My current startup only exists because of this post.

Sometimes I wonder why I take hours to write up and edit (and edit and edit) these blog posts on my site. Thanks for the reminder. I really appreciate it.

Since our interview in Singapore I've decided to devote myself 100% to learning to code (Rails to start with) during the second half of the year (I applied the 80/20 principal to my documentary re-interviews and travel).

When someone asks: "I really want to learn how to code, what should I do?" the answer is always the same: It's possible + you've just got to devote the time toward learning. If you are passionate about it you will stick with it. The answer has always been pretty clear for me: you just sit down and start learning how to code.

Basically, learning technical skills for me are kind of an inevitability rather than something I'm thinking about. I'm just looking for advice in regards to learning and efficiency. I really like your ideas + philosophy about self-learning, and remember you talking about learning methods in a Mixergy interview, e.g. spaced repetition software for language learning. Any similar advice about coding?

Basically, is there a way to increase the speed limit when learning to code?

Would you also recommend working on a web application while learning to code (since you started CD Baby in a similar way)?

Thanks in advance for the reply :)

http://www.codeschool.com/

and

http://eloquentjavascript.net/

But I do think it's crucial to have some little project that's actually live and launched, that people are using, that you can add things to and constantly improve.

It helps you get immediate feedback, and remember why you're doing what you're doing: to make other people's lives better!

You don't want to just be learning in a vaccuum for months or years, not being of benefit to anyone except some maybe-future-self years from now.

Even if you start with some plain HTML site, and add nothing but a dumb "The time is now " + Time.now() -- then at least you've started, and you can improve from there.

As you go through Code School, or Eloquent JavaScript, or whatever other ways you learn, try to find a way to apply what you've learned to your site.

And lastly: learning by NECESSITY is the most effective way. If you HAVE to figure out how to make your site do some kind of function because you have people complaining to you that it's not, then you'll go figure out how to do it, and remember it with an intensity that you just don't get from, "OK, now it's time for Chapter 7."

That's very similar to advice from Patio11 that I just read over on Askolo¹:

> Rate of learning increases by an absolutely stupid amount by launching a product and having users [...]

1. http://askolo.com/patio11

What I liked about Tony Robbins' message was this:

* - Change happens in an instant. People act like change takes years, but really it's almost always a key moment, an instant where you change the way you think about something, or make a promise to yourself to change the way you act (even though it feels strange at first). It may have taken years of procrastination to get to that pain point, but the change itself is instant.

* - You can change the way you think, so you can change the way you feel. People say, "I can't help the way I feel." or "This is just who I am." But you were an almost-blank slate when born, and most of what you think was just taught into you by someone, so you can un-do it, and replace it with any beliefs or even emotions that support your goal. He gives a great example of funerals in New Orleans: how they play sad music for a few minutes, then break into celebration. We think that death is universally sad, right? But this shows there's another way to think about it. So you can choose to feel happy about each person that rejects you ("one step closer!"), or choose to feel disgusted by the thought of procrastinating ("it's my mortal enemy!"), or whatever you choose to feel.

Actually there were probably 100 other things like this that changed the way I think, but just seem commonplace to me now because I've been thinking them so long.

Grab any of those classic self-help books like "Think and Grow Rich" or "Maximum Achievement" or "Awaken the Giant Within". When read at the right time in your life, it can really change everything.

(( Oh, just noticed you asked about harmony. All the stuff he taught be was very basic jazz harmony that almost any book on the subject will teach. The key was how fast he taught it. ))

- Change: change is a sequence of stages you move through according to well-defined processes: (1) pre-contemplation (where you haven't started considering change, or are even aware it's an option), (2) contemplation (where you're considering change but haven't decided), (3) preparation (where you've decided to change and start preparing for the consequences of change), (4) action (where you actually practice change) and (5) maintenance (where you maintain change - going to gym once is change, but doesn't really count :)

That 'instant' you refer to is familiar to me and IMO it is when your brain collects enough awareness of your push/pull factors to move you from preparation (3) to action (4). Many people underestimate how critical preparation is, and for most people steps 1, 2 and 3 are not conscious at all and you will go back and forth over them for years. If you're quitting smoking but smoking gives you a break from your annoying boss, or it's how you socialise, or gives you access to the cute guy/girl you're into, and you go unprepared (unaware) into action and quit smoking you are highly likely to relapse (i.e. go back to stage 1 or 2).

I highly recommend reading Prochaska et al.'s "Changing for Good" (http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Good-Revolutionary-Overcoming...) to understand about the stages of change, how to evaluate where you are w.r.t. a certain change and if you're ready to move forward to the next stage, and the processes that help you move from one stage to the next (taster: 'commitment' is only suitable from the 3rd stage onwards, and can actually hurt your chances of successfully changing if you commit when you're in an earlier stage!).

- Changing the way you think: David Burns' books, particularly the "Feeling Good Handbook" (http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Handbook-David-Burns/dp/0...), and Helmstetter's "What to say when you talk to yourself" (http://www.amazon.com/What-Say-When-Talk-Yourself/dp/0671708...)

- Awaken the Giant is a great book, and I get the timing thing you talk about. I read it first over ten years ago and it meant nothing to me. Having gained a bit of experience since then I listened to it recently about a month ago and suddenly I could relate to 90% of what was being said, and Robbins helped solidify a bunch of ideas that had previously just been floating around in my head.

Related: thanks for your writing Derek, it's inspirational.

At Berklee, I'd get a piano room every night at 10pm until midnight, when they closed. Then I'd sleep from 1am to 7am, practice some more, and go to class.

I was quite driven.

Kind of like someone who really feels if they just work their ass off they can be the next Zuckerberg, 20 years ago, being a successful musician felt more attainable. It felt like if I just practiced my ass off, wrote a lot of great songs, and put myself where the action is, I could be successful.

That kind of "I can almost taste it" feeling is the most amazing motivation, isn't it?

My friends called me "the robot" because I never hung out, never partied, never sat around in the cafeteria eating with them. I'd just grab a peanut butter sandwich and get back to work. Couldn't waste a single minute on the road to success!

Yep, that's at least one genetic advantage you have on most of us.

I think I kind of have the same problem as you do: not enough/too much sleep that messes up my day. But is this "genetic" like you saying? I don't think so. Can you point to any directions where to read about this, or at least, how to get better on sleeping enough hours?

Thnx.

I am not sure how you can get better at something which is most likely genetic.

I work full time and have a not terrible commute, and if I want to eat healthy and get a bit of exercise and spend just a tiny amount of time with friends and family... well, it's hard to get the hours of sleep I genetically need to function 100%.

Now, I can go for a very long time sleeping no more than 6 hours a night, but I can feel it slowly killing me.

"Don't give a f--k about roaches....tryin get em out of my mother f--kin head......can't get em out of my mother f--kin head"

And looking back, do you feel that it was all worth it? Or would you make different decisions if you knew then what you know now?

I was following my interests 100% without letting peer pressure convince me to do something I didn't want to do. (Hang out.)

I showed myself what I could do. Priceless.

"Don't give a f--k about roaches....tryin get em out of my mother f--kin head.....can't get em out of my mother f--kin head"

Apply his language advice to playing.

One of his main points is to just throw yourself into conversation in a strange country. Even if you only know 3 words and aren't prepared. Be scared. Mess up. Be embarrassed, but keep going.

You can't just stay in the shed. You have to get out and play with others, be scared, mess up, get embarrassed, and keep going.

For ex., under a minor chord pick the IV-V-VII-I notes (For Amin that's D-E-G-A, play that A an octave above root.) Just sit there and play those 4 notes with bends, pull offs, slide ups and mix up the rhythm until it gets some soul. Whatever you do, don't be systematic. beer helps... and record yourself so you can review for what works and what doesn't.

So I wrote my first Android app, to track every minute of every day. See https://github.com/50pop/NowNowNow if interested.

Most of my time these days is spent studying some new programming languages and techniques (Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Sequel, JavaScript, jQuery, Backbone). Less time spent turning that learning into real creation. Soon... soon....

In the meantime, feel free to fork it and use it yourself.

Then look into the conditions of "flow" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

1. A clear set of goals : you know exactly what needs to be done next.

2. The task is not too easy, but not too hard. It's just at the edge of your ability.

3. The task gives you immediate feedback.

When you're engaged in that kind of work, you FOCUS! That's why video games are so addictive! They play up these 3 conditions so well. You have no problem focusing when playing a video game!

Also it's pretty crucial to have all this work be leading to a goal that you want so badly - whether it's to be a millionaire, to be famous, to be in Y Combinator, whatever.

Then it's also crucial to have this goal be so close that you know if you just keep working well that it's very likely you'll get there.

Get those situations lined up, and you'll have no problem focusing!

(( And yes, I'm embarrassed to admit I have a major problem with focus in my life right now. Apparently it's kind of common for recent mutli-millionaires who have surpassed all their previous goals. What's next? How can I top this? Do I want to? Do I just retire now? I have some new goals, but they're not burning goals. And I just realized they aren't matching steps #1, 2, 3, above. Hmmm.... ))

Since I was a kid, I would have these rare moments of intense calmness. Certain things would set it off: the sound of paper brushing together when someone is reading a book. I've also had this happen when listening to certain people talk; their voice or mannerisms trigger it. Other strange things also trigger it, like the sound of secadas in the summer. The older I get the more rare I experience it, but I've yet to hear anyone else talk about it. When I've explained this feeling to people, they look at me like I am crazy. I started to wonder if this elated feeling is so extreme for me because I'm generally tense, and so, extreme relaxation is so absolute in my case. Flow sounds like a similar experience. Maybe it's the same?

I used to get it a lot when I was younger, normally when people were doing me a favour I wasn't expecting or they were going out of their way to help me. I've also had it when getting my hair cut.

Throwaway account, as I have also had the crazy look.

The most interesting thing I found was that even by just reading the WSJ article explaining the music, I can feel the shivers.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020364600457721...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chill

I get this when I watch someone who is intensely focused on something slow and repetitive. The best example I remember from my childhood is being mesmerized watching someone sort a deck of cards.

I still get this, and have learned to set up situations that can trigger it (good adult example is having someone slowly "write" text on my back with their finger).

But I am quite driven to turn my next app/business ideas into reality : http://50pop.com/code

Definitely not trying to "top" CD Baby. Just following what fascinates me. Just not quite as intensely as when I was so driven to be a rock star. ☺

For example, I'm tempted to give this bit of advice:

Think small. Don't think about getting rich. Just think what you can do for someone right now that they'll be happy to pay you for. Then when you've found it, think of how to do it for as many people as possible.

... but is that actually good advice? Or do I just think that's the strategy that made me rich, when actually it's something else entirely, and I somehow got successful despite my stupid approach?

That said, here's something that I know is quite solid:

The biggest change in my attitude towards money came from my girlfriend's hippie parents. She grew up on a commune in Vermont. No TV, no nothing. Her parents just did random odd jobs - like photography and sewing - but kept their cost of living so low that it was enough to sustain them to this day. Then they put their daughter through fancy ivy-league universities on scholarships and such.

By lowering your cost of living so low that you can do just a few hours of work per month to pay your expenses, then it frees you up to turn your attention to doing things that make you happy, or perhaps building things that will make you much more money in the long run. Things that most people don't have the time to do because they're too busy on the rat-race, doing some job they hate, because they need to support their expensive cost of living.

Point being: once you realize how cheaply you can live, you get a real secure feeling of financial abundance.

Then keep improving your hustle, and doing whatever it takes to make money doing what you love, and the security/abundance mixes with fun, for a damn good combination.

(I hope this helps.)

I like that you have everything planned out to be multi-lingual from the start on your projects. I remember reading your uses.this interview a while back and you talked about using wendlin/learning chinese. Are you still doing that, if so, how's that going?

Nginx: http://wiki.nginx.org/Main

JavaScript: http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Professional-JavaScri... and http://eloquentjavascript.net/

jQuery: http://www.sitepoint.com/books/jquery2/ and http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfjquery/

Backbone: https://peepcode.com/products/backbone-js and http://backbonetutorials.com/ ... but I've barely started.

And yeah I'm still learning Chinese, but I've scaled it back, because I realized that the programming is more important to me now, and I wasn't getting all the programming done that I wanted to because I was taking 2 hours a day on my Chinese.

It looks like they also sell a book, but it was published July 2010, so I'm not sure how much has changed since.

Read “The Power of Full Engagement” : http://sivers.org/book/PowerOfFullEngagement

The authors worked with the best athletes and executives for years, and found that the best ones knew how to push themselves, then recuperate, push, recuperate. Take this same approach to your emotional, mental, physical, and even spiritual life, and it's a powerful metaphor. Think of sprints, not marathons. Be fully in whatever you're in, then give time to recuperate. But push futher each time, past your comfort zone, like a good exercise plan.

"How do you handle stress and burnout?" "Power through it."

I'm sorry, but that's terrible advice. You might as well tell someone with depression to "just get over it already".

I mean that any time any of us get to that point, there are a few approaches we could take.

(1) - Go take a long vacation.

(2) - Quit and change your approach.

(3) - Don't change a thing. Sleep tonight, but tomorrow just keep pushing the same direction as you've been doing. It'll be painful, you'll scream and complain, but just keep working anyway.

I've tried all three. When I do (1) or (2), it throws me so far off course that I never come back.

But powering through it is also the advice that ultra-marathon runners advise. They say you feel the pain, but just ignore it and go anyway. You don't take a break. You just keep running.

When I've taken this approach to the work I'm doing, I tend to find joy and an easier road ahead, past the painful burnt-out feeling I felt the day/week before. I'm glad I didn't take a vacation or change course.

A close family member of mine tried to power through her feelings of being burnt out, and wound up spending the next two years debilitated by chronic fatigue -- needing lifts to her various therapists because even just walking to the bus stop caused her physical pain, never mind the sensory overload she suffered in noise & crowds.

As such, I just felt it was important to emphasise that "powering through" doesn't work for everyone or every situation. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

The best tips for beating the language-learning speed limit are from Benny : http://www.fluentin3months.com/about/

If you are looking to mix up you studies, you should checkout my site. http://chinese.yabla.com/ It is not free, but if you are interested, shoot me an email, and I'll send you an account.

Be the change you want to see, right? So maybe just start by being a Kimo yourself?

For Mentorship:

1. Figure out what you want to do. 2. Find people who have achieved this. 3. Contact them (rules in a moment). 4. Create a good back and forth dynamic.

For Interest: 1. Identify something interesting about the person you want to learn more about 2. Contact them to ask a simple, non-overwhelming question 3. Keep the conversation going if relevant, or let it die naturally. Don't force shit.

======= CONTACTING PEOPLE WHO ARE AWESOME: A PRIMER -------

The following is a hierarchy for contacting people with respect to effectiveness and long term benefit.

1. WITH AN INTRODUCTION - Face to face by third party - Face to face with third party introduction prior - Phone by third party - Phone with third party introduction prior - Email by third party - Email with third party introduction prior

2. WITHOUT AN INTRODUCTION - Non face to face, with an easy (and, hopefully unexpected yet interesting) question. This is actually how I contacted Derek the first time. Email is good if you can write well (do a copywriting course), and a phone is good if you can wrestle past gatekeepers (not that hard). - Face to face

That's it. This stuff is not hard - in fact, it's easy. Don't stalk, be cool, pay it forward wherever you can.

- R

P.S. Can't get people to respond? They're busy, or you aren't interesting enough. Adjust your tact. P.P.S. Contact details are easily found with Google - old blogs, personal blogs, deep enough on the website, whatever.

It might not be a one on one coaching, but seeing how much others do while slacking of on the couch and reading about all their doings on Twitter should make you more productive.

I've known people who are perfectly willing and capable mentors, but never got asked. Ironically, they were surrounded by people who were looking for mentors, but were afraid to ask. I happened to know both sides and made the connection, but I'm sure many others fall through the cracks just because they didn't ask someone to be their mentor.

Note: Not everyone has the time, willingness, or ability to be a mentor. But I still don't think it hurts to ask. The worst you can get is no mentor, which is what you started out with anyways.

http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/kimo+williams+of+col...

After you where taught everything, fast, why did you still go to Berklee? How was your time there?

There were only a few good teachers. Most were half-assing it.

But once I realized that they weren't going to teach me anything, I got inspired. I realized that I was in an amazing place that held all the knowledge I want. I just had to go get it!

I treated it like a library. I pulled information out of people, recordings, books.

More than anything, it was a great environment for learning. It kept me 100% focused, every minute of every day, on getting better at music. No job or real-world stuff to distract me.

But that was also before the internet!

Now, I imagine that since the environment is the most important thing, you could find your killer environment in many places that don't charge tuition. Whether it's moving to Silicon Valley to be surrounded by your peers, or moving to India to study with a teacher.

Same reason some people go to a health spa retreat to get healthy. They could have just stayed at home to do it, but going to a dedicated place can really help.

As a note, this is the way to get the most out of University. Put a vacuum up against the U and turn it on... get everything you can. University should not just happen to you: you need to create the happening.

Socrates walked the young man into a nearby lake. When the water was a few feet deep, Socrates suddly grabbed the young man and pushed his head under water and held it there.

At first the young man thought it was a joke, but as he was held under longer and longer, he became frantic. He struggled desperately to get free and his lungs burned for lack of oxygen.

Finally Socrates let him up, coughing and gasping for air.

Socrates then said, "When you desire wisdom with the same intensity that you desired to breathe, nothing will stop you from getting it."

It's the same with your motivation/practice/habits.

First of all. Excellent blog post. Just reading it made me want to leave behind the things capping the speed limit on my life.

However, I see that story used in a lot of contexts. (And the characters involved change often.) And what I always find myself asking every time I read it (Or rather skim it as the case may be.) is "Well yes, I knew that much already, but how do you desire something that's not air as much as the ability to breathe itself.". It would seem that therein lies the rub. Getting that excited about anything is tough.

In a way it's a non-answer. Which is always disappointing to receive.

Do you have any experiences with or knowledge of speed learning being used to learn the physical skills of playing an instrument?

He's using speed-learning techniques to learn 6 different skills fast, and one of them is learning a new instrument.

Contact him here - http://joshkaufman.net/about/ - to see if he could give you some starter points for now, until his book comes out much later.

1) What occupies your time these days Derek ?

2) Possibly related - what unfulfilled dreams do you still have ?

... because ...

(2) : If I die before turning these projects into reality, I'm going to be pissed-off! http://50pop.com/code

It's really my main drive these days, to finally launch these ideas I've had spec'd out for a long time.

I know I could just hire someone else to make them, but the joy (to me) is in the process, not the goal. I want to learn these programming techniques so well that I can quickly create all my future ideas, too.

Very interesting for me to read this now. My wife is pushing me to outsource the development of an idea that I've been talking about raising from a demo to a real site, because I'm taking my sweet time (learning Python, Flask et al). I'm not making efforts to find someone to outsource it, but instead I'm still trying to learn what I need to to get it up the ground. (just don't tell my wife)

"the joy is in the process, not the goal"… I'll have to keep that in mind.

Hire someone to do it for you, but on the condition that you can watch over their shoulder and ask questions as they go.

That way, you can get it done and get it launched, while at the same time you get to watch an expert, learn enough to maintain and improve this project - and learn how to do it yourself next time.

I did this for my first Android app - https://github.com/50pop/NowNowNow

I started slogging through some Android books and realized it'd take me forever. So I learned just enough to understand the context, then hired a guy that let me watch. I learned more by watching and talking with him than if I would have just continued slogging through the books. And it got done in 2 days!

Didn't cost much. The key was how I asked. I just made it a criteria of the job when I posted/announced it. "Looking for someone to program while I watch and ask questions."

I know he really enjoyed it. Said it was much more rewarding than the usual coding in solitude, not knowing if the client is really appreciating the effort.

Did you use a large freelance-finding site (oDesk, elance, etc.)? If some other method, do you mind sharing?

But for future, I'd try odesk, elance, and also asking around my network of programmers I already know.

My favourite was http://50pop.com/karmalist if only because someone needs to kill Yelp !

An open source, non company-controlled business review service is a killer proposition. The challenges will be how to incentivise users to submit reviews to the service (what's their motivation ?) and how to successfully moderate extreme or unhelpful reviews in a scalable manner.