How to become an expert (At Almost Anything)

If you want to become an expert on an area, a particular idea a sub-discipline or whatever area of study you choose. Then a good place to start is to know the history of that area or that idea. To do this you can learn the key people within that discipline.

You need important dates and you need to have memorised quotes from those key people. This will give you a good grasp of the key concepts of the founding ideas.

So let's start:

Step 1

For me an example of what I want to become an expert in is Stoicism. This isn't because it’s popular. It's because when I heard about the whole concept a few years ago, I thought it was a great philosophy to live by.

If Stoicism is an interest to you, you may come across some key players ranging from 400 BC through to today. That is over 2400 years.

The first person you may have come across is Ryan Holiday. Ryan is a great champion for stoicism but it’s not the best place to start.

You may have also seen the book Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. This book should have never been published as it was his personal journal.

But this is not the best place to start.

Go in chronological order of the books written.

Start with the founder of Stoicism, Zeno.

Step 2

When you read the books, highlight pages or make notes. Unless you want to resell a book once you have finished it, this is a good way to highlight key findings and ideas.

If you are planning on reselling a book use small sticky notes in the margins so you can revisit the pages.

Step 3

When you finish the book, go back through it. Repeat those key points by writing them down, or typing them if it’s easier for you.

This is an important step and one that definitely works for me, which is not copy and paste things.

Writing things out word by word helps me remember things. I understand the words rather than seeing them.

When I do this as I write each word, I see the bigger picture and think in real time about what an argument is. From that, I can understand more and try to put myself in their shoes.

the idea of becoming an expert is that you understand the thoughts of each expert. Then how does teaching change or augment as time moves on?

You will see that Zeno’s philosophy is very different to Marcus Aurelius’. The reason is they were different people living in different times.

Once you have completed each book you should have a large collection of summarised notes. You will not only have an idea of the topic but you also have an understanding of the logic behind the teachings. this is a commonplace book.

Step 4

You can use commonplace books to capture all that information.

• Key dates;

• Key figures;

• Key ideas;

• Key themes.

If you're going to become an expert on any topic then you need to have your own thoughts about the topic.

Look at what each has added to the argument and think of it objectively. Try to understand why they added and their findings.

Add your own thoughts to theirs and try to critique the findings and how they may have been wrong. This can be a challenge sometimes, but putting yourself in that position allows you to

Think of it as a peer review of those writings.

Summarise it all

this isn’t just for Stoicism, though.

This can be used for any topic, from physics and math all the way through to ballet and even music.

I did physics at undergraduate level in university. A note here: I have some knowledge on physics and I am interested in the subject but I am no stephen Hawking or Brian Cox.

You don’t start with understanding why scientists were trying to find Higgs Boson. It's better to start with the fundamentals with Galileo, and Isaac Newton. Then Making your way all the way through to Einstein, Stephen Hawking's findings on the big bang.

The same goes for everything and every subject you want to become an expert in.

It’s important to understand that you need to put in serious time and effort.

If you are trying to become an expert in stoicism and physics at the same time, it might be a challenge.

Practice often on what you want to become. Becoming an expert isn’t like riding a bike. You need to go through the learnings and keep it fresh in your mind otherwise you will forget.

My biggest takeaway is choose what you want to be an expert in. Everyone can know have general knowledge of a subject. It's not possible (probably) to become an expert in everything.

https://youtu.be/LTbjlUe7vMk?si=23t6EuxPXZUT7NWa

If you want to become an expert on a area, a particular idea or a sub-discipline or whatever area of study you choose. then you need to know the history of that area or that idea you need to know the key people within that discipline.

You need important dates and you need to have memorised quotes from those key people to get a good grasp of the key concepts of the founding ideas.

For me an example of what I want to become an expert in is Stoicism, not just because it’s popular but because I heard about the whole concept a few years ago, I thought it was a great philosophy to live by.

If you too are interested in stoicism, you may come across some key players ranging from 400 BC and today. That is over 2400 years.

The first person you may have come across is Ryan Holiday. Ryan is a great champion for stoicism but it’s not the best place to start.

Start with the founder of Stoicism, Zeno.

Again, you may have also seen the book Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the book that shouldn’t have ever been a book as it was his personal journal.

But this is not the best place to start.

Go in chronological order of the books written.

Step 2

When you read the books, highlight pages or make notes. Unless you want to resell a book once you have finished it, this is a good way to highlight key findings and ideas.

If you are planning on reselling a book use small sticky notes in the margins so you can revisit the pages.

Step 3

When the book is finished, go back through it. Repeat those key points by writing them down, or typing them if it’s easier for you.

This is an important step and one that definitely works for me, which is not copy and paste things.

Writing things out word by word helps me remember things and understand them rather than passively seeing the words.

When I do this as I write each word, I see the bigger picture and think in real time about what argument is or understand more deeply trying to almost put myself in their shoes.

the idea of becoming an expert is you understand the thoughts of each expert and how their teaching change or augment as time moves on.

You will see that Zeno’s philosophy is very different to Marcus Aurelius’ as they were different people living in different times.

Once each book is done you should have a large collection of summarised notes that you not only have an idea of the topic but you also have an understanding of the logic behind the teachings. this is a commonplace book.

Step 4

now you can use commonplace books to capture all that information key dates and key figures and key ideas and themes and most importantly if you're going to become an expert on this topic then you need to have your own thoughts about the topic about the ideas about the key players.

Look at what each has added to the argument and think of it objectively and understand why they added and their findings.

Add your own thoughts to theirs and try to critise the findings and how they may have been wrong. This can be a challenge sometimes, but putting yourself in that position allows you to be more objective.

think of it as a peer review of those writings.

Summarise it all

this isn’t just for Stoicism, though.

This can be used for any topic, from physics and math all the way through to ballet and even music.

I did physics at undergraduate level in university. A note here: I have some knowledge on physics and I am interested in the subject but I am no stephen Hawking or Brian Cox.

You don’t start with understanding why scientists were trying to find Higgs Boson, you start with the fundamentals with Galileo, and Isaac Newton. Making your way all the way through to Einstein, then Stephen Hawking's findings on the big bang.

The same goes for everything and every subject you want to become an expert in.

It’s important to understand that is you want to truly become an expert in a subject, you will need to dedicate some serious time and effort into that one thing.

If you are trying to learn Stoicism and learning physics it might be a challenge.

So practice regualrly on what you want to become, unfortunately becoming an expert isn’t like riding a bike. You need to constantly go through the learnings and keep it fresh in your mind otherwise you will forget.

You do not see 1 man that knows everything but you may know a few who are experts in 1 or 2 different things.How to become an expert

If you want to become an expert on an area, a particular idea a sub-discipline or whatever area of study you choose. Then a good place to start is to know the history of that area or that idea. To do this you can learn the key people within that discipline.

You need important dates and you need to have memorised quotes from those key people. This will give you a good grasp of the key concepts of the founding ideas.

So let's start:

Step 1

For me an example of what I want to become an expert in is Stoicism. This isn't because it’s popular. It's because when I heard about the whole concept a few years ago, I thought it was a great philosophy to live by.

If Stoicism is an interest to you, you may come across some key players ranging from 400 BC through to today. That is over 2400 years.

The first person you may have come across is Ryan Holiday. Ryan is a great champion for stoicism but it’s not the best place to start.

You may have also seen the book Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. This book should have never been published as it was his personal journal.

But this is not the best place to start.

Go in chronological order of the books written.

Start with the founder of Stoicism, Zeno.

Step 2

When you read the books, highlight pages or make notes. Unless you want to resell a book once you have finished it, this is a good way to highlight key findings and ideas.

If you are planning on reselling a book use small sticky notes in the margins so you can revisit the pages.

Step 3

When you finish the book, go back through it. Repeat those key points by writing them down, or typing them if it’s easier for you.

This is an important step and one that definitely works for me, which is not copy and paste things.

Writing things out word by word helps me remember things. I understand the words rather than seeing them.

When I do this as I write each word, I see the bigger picture and think in real time about what an argument is. From that, I can understand more and try to put myself in their shoes.

the idea of becoming an expert is that you understand the thoughts of each expert. Then how does teaching change or augment as time moves on?

You will see that Zeno’s philosophy is very different to Marcus Aurelius’. The reason is they were different people living in different times.

Once you have completed each book you should have a large collection of summarised notes. You will not only have an idea of the topic but you also have an understanding of the logic behind the teachings. this is a commonplace book.

Step 4

You can use commonplace books to capture all that information.

• Key dates;

• Key figures;

• Key ideas;

• Key themes.

If you're going to become an expert on any topic then you need to have your own thoughts about the topic.

Look at what each has added to the argument and think of it objectively. Try to understand why they added and their findings.

Add your own thoughts to theirs and try to critique the findings and how they may have been wrong. This can be a challenge sometimes, but putting yourself in that position allows you to

Think of it as a peer review of those writings.

Summarise it all

this isn’t just for Stoicism, though.

This can be used for any topic, from physics and math all the way through to ballet and even music.

I did physics at undergraduate level in university. A note here: I have some knowledge on physics and I am interested in the subject but I am no stephen Hawking or Brian Cox.

You don’t start with understanding why scientists were trying to find Higgs Boson. It's better to start with the fundamentals with Galileo, and Isaac Newton. Then Making your way all the way through to Einstein, Stephen Hawking's findings on the big bang.

The same goes for everything and every subject you want to become an expert in.

It’s important to understand that you need to put in serious time and effort.

If you are trying to become an expert in stoicism and physics at the same time, it might be a challenge.

Practice often on what you want to become. Becoming an expert isn’t like riding a bike. You need to go through the learnings and keep it fresh in your mind otherwise you will forget.

My biggest takeaway is choose what you want to be an expert in. Everyone can know have general knowledge of a subject. It's not possible (probably) to become an expert in everything.

https://youtu.be/LTbjlUe7vMk?si=23t6EuxPXZUT7NWa

If you want to become an expert on a area, a particular idea or a sub-discipline or whatever area of study you choose. then you need to know the history of that area or that idea you need to know the key people within that discipline.

You need important dates and you need to have memorised quotes from those key people to get a good grasp of the key concepts of the founding ideas.

For me, an example of what I want to become an expert in is Stoicism. It's not because it’s popular but because I heard about the whole concept a few years ago, I thought it was a great philosophy to live by.

If you too are interested in stoicism, you may come across some key players ranging from 400 BC and today. That is over 2400 years.

The first person you may have come across is Ryan Holiday. Ryan is a great champion for stoicism but it’s not the best place to start.

Start with the founder of Stoicism, Zeno.

Again, you may have also seen the book Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the book that shouldn’t have ever been a book as it was his personal journal.

But this is not the best place to start.

Go in chronological order of the books written.

Step 2

When you read the books, highlight pages or make notes. Unless you want to resell a book once you have finished it, this is a good way to highlight key findings and ideas.

If you are planning on reselling a book use small sticky notes in the margins so you can revisit the pages.

Step 3

When the book is finished, go back through it. Repeat those key points by writing them down, or typing them if it’s easier for you.

This is an important step and one that definitely works for me, which is not copy and paste things.

Writing things out word by word helps me remember things and understand them rather than passively seeing the words.

When I do this as I write each word, I see the bigger picture and think in real time about what argument is. I understand more deeply trying to almost put myself in their shoes.

the idea of becoming an expert is you understand the thoughts of each expert and how their teaching change or augment as time moves on.

You will see that Zeno’s philosophy is very different to Marcus Aurelius'.

Once each book is done you should have a large collection of summarised notes. These not only give you an idea of the topic but you also have an understanding of the logic behind the teachings. this is a commonplace book.

Step 4

Now you can use commonplace books to capture all that information key dates, key figures, key ideas and themes. Most importantly if you're going to become an expert on this topic then you need to have your own thoughts about the topic.

Look at what each has added to the argument and think of it objectively and understand why they added and their findings.

Add your own thoughts to theirs and try to critise the findings and how they may have been wrong. This can be a challenge sometimes, but putting yourself in that position allows you to be more objective.

think of it as a peer review of those writings.

Summarise it all

this isn’t just for Stoicism, though.

This can be used for any topic, from physics and math all the way through to ballet and even music.

I did physics at undergraduate level in university. A note here: I have some knowledge on physics and I am interested in the subject but I am no stephen Hawking or Brian Cox.

You don’t start with understanding why scientists were trying to find Higgs Boson. You start with the fundamentals with Galileo, and Isaac Newton. Making your way all the way through to Einstein, then Stephen Hawking's findings on the big bang.

The same goes for everything and every subject you want to become an expert in.

It’s important to understand that is you want to truly become an expert in a subject. You will need to dedicate some serious time and effort into that one thing.

If you are trying to learn Stoicism and learning physics it might be a challenge.

So practice on what you want to become, unfortunately becoming an expert isn’t like riding a bike. You need to go through the learnings and keep it fresh in your mind otherwise you will forget.

You do not see 1 man that knows everything but you may know a few who are experts in 1 or 2 different things.