The First 20 Hours

Whatever you want to do with your life -speak a language, change career, master yoga- you must master new skills. But where can you find the time? You are already busy, much too busy to spend the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell claims you'll need to master a new skill. Moreover, the early hours of practicing something new are always the most frustrating: if you can't make it through the first 10-20 hours, you'll never get to 10,000. Josh Kaufman's The First 20 Hours is a systematic approach for acquiring new skills quickly with a small amount of practice each day. Kaufman outlines a practical process to deconstruct complex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers, creating a realistic and achievable approach. Kaufman invites the reader to join him as he field tests his approach by learning to program a web application, play the ukulele, get the hang of windsurfing, touch type, and study the oldest and most complex board game in history.