Name: The First 20 Hours
ISBN: 9781591845553

Josh Kaufman

"Outlines a systematic approach to acquiring new skills quickly with a minimal amount of daily practice, demonstrating how to break down complex tasks and maximize productivity while overcoming common learning barriers and creating realistic frameworks for reduced learning times."

How to Learn Anything ... Fast

The First 20 Hours

Bryan Maniotakis

2.5 stars

A general guide on how to learn things fast, coupled with the authors experience learning new skills from start to finish. I found some parts really interesting (learning how to program, play GO, switch keyboard layouts to Colemak), but the windsurfing chapter didn't interest me at all, and the Yoga section felt completely bloated.

Marisa Eikenberry

I picked up this book because I've been trying to learn a lot of new skills lately. Cooking, Italian, and even yoga so I thought this might be the perfect book to help me learn skills quickly. 

It was ... to a point. 

The first section of the book goes into the science of skill acquisition, what it requires, and the steps to achieve it. One of the biggest things I pulled from this was that while it is said 10,000 hours equals a mastery level, you don't need to hit a mastery level in order to feel like you've achieved something with that skill. Josh focuses a lot on what success means to you and even gives some definitions for the six skills he tries to acquire in this book.

Unfortunately, for me, this was the only useful part of the book. While I was interested in the yoga section because I too am trying to learn about yoga, the rest of it seemed useless for me to read. Instead of going into the methods that Josh used to learn things in a general sense, he dials down and gets really specific. At that point, it almost reads like a journal where he's document every single step in his process to reach either his goal or 20-hours, whichever comes first. (Hint: It's usually the former.) This might be great for people that want to learn how to code in Ruby, play Go, teach themselves how to touch type, or even windsurf but I myself am not interested in any of those things. So reading those sections were kind of difficult for me because it immediately lost my interest. 

The premise of this book is good and if nothing else, reading the first section about skill acquisition is worth picking it up, but I'll admit it's only about 1/6th of the book. 

2 stars.

Kelly Kim

Sercan Solmaz

Suat ATAN

Rakan

Thomas DeCelle

Josh Kaufman, bestselling author of The Personal MBA, is back with his new book, The First Twenty Hours, to teach readers how to learn anything... fast! 'Lots of books promise to change your life. This one actually will' -Seth Godin Pick up any new skill in just 20 hours... Want to learn to paint, play the piano, launch a business, fly a plane? Then pick up this book and set aside twenty hours to go from knowing nothing to performing like a pro. That's it. Josh Kaufman, author of international bestseller The Personal MBA, has developed this brilliant approach to mastering anything fast. You'll learn how to: • Focus energy on acquiring key skill sets • Eliminate obstacles and discover critical tools • Create rapid feedback loops • Work against the clock to get better fast With examples ranging from writing a web program to learning an instrument to picking up windsurfing, Kaufman shows how to break complexity into simple tasks, make the very best of your limited time and solve unexpected problems. In The First 20 Hours you'll learn how to acquire any skill in record time - and have a lot of fun along the way. 'After reading this, you'll be ready to take on any number of skills and make progress on that big project you've been putting off for years' Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup

The First 20 Hours How to Learn Anything ... Fast