I was just listening to a Mad Fientist podcast from October 16th about Ultralearning, with Scott Young. From the website: "Ultralearning is a strategy for aggressive, self-directed learning."
I like the concept. From what I understood, you pick a certain (shortish) time frame and define a learning project and learn it in the best possible way (for you). This best possible way is probably not by going to school and study for several years, but doing it your own way and much faster and more intensive. Like learning a language, just live in a country where they speak the language and only speak that language for a couple of months. During an ultralearning project you can typically use more hours than you would learn on a course that goes one hour a week. Ideally you should also not only study from books, but combine different aspects from the material, including real world aspects.
I will be FIREing in a few weeks, and from January I would like to use this concept of ultralearning for learning new skills. One of my ideas is to learn biology, which has my interest. I had a look at the universities and what they offered. But that is often biology/chemistry and very based on getting a job afterwards. For me the job part is not relevant. I just want to learn more about plants, trees and the diversity of life. And I want to learn using a microscope for mushroom determination.
According to the podcast, you had to limit your learning scope within the amount of time. So my first project will be to learn the basics of botany, so that I will be able to use my flora (a plant book) in a correct way, by using the key in the beginning of the book. Today that key is just a collection of unknown words and the glossary in the back doesn't explain them.
I will start at the library at see if they have some relevant books. And I will also look for online university material in basics of botany. Then, because it is winter, I will have to wait until spring to go out and look at plants and study them more. I also plan to do a course in microscopy at my mushroom club. I have already provided them with studying materials. And I plan to buy a (used) microscope to study at home.
Is anyone else into ultralearning and has some plans learning projects?