Scott H Young

The idea of self-explanations took off and became a studying meme that has since gone far beyond my own audience. Here are 5 ideas you must keep in mind to get the most out of it.

My new book, Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery, is now available for preorder. This book means a lot to me. It’s easily the longest and hardest I’ve ever worked on any project in my life. From start to finish, the project took over four years, involving hundreds of books, several hundred scientific […]

Studying for school can be hard, but the process is pretty straightforward: Outside of school, though, this strategy breaks down. It’s impossible even to be aware of all the books that might be useful for any given subject, never mind actually reading them all.  In an infinite library, choosing what material to learn dwarfs even […]

What if being productive doesn’t mean feeling productive? A paradox of productivity is that the things that feel productive—working incessantly, checking off lots of tasks, feeling strained and drained—are often not what produces important accomplishments; in fact, these things can get in the way.  Recently, two of my friends have written books which argue versions […]