Austin Scholar #131: How to become an expert in anything
& how I learned to be an expert
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: How I learned to be an expert
How to become an expert in anything
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
I’m now the last man standing – all of my friends have left for college. It's been hard to watch everyone leave, and I'm worried that our friendships will never be the same. But now that my friends are gone, I'm spending as much time as possible with my family. My goal is for my sister to be sick of me by the time I leave.
To keep in contact with my friends, I’ve created a SnapChat private story where I can send them recaps of my week or updates on fun things I’m doing. I know that sounds kind of “official” for talking with my friends but I just want to make sure I’m communicating with them consistently.
Three weeks left until I’m at Stanford!!
Austin’s Anecdote: How I learned to be an expert
One of the big life skills students learn at Alpha is how to build expertise.
The first experience I remember having with the idea of “being an expert” was in sixth grade. Alpha gave my whole class an assignment. We each had to pick a super tiny topic (a card game, a book character, a football team in the last year, a music album, etc.) and learn absolutely everything we could about it.
Once we believed we’d done enough research, we stood in front of the entire school and answered questions about our topic.
The kicker: everyone asking questions had Google, so they could find a super niche website and ask something crazy about the exact score of a football game or why a rule in a card game was changed.
I, of course, chose to become an expert in a book character (Celia Bowen from The Night Circus). I was asked questions about her eye color, how she reacted in specific scenes, her views on her sister’s love interest, and more.
Of course, it might seem a little silly to become an expert in a random book character, but it was honestly so much fun – and more importantly, it gave me a chance to practice doing research and building expertise, with a topic I found interesting.
In our next task, we received a completely random (more significant) topic (such as offshore drilling), and had to create a comprehensive learning plan on how to become an expert in that topic.
My assigned topic was roller coasters. I found every major book, podcast, documentary, blog, and social media account on building roller coasters, the history of roller coasters, the psychology behind roller coasters – everything I could think of.
After I compiled my list of resources, I had to create tests to pass that would prove that I had actually learned the content. I decided I’d prove my learning by writing blog posts about building roller coasters, creating a model, and receiving feedback from a theme park engineer on my design. The entire project would culminate in getting the roller coaster design accepted to the next Disney Park expansion. I didn’t have to actually do any of this stuff – I just had to prove that I knew how to become an expert.
Creating this learning plan allowed me to practice making a process to become an expert in any topic I wish to.
This skill, of course, translated to my Masterpiece – when I got to high school, I knew all the steps I needed to follow to become an expert in the teen’s perspective on revolutionizing our education system.
Now, I can answer any interview question I might be asked, write (hopefully) interesting newsletters every week, and find insights in the education space that others might not be able to see.
How to become an expert in anything
If I were starting from zero, here are the steps I would recommend if you want to become an expert in a topic: