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Metalearning: draw your learning map

Objective

  • Understand what metalearning is and why it's important.
  • Develop a learning map for your AI study that will guide you along your learning journey.

Terms & concepts

  • Metalearning: learning about learning
  • Learning map: a visual depiction of your learning project that answers why, what, and how you will learn

Module content

Before starting on any ultralearning project, answer these 3 questions: Why? What? How?

Why?

Start by clarifying whether your learning project is intrinsic or instrumental.

  • Intrinsic vs instrumental learning projects: intrinsic projects are things you do purely for their own sake, not to achieve some other goal like getting a new job. Instrumental learning projects are in service of some other goal.
  • Expert interview - ask an expert in the field if your learning plan lines up with their understanding of the field.

What?

Define the following elements for your field of study as thoroughly as you can at this point.

  • Concepts - what needs to be understood?
  • Facts - what needs to be memorized?
  • Procedures - what needs to be practiced?

You'll need to do some initial learning to define each of these areas for your field.

After you draft your map, define what you think is going to require the most work. What will the greatest challenges be? How might you overcome them?

How?

Finally, define the how: how are you going to learn this field? How much time will you spend? What tools will you use in your study—books, flashcards, essays, etc? What are the key textbooks or other sources of good information related to your field? Use benchmarking to establish a baseline you can measure your learning plan against. To reach your own objectives, use the emphasize/exclude method to prioritize or deprioritize different topics as necessary.

  • Benchmarking - find the common ways it’s done. E.g. find courses, programs, curricula, syllabi for a program in the subject.
  • The emphasize/exclude method - find the areas of study most relevant to your goals. Focus on those things; deemphasize others until later.

The 10% rule

A good rule of thumb is that you should invest approximately 10% of your total expected learning time into research prior to starting.

Long-term prospects

The most valuable aspect of metalearning for one project is that you can apply what you’ve learned about metalearning to your next project, to keep stacking ultralearning projects throughout your life.

The best research, resources, and strategies are useless unless you follow up with concentrated efforts to learn.

Assignment

Create a learning map that reflects your own particular interests in AI. Your learning map should answer the following questions:

  • Why? Is your project instrumental or intrinsic? What expert or experts have you interviewed to understand the field?
  • What? What concepts, facts, and procedures will you need to learn? How do you know these are the right ones, and that you aren't missing anything important?
  • How? How will you learn? How much time will you spend? What tools will you use? What will you emphasize or exclude based on your unique interests? What can you benchmark yourself and your learning map against?