your endeavors. Trying to create the perfect plan by setting every goal and step and collecting every possible resource will only slow you down.

So, how long should you spend planning?

Generally, the longer your learning project, the longer you should plan out how you're going to learn. A good rule of thumb is to invest approximately 10 percent of your expected learning time into research before starting[2]. This is because any mistakes in your map will have a much larger time span to take effect.

Remember, we're creating a learning plan here, not the next Duke Nukem Forever. While planning is crucial, the plan will evolve as you gain more knowledge and experience. You don't need to create every goal, collect every resource, and plan out every step before you get going. It's better to get started with a half plan than not start at all.

Mistake #2: Trying To Learn Too Many Things At Once

Leonardo da Vinci is often celebrated as one of the greatest geniuses in history. His diverse talents spanned painting, sculpture, anatomy, engineering, and more. He conceptualized inventions that were centuries ahead of his time, like helicopters, tanks, and underwater breathing apparatuses. However, despite his incredible intellect and creativity, most of his insights never affected the world.

Why? Because he never finished them.

Throughout his life, Leonardo da Vinci had a tendency to get excited about a project, work on it until 80% completion, get bored, and then skip to the next shiny egg. Perhaps the most famous example is the Gran Cavallo, a massive bronze horse statue commissioned by the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo was tasked with creating what would have been the largest equestrian statue in the world. But he took so long that the 75 tons of bronze intended for the statue were repurposed to make cannons as Milan prepared for war against the French.

What the horse statue might have looked like had it been made.

We often make the same mistakes in our own self-learning. We think if we spread our focus across multiple areas, we can feed two birds with one scone. The reality is the human brain is horrible at context-switching. When we "multitask" we're really switching between both tasks incredibly rapidly, hurting our ability to do either effectively. As Cal Newport explains in his book, Deep Work^[1], we can really only focus on 2-3 major projects in a single day and only one at a time.

Instead of trying to learn as many things as possible at once, I recommend focusing on one to two self-learning projects at a time. Give them the attention they deserve, and then move on to something else.

What should you prioritize learning? I like to ask myself the following questions:

1. What am I inspired to learn?
2. What will help me follow my values?
3. What is practical to learn for the future?
4. What if I learn now will open me up to learning other things better?

Mistake #3: Misinterpreting Distractions as Breaks

While writing the last Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling faced a classic challenge: she kept getting distracted. In her words, "there came a day where the window cleaner came, the kids were at home, the dogs were barking and I could not work and this light bulb went on over my head and I thought, I can throw money at this problem. I can now solve this problem."

What did she do? She spent six months secretly going to room 552 in Hotel Balmoral to finish her writing distraction-free. Without this foresight, we might never have gotten the last book in our beloved childhood series.

Room 552 in Hotel Balmoral.

J.K. Rowling understood that it's easy to misinterpret distractions as breaks. We think it's okay to check social media or respond to texts in the middle of a learning block because it's a "short break." Unfortunately, these "short breaks" often turn into longer, hour-long doom-scrolling sessions. Even if they don't, they continue to occupy our subconscious space, which could be used for our self-learning projects.

Leave your breaks for after your self-learning. If you do need a break during self-learning time, don't go on your phone. Walk outside, stare out the window, or make some coffee.

But Aidan, I don't have millions of dollars to invest into checking into a Hotel room. I'll never be able to work distraction free. Don't worry. You don't need to rent a hotel for months to get work done.

Work at a library, coffee shop with earplugs, or a quiet room in your house. Inform your friends, family, and co-workers when you want your focused time. Any space can be as sacred as room 552 in Hotel Balmoral if you make it.

Mistake #4: Thinking Motivation Should Be Constant

Many people see motivation like hardcore gym-goers see pre-workout: required before any work can be done.

Decreased motivation isn't necessarily a sign of failure, it's normal. Motivation is like a teenagers mood levels--constantly fluctuating. For most projects, motivation is super high at the beginning, wanes in the middle, and picks up again towards the end. In any individual learning session motivation is often absent at the start, and picks up as you begin working.

Often, action creates motivation.

The creation of my courses have been lessons for me in motivation levels. At the beginning I'm always more motivated than a child who saw a cookie jar. But after the courses are done, this was what the thought of iterating makes me feel like:

But I don't throw my hands in the air and say, "whelp, guess that's that." I get myself to act anyways using strategies like Lightning Launch (telling myself I would work for five minutes and if I still didn't feel like it I would stop). Sure enough, once I get started the motivation comes along for the ride.

Mistake #5: Staying In Your Comfort Zone And Neglecting Feedback

When The Mongols, first attempted to invade China in 1211, they encountered a series of formidable challenges. The Mongols were expert horsemen and archers, known for their speed and agility on the open steppes, but they were unfamiliar with the fortified cities, advanced weaponry, and complex terrain of China. Initially, their traditional tactics, which had been so successful in the vast open plains, were ineffective.

So they adapted. Instead of persisting with their usual methods, they adopted new siege tactics, learning how to use Chinese engineering techniques, and even recruiting Chinese engineers to help build siege weapons like catapults and battering rams. In contrast, The Chinese-- complacent from easy victories against the Steppe attackers--continued relying on their old defense strategies. Eventually, The Mongols conquered the Northern Jin Dynasty by 1234 and the Southern Song Dynasty in 1279.

Despite changing times, The Jin Dynasty stayed in their comfort zone. What we really want is to iterate like The Mongols.

Step outside of your comfort zone. Create a means of getting high-quality feedback as fast as possible and iterating on it in your self-learning. In today's age, standing still is the same thing as walking backwards. Stagnation is death. You have to keep moving. If you want to learn exactly how to integrate feedback into your self-learning, check out the iterate section of this article.

Mistake #6: Thinking Fun Is a Distraction from Serious Goals

While working on the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, Feynman discovered that many of his colleagues were careless about securing their safes, which contained highly classified information.

So he decided to have a little fun.

One day, Feynman cracked one of his colleague's safes and took out some important documents. He put a note inside the safe that said: "I borrowed document no. LA4312 — Feynman the safe-cracker." Then he opened another safe and wrote a note that said: "This one was no harder to open than the other one — Wise Guy." Finally in another cabinet, in the other room, he wrote, "When the combinations are all the same, one is no harder to open than another — Same Guy."

Feynman cracking some safes.

His colleague discovered the note signed "Same Guy" shortly after. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that this was a reference to the other two notes, as he didn't even know they existed. Instead, his imagination got the better of him, and believed that "Same Guy" meant that this was the "same guy" as someone who was trying — successfully — to break into The Manhattan Project.

Turning tomato red, he sprinted into the hallway to report the incident to the higher-ups. Thankfully, Feynman caught his colleague in the hallway and told him of the prank. Instead of anger, he hugged Feynman, relieved no one had broken in. Feynman's safe pranks ended up exposing a major security problem with the Manhattan Project, and better safes were installed to prevent future break-ins.

Feynman shows us a critical insight about life: fun and learning don't have to be separate.

We tend to think if things are fun, we must not be taking our goals seriously--probably some mindset drilled into us from our days in school. In reality, fun compliments our learning by increasing our motivation and grit. When things are fun, we do them even when we don't have to.

How can you make things fun?

Play some music (while writing this, I'm jamming out to background Terraria music.), learn with a buddy, find a way to tie the learning to something you care about, make a game out of it!

All a game requires is a goal, feedback, and some rules. Challenge yourself to invest a set time in your self-learning quest for the day and see how far you can come. Can you beat your last score?

I do this in my writing all the time. I have a word count Excel sheet where I write down how many words I write daily. The simple game of trying to beat my last day writing word count to make writing more fun.

Fun isn't to be run from in learning. Fun IS learning.

If you liked this article you should check out Self-Learning Quest which helps you stay focused, maintain motivation, and learn faster outside work. Over the five day free email course you'll make learning the ultimate game by combining gamification with science based meta-learning techniques. The average person spends 2/3 of their life outside work–-who could you be if you used even 10% of that for learning?

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References

1. Newport, C. (2016). Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world. Grand Central Publishing. ↩︎
2. Young, S. 2019. Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career. Harper Business.