Though I’m not academically accomplished, friends and family in China still ask me about educating children. I have two kids myself and constantly need to learn and improve at work. Educating others and self-improvement are essentially the same—both aim to enhance a person’s abilities. These reasons prompted me to think deeply about how one should approach education and self-improvement: What are the key components? How can we know if our methods are effective?

Humans’ greatest strength is their brain and intelligence, so I’ll start by analyzing intelligence. Traditional IQ refers to abilities like calculation, spatial imagination, memory, reading, and logic. Many insightful people argue that evaluating someone purely by IQ is insufficient. Traditional education typically focuses on these traditional IQ aspects, sometimes creating students excellent in academic knowledge but ineffective in real-world situations. Thus, it’s crucial to redefine IQ in a way closer to practical life and work demands.

A More Comprehensive Definition of Intelligence

Here’s my attempt at a new definition of intelligence:

Intelligence = Goal Setting + Learning + Modeling + Perception + Prediction + Decision-making + Execution

A truly intelligent person should have the following capabilities:

  • Ability to set reasonable short-term and long-term goals based on their current skills and external environment.

  • Strong learning abilities.

  • Accurate mental models of themselves, others, and their environment, treating people and things as modules with defined internal functions and external interactions.

  • Timely and accurate perception of physical and mental states, sensitivity to social cues, and attention to organizational, industrial, family, national, and global affairs.

  • Ability to predict the short-term and long-term outcomes of their potential actions or speech using these mental models.

  • Ability to decisively select optimal actions based on these predictions.

  • Focused and persistent yet flexible execution and adjustment of plans.

Those familiar with intelligent software and hardware systems will immediately recognize these as core modules of intelligent systems. Indeed, I believe intelligent humans and intelligent systems share essentially similar core functionalities. If we design a smart robot, it must include goal setting, perception, learning, modeling, prediction, decision-making, and execution modules. The technological advancements in these core modules (including optimization algorithms) should also apply to human education and self-improvement. Humans naturally possess the basic capabilities of these functions. Education and self-improvement aim to strengthen these core modules to handle lifelong challenges and achieve life goals.

This expanded IQ definition incorporates emotional intelligence. Modeling others and predicting their reactions to decide one’s actions fall within emotional intelligence.

Let’s discuss each module in detail:

  1. Goal Setting

Goal setting involves determining short-term and long-term objectives based on personal and environmental circumstances. Education should encourage individuals to establish significant long-term goals and learn to break them down into interconnected smaller goals aligned with their current situation, akin to plotting a route on a map.

Adopt a “God’s-eye view” on people and events. Shift early from a first-person to a third-person perspective (God’s-eye view) to continuously evaluate oneself and surroundings, optimizing interactions and setting appropriate goals. Humans differ from animals in their capacity for introspection. Animals operate on instincts—eating, drinking, and basic activities—while humans can pause, contemplate their goals and current state, and use rationality to resist short-term impulses for long-term benefits.

Set ambitious yet achievable goals. A goal easily attainable through routine tasks lacks challenge, accomplishment, and growth. Conversely, overly ambitious goals unattainable even with full effort lead to frustration and loss of confidence. Education and experience should enable individuals to continuously assess their abilities and set progressively challenging yet achievable goals.

A well-known Chinese proverb encapsulates the need for challenging goals: “Aim for excellence, and you’ll achieve mediocrity; aim for mediocrity, and you’ll achieve less.” Setting ambitious standards is critical, as knowledge acquisition is lengthy and challenging. This proverb advises learners to broaden their horizons and set high goals for satisfying outcomes.

Use the SMART principle for specific goal setting:

  • Specific: Clearly defined and actionable.

  • Measurable: Quantifiable progress.

  • Attainable: Realistic with effort.

  • Relevant: Necessary and aligned with long-term objectives.

  • Time-based: Defined deadlines.

For example, learning programming through a specific course like Python fits the SMART criteria: measurable by completion percentage, achievable by design, relevant to career advancement, and time-bound by daily study targets.

  1. Learning Ability

What to Learn

If education’s goal is to help learners achieve life objectives, learning content should include anything relevant to these objectives beyond traditional subjects. In addition to math, language, history, geography, and sciences, individuals should also learn about human characteristics, effective communication, team management, financial management, and organizational processes. They should understand their strengths and weaknesses, motivate themselves, maintain health, ensure proper nutrition, and avoid illness to maintain optimal energy for goal pursuit.

A prime example is American investment genius Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s partner. Munger studied the fundamentals of various critical disciplines, including history, psychology, physiology, mathematics, engineering, biology, physics, chemistry, statistics, and economics. He integrated this knowledge into a comprehensive cognitive framework, leveraging it to analyze investment opportunities effectively.

Preventing errors and accidents is crucial for achieving goals. Education must include safety, crime prevention, disaster preparedness, and awareness of traps like drug addiction, gambling, loans, and fraud, which traditional schooling often neglects.

Charlie Munger again exemplifies this approach by studying and analyzing failure scenarios, using them as reference checks in personal and investment decisions.

Quantity of Learning

Improving learning ability first requires increasing study duration (quantity) before improving efficiency (quality). Full-time students should progressively cultivate the capacity to sustain over 10 hours of focused study daily. Eight hours are average, yielding average results unless you’re gifted. If you fail to reach this volume, it’s because you haven’t developed a passion for learning—no other explanation suffices.

Optimal study arrangement involves multiple sessions totaling 10-12 hours daily, ensuring adequate rest and minimal distractions, ideally in conducive learning environments like libraries.

Learning Methods (Quality)

Effective learning involves proficient note-taking and summarizing key knowledge into a personal knowledge base (second brain). Transforming dense texts into concise notes ensures retention and deeper understanding. Notetaking defines successful learning, as learners without notes quickly forget material.

The Feynman Technique, highly praised by Google and Microsoft founders, emphasizes teaching knowledge to others to reinforce understanding and identify gaps. Quality notes mirror effective teaching materials.

Further enhancing learning quality involves multi-sensory stimuli and active application. Methods like writing notes, teaching, discussion, and practical application intensify brain engagement, optimizing retention and understanding. The Learning Pyramid by the National Training Laboratories illustrates varied effectiveness among learning methods, although individual preferences significantly affect outcomes.

Dare to Ask Questions

While self-learning is vital, consulting experienced individuals accelerates progress significantly. Successful people willingly share knowledge, understanding that aiding others enhances overall societal value and benefits everyone.

Family members often have overlooked valuable traits worth learning due to proximity biases. Thus, exchanging children among families for education or learning from parental strengths can be beneficial. Spouses, however, often struggle to learn from each other effectively due to closeness and familiarity.

Duration of Learning

Learning should be lifelong. Even after obtaining advanced degrees, ongoing learning of new knowledge, tools, and skills remains essential. Regularly allocating weekly study time ensures continual personal and professional growth, avoiding stagnation.

Successful individuals universally practice lifelong learning, exemplified by Buffett, Munger, and Bill Gates, who regularly promotes reading and continuous learning through his influential platforms.

TO BE CONTINUED

Original Chinese version of this article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xKJpj68Ag3rwEt0-c5_lng