How to Get Smarter Without Really Trying

I have a confession: I’m a terribly impatient learner. If I pick up a new skill, I want to be halfway decent at it by, oh, yesterday. Naturally, this has led me down some strange rabbit holes in search of quicker ways to get smarter. Over the years I’ve discovered something counterintuitive: the best way to learn faster is often to not do what we’re “supposed” to do.

Let me illustrate. A while back I decided to learn piano. Like any beginner, I dutifully Googled how and got the usual sensible but dull advice: practice scales, memorize the keys, learn theory. Very proper, and absolutely no fun. So I did the opposite. I ignored 90% of that advice and focused on just three chords that show up in loads of songs. I spent my practice time switching between those chords, striking the ebonies and ivories along to real music. No tedious drills, just me trying to play Wonderwall badly until I could play it less badly.

A funny thing happened: within a couple of weeks I was functional. I certainly wasn’t good (Elton can rest easy), but I was having fun and I could play real songs people recognized. By starting with a tiny slice of the end goal (actual songs!) instead of a mountain of basics, I’d tricked myself into rapid competence. That little taste of “hey, this is working” gave me motivation to go back and pick up some fundamentals I’d skipped. (Success became the appetizer that made the vegetables finally appetizing).

This idea of zeroing in on the highest-yield bits first is a real superpower. ultra-learner Tim Ferriss has an entire framework for it. The gist: break a skill into pieces, choose the few that matter most, do those first (even if it’s out of order), and create stakes (make it hard for yourself to quit). I’m not one for strict formulas, but there’s wisdom in that. For example, traditional language classes make you grind through conjugations forever; a hackier approach is to jump straight to a handful of phrases you’ll actually use. If all you learn at first is “I’d like a coffee, please” and “Where’s the bathroom?”, you’re basically equipped for a weekend in Paris. That’s functional fluency in action: just enough to get by and build your confidence. It feels like cheating to skip the boring drills, but those quick wins do wonders for your confidence.

Another trick is learning through constraints. It sounds odd, but limiting yourself can sometimes speed things up. Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a bet that he couldn’t use more than 50 different words. That absurd limit forced him to get creative, and it worked. The little book became a classic. So try putting some playful limits on your learning. Challenge yourself to hold a two-minute conversation in Spanish using only the present tense (and maybe some wildly expressive hand gestures). It’s a bit silly, but constraints spark creativity and stop the overthinker in us from, well, overthinking.

Now, about staying the course after the initial excitement fades. I’m notoriously good at abandoning projects. My solution is something psychologists call a commitment device. I just call it backing myself into a corner. For example, two years ago I announced (on this very platform, no less) that I was writing a book. Suddenly I was on the hook; backing out would have been more embarrassing than admitting I’d been all talk. You can bet I wrote furiously, with my reputation at stake. And lo and behold, that half-formed idea turned into a finished manuscript: one that even became a bestselling business book in Korea. It’s the classic “burn your ships” strategy for personal growth: remove your escape route and see how much more seriously you take things.

Finally, let’s talk about the people around you. Surround yourself with folks who believe in your potential. I’ve seen it happen: give someone an encouraging mentor or cheerleader and they blossom much faster. You start acting like the capable person they think you are. In my experience, the simplest way to get smarter is to hang around people who won’t be surprised when you do.

So that’s my brain-dump on accelerated learning. It’s a bit scattered, but there’s a common thread: psychology trumps grind. We spend so much time stressing the hard work that we forget the mind games. The irony is that by embracing playful, counterintuitive tactics, learning itself starts to feel like play. You get a sense of mischief, like you’re outsmarting the system (and in a way, you are). When learning feels like a game you’ve cleverly rigged in your favor, you level up shockingly fast.