Why are different kinds of learning so differently compressible?
If I can work through a textbook in 20 1-hour sittings, I usually get similar results from 10 2-hour or 5 4-hour sessions. But piano isn’t that way at all: a 20x1hr piece simply can’t be learned in 5 sessions IME.
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One explanation might be that when learning piano pieces, successive sessions rely heavily on previous sessions having been consolidated, whereas many “book-learning” topics are somewhat more breadth-shaped.
Another might be that some tasks drain attention faster.
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Other examples of learning which don’t seem to compress very well:
– learning how to draw
– learning how to design user interfaces
– learning how to write
Ones which seem to compress well:
– learning how to cook
– learning a new programming language
– learning a spoken language
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Do you find cooking compresses? I think that like learning Javascript, you can quickly produce effects, but after years of near-daily practice I've entered another level of competence that's rearranged my understanding, like good enough to play in minor leagues of baseball.
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Yes! I’ve found that cooking benefits greatly from a large number of accumulated hours, as you suggest, but in several periods I was able to make much faster progress by dramatically increasing the amount of time I spent per week (e.g. cooking more elaborately, precisely, etc)