Learning from "The First 20 Hours" a Book About Starting

Can you learn a complicated (or simple) programming language in 20 hours? Josh Kaufman says YOU CAN

It may sound a little ridiculous, but we have seen these claims from all kind of books and "guru" trainers: "buy the book: 'Learn [fill in the blank] in 24 Hours', and you will be wealthy, healty, and SMART!" A quick search on Amazon for "learn 24 hours" gives the result: 

1,389 results for "learn 24 hours"

 It starts out with "the Bible" (yes you can learn this classic tomb), to programming a dozen languages and many more technology topics (SAP, SQL, Microsoft Excel and Office, etc.), all the way to piano and guitar, and finally, French, Spanish, and Chinese. So what's the problem with internet or content marketing? or copywriting and graphic design for the web? You could learn anything in 24 hours, do it in a week or two, get a blog or site up and going in a few more weeks, and be happy, healthy, and wealthy. 

Hold on Skippy (as they say in Texas). The idea Josh Kaufman writes about in "The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast", is how to get started in a focused and deliberate effort. Not to be a "master" on a world champion level. Not to be the writer with the Washington political blog for the NY Times in two weeks (unless your father was the ambassador to Sayam and your mother was Dorothy Parker). But the (humble) blogger for your company or for a product you know, which can be useful this month. Maybe learn Italian, so you can enjoy a vacation there and be able to order a decent dinner without pulling out that handy phrase book, mini-dictionary app! Kaufman clearly states that he is not speaking to the "Outliers" in Malcolm Gladwell's book. These  are ones who are encouraged to spend 10,000 hours (essentially a few years of focused practice) to become world class something (athletes, musicians, technologists, business managers, etc.) 

"The First 20 Hours" is great in explaining why we are so frustrated when we start learning anything that will need dedication to start. A musical instrument, a programming language, a sport or a sport device (roller blades, wind surfing, kayaking), establishing a habit (yoga, diet, cooking, gardening), all take a certain skill level. His method comes down to getting you to practice one key skill in the area you want to learn. It may sound like a cookie cutter method, yet even in areas like computer programming, it turns out slightly different in each case (programming for a mobile phone vs. programming for a web based cloud cluster). It's probably also different between learning to play the Ukelele (which he uses as an example) and learning to play a church organ. When it comes to internet marketing, content creation, promotion and advertising using paid and free (social media) channels, the same is true. It will probably be much different for a writer at a magazine to learn blogging practices and skills (setting up the technical elements of a blog server: WordPress, Blogger), and an experienced advertising account manager learning Google AdWords skills. 

Here is where we can help each other. Using the ideas of learning quickly, either using the techniques and writing impressions or reporting on the progress and steps taken. Having a few people give their impression and even their plans to learn a skill quickly will also help many readers. Some techniques will be individual, since each person comes from a different background. Yet many skills need some basic "sub-skills" (book term) which will be universal to all. 

If you are interested in joining or running a discussion group, or even a real working group, please contact me. Also if you want to manage or report on a certain skill, if you have group management skills and are good (or experienced) in running a Linked-In group or a Facebook page, that would be great to get started. As Seth Godin says: "Let's Get Social" (after all he is from San Francisco and probably remembers the hippie days there).