How to Become a More Efficient Learner

Introduction

This year arrived at a strangely perfect moment. I entered the completely unfamiliar world of clinical trials while starting two rather different businesses at the same time.

Most of what I deal with now is nothing like the fields I knew before. In my full-time role at IQVIA, the only real overlap is SAS programming. The data, coding conventions, and folder structures are all different from what I was used to. Even SAS Enterprise Guide has a very different interface from the SAS Base environment I used before.

My weekend ventures have required an even broader stream of firsts: company-registration procedures, building a website and returning to WordPress, and creating graphics with materials I barely knew. Almost everything has meant learning something new and entering another field.

Yet this process has also made me feel that I am getting closer to the experts I once admired from afar. Last October, a teacher I deeply respect praised the range of my interdisciplinary work. That background and my ability to learn were also appreciated during job interviews. Both experiences reminded me why continual learning matters and what it can make possible.

I have always considered myself an efficient learner. Whether I switch to a new discipline or learn a new skill, I usually find a workable approach faster than most people do. One day on the metro, I suddenly thought: why not write down the methods and techniques I actually use?

There has also been far too much going on lately (?), and I wanted to do something different for a change of mood. That is how this article came to be.

Why I Started Learning Across Disciplines

I could have followed a perfectly conventional route: attend a reasonably good university, choose a respectable major, find a stable job, and spend the rest of my life pursuing security and comfort.

Sure—why not?

My original work at a cram school paid quite well. I could earn enough to live on while teaching relatively few hours. But one day I asked myself, “Am I really willing to spend my whole life with students, teaching the same material forever?”

Honestly, I was not.

My interdisciplinary path began when I was a university junior and had just entered the cram-school industry. Teaching high-school physics on my own—and handling all the handout editing and student recruitment—required far more than subject knowledge. I had to draw diagrams, use and typeset documents in Word, create more advanced digital illustrations, and learn several forms of marketing.

It was exhausting, but every breakthrough from “I cannot do this” to “now I can” was tremendously satisfying. From there I tried to absorb everything I could in public health, and I even entered a graduate law program. Every change of field meant climbing from zero and getting thoroughly beaten up along the way. Once I reached higher ground, however, the range of people and ideas I could see was much wider than before.

I gradually came to believe that only by continuing to learn could I encounter scenery I had never seen. But everyone still gets only twenty-four hours a day. How do you bring yourself from zero to a usable command of new knowledge in the shortest reasonable time?

Wanting to learn more than my limited time would ordinarily allow pushed me to develop the complete approach in this article. It has served me well ever since.

Adjusting Your Mindset

You may already be impatient for a list of clever tricks. Before that, I want to talk about the mindset you need whenever you begin something new. A workable mindset makes every later step smoother. Think of martial arts: technique and inner discipline matter equally. Adjusting how you approach learning is part of the inner discipline.

Use What You Already Know—Without Being Confined by It

After moving into law, I once asked my adviser over dinner, “How can I learn law well?”

“Students in interdisciplinary law programs usually learn quickly because they know how to use their previous knowledge to understand the law,” he said. Then he paused. “But many of them carry the arrogance of their original fields, so their progress eventually stops.”

After dinner, he added with great seriousness: “Put down your achievements in your old field and begin learning carefully again.”

That stayed with me. I came to understand that previous knowledge can supply analogies and footholds when we enter a new field. But we must not let its framework trap us or react to a new idea with “Oh, is that all?” and stop looking deeper.

My Japanese teacher once made a similar point while explaining on’yomi and kun’yomi readings: “Taiwanese learners often advance quickly because their Chinese is strong, but that same strength can also work against them.” He called it “the original sin of language.”

The phrase feels remarkably accurate. We are so accustomed to viewing the world through what we already understand that, when we refuse to accept anything outside it, our world contracts and our growth stops.

Do Not Always Expect Someone Else to Carry You

This lesson came from starting businesses. I have met people who encounter something unfamiliar and never think about filling the gap themselves. Instead they assume, “Someone else must know how to do it, so it does not have to be me,” or “It would cost me too much to learn; someone else can learn it more easily.”

Such people remain confined to what they already do well. But a strength can fade when it is never improved or as circumstances and age change. The set of things they can do well gets smaller until the environment leaves them behind.

You need the resolve to think, “If I do not learn this, no one will,” and be ready to take the carry role at center stage for your team. Over time, you may find the gap between you and most people widening while the distance between you and the people you admire grows smaller.

Doing It Badly Is Normal—Everyone Has a Beginning

Some people refuse to lower their guard and learn because they are protecting an image. They fear failure, ridicule, or spending a great deal of time and receiving nothing in return. Others feel defeated because they have already put in time but are still nowhere near as good as someone else.

Hold on. Do you know how much time that person spent becoming who they are? You have invested a tiny fraction of it and already expect to overtake them. Do you think you are a once-in-a-century genius—or that they are an idiot?

Doing poorly at first is completely normal. Everyone begins somewhere. They started earlier and have practiced longer; that does not mean you will still be where you are now after you have spent comparable time learning.

Admitting that your beginner self is, frankly, “this hopeless” is an important mindset.

Someone Has Probably Done—and Explained—What You Want to Do

Online resources are now abundant. For almost any subject, you can find teaching materials or a course. Some are free and others are paid, but resources and answers usually exist if you learn how to look for them.

When I help students solve problems, I sometimes think, “There are at least three videos online explaining this exact problem...” Students live in the internet age, yet many rarely Google a question and look for an answer themselves. That feels like a missed opportunity.

The First Step in Learning

Does this mean it is time to make a study plan?

No. Before you start learning any field, you need to do your homework. First understand what kind of subject it is, why you want to learn it, and how much time you have. Those conditions determine the learning approach you should take.

Define the Learning Goal

What do you ultimately want to do with this knowledge or skill? Are you trying to complete a master’s thesis that can earn you a degree, or simply create a small project you can publish online?

When I began learning Adobe Audition, my first milestone was modest: “Edit a podcast episode that is at least listenable.” A listenable episode needed basic sound cleanup, removal of unclear or tangled speech, and opening and closing music. That definition let me limit my initial learning to the skills required for that result. Once I reached it, I could begin producing and practicing.

And now, apparently, I have to insert another shameless promotion for our podcast. XDDDDD

Spotify: LearnMore Podcast
Apple Podcasts: LearnMore Podcast

If I later need more advanced techniques, I can start another learning cycle when the rest of my schedule allows it.

Check How Much Free Time You Actually Have

There are ways to learn when you have abundant free time and other ways when time is scarce. Having absolutely no time at all is unlikely. But if you want to protect everything already on your plate while adding something new, your time management needs a little more precision.

I separate full-time work, business projects, and self-directed study. I time how long each activity takes, review the totals each week, and ask whether I have spent too much or too little in any category. Then I adjust. During my commute I might think through website decisions or read; small pockets from different parts of the day add up.

A more advanced trick might be maintaining my Japanese by watching anime or drama while studying for a certification at the same time. Not everyone can multitask that way, though. Orz. Start with one thing at a time and begin by understanding your own use of time. (Fist clenched.)

Ask Whether There Is a Deadline

A deadline helps determine both priority and the amount of time available. Learning podcast editing was urgent because we had already rented the studio; the faster we could record, the better. I cleared nearly everything I usually did each day so I could learn Audition.

A Japanese proficiency exam, by contrast, happens twice a year and felt less urgent. I sometimes sacrificed that preparation for a more immediate responsibility or a more important skill.

Knowing how much time you can spend on something is a form of budgeting. It gives you a clearer view of where your time goes and helps you manage it deliberately.

Decide Whether You Can Find the Resources Yourself

This distinction became vivid at my new company. For internal rules or study-specific knowledge, asking for help is often faster: the team clearly has someone who knows, and searching alone could delay the timeline. Background knowledge such as clinical-trial methods is different. Plenty of courses and books are available, so I should first make the effort to fill that gap myself.

Whenever you meet something new, decide whether you need a fast answer from another person or should invest your own time. The next section covers the resources I most often use.

Estimate the Size of the Knowledge Structure

Law is the field in which I have most strongly felt the need for a vast supporting structure. Before producing high-quality work, you must absorb many theories and doctrines. That takes time, so I would not recommend jumping in from the beginning unless you have enough of it.

Point-to-point practical skills can often be learned as each need arises. Woodworking and visual design have worked that way for me. I do not need to start from the first principles of wood or material science. If I have a veneer problem, I can find a video on applying veneer; if I need to bond nonwoven fabric, I can search for that exact solution.

The size of a field affects not only how long learning will take, but also whether the necessary resources can realistically be found for free.

Possible Learning Resources

As I said earlier, someone has probably already shared an answer—or built a course—about what you want to learn. Here are the places I usually look when entering a new field, moving from options that cost little time and money toward those with higher costs. These are not the only possibilities; they are simply the resources I use most often.

Free Online Resources: A First Survey of the Field

The internet remains my first stop. People say, “If you do not know something, Google it.” That is sensible—but not completely true.

A quick search can uncover countless tutorials, videos, and articles. Yet knowledge is valuable, and it is unrealistic to expect every free resource to provide a complete, high-value education. When someone does offer that, be grateful for their generosity. When they do not, that is perfectly normal. Otherwise, how is the person supplying the knowledge supposed to live—on sunshine, water, and air? XD

With online-course platforms everywhere, free material is often a preview or introduction to a paid course rather than the whole system. Searching also depends heavily on field-specific keywords. If you barely understand the subject, how could you already know the right words?

That is why I do not use free internet material as the final authority when learning a field. I use it to explore: narrowing down keywords, tracing the boundaries of the discipline, learning how experienced people describe the beginner path, and locating more structured paid resources. When preparing for an exam, I also begin collecting likely exam techniques at this stage.

The abundance and quality of free resources vary with a field’s culture of knowledge sharing. Information technology is unusually generous. Some resources are so complete that I almost think it is outrageous not to charge for them. Many experts publish full lecture series, notes, and exercises. I learned much of my HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Vue, and PHP from W3Schools. Other fields may offer much less.

People Around You Who Know the Field: Strengthening the First Survey

I absolutely agree that we rely on friends when we venture into the world. Modern work also shows that collaboration can create results no individual could produce alone.

Inside a company, employees across teams cooperate because it is paid work. Outside that context, someone who shares the expertise they depend on for a living is probably doing so because of friendship, an investment in the relationship, or an exchange of useful skills. If you have nothing comparable to offer, you are drawing on the relationship itself.

Some people think anything free should be exploited as much as possible. I will refrain from commenting. XD. I once received a late-night call from a not-very-close acquaintance asking for private legal advice. We did not have the relationship, an exchange of knowledge I valued, or an active collaboration. After that, I tried not to stay in contact.

If you want to learn from someone with expertise, I follow two rules:

1. Do some homework first. Build a basic understanding instead of asking random beginner questions.

2. Be ready to pay when appropriate. If they genuinely refuse payment, treating them to a meal can still show sincerity.

Do not expect a friend or acquaintance to deliver a complete curriculum. First use online resources to form a rough map, collect the questions you encounter, and then ask someone knowledgeable about those specific gaps. That is both more respectful and more effective.

Paid Online Courses: Building a Foundation

You might protest, “I paid money and all I get is a foundation?” Every field has enormous depth; in many of them, a lifetime of specialization still would not exhaust what there is to learn. But we do not need mastery in every discipline before we produce anything. Sometimes “good enough for the intended result” is enough—and the definition of good enough comes from the learning goal you set earlier.

After your free exploration and conversations with knowledgeable people, you should have a clearer idea of which paid course you need. Many online courses are introductory not because instructors are withholding secrets, but because extremely expensive or long courses are difficult to sell without substantial trust. A course may touch each part of a field and help you produce a basic result; deeper study still requires more specialized resources.

I usually begin online rather than in a physical classroom for two reasons:

1. Online courses are flexible and interfere less with existing commitments, so they are easier to continue. The downside is that their low disruption also makes them easy to deprioritize.

2. The initial cost is lower. If you discover that the path is wrong, you can stop without an overwhelming loss.

Consider programming. Even before the rigor of backend programming, frontend work spans an astonishing range. UI and UX design may require the Adobe ecosystem; HTML and CSS are basic; color, illustration, and visual design extend the field even further. Functional sites with carts and interactive behavior almost inevitably involve JavaScript.

Leaving aside the tiny web-design exercises from school, my first real frontend course was Che-Yu Wu’s Hahow course, Interactive Web Programming for Beginners (HTML/CSS/JS). SVG occupied only about one lesson, so I later found additional resources to study it properly. Yet the course alone was enough to build a simple site with basic user interaction. Once again, the right stopping point depends on your goal.

Digital marketing was another field I entered through online courses—most notably Luke’s E-Commerce Training. My frontend-learning speed could not keep up with the needs of the business, so I used WordPress for reservation systems, shopping carts, and even the online-course academy. That lowered the cost and time required to reach an acceptable result. Building absolutely everything from scratch would have taken far too long.

Marketing is broad and requires sound concepts as well as techniques. I bought several of Luke’s courses to establish a basic map, then added books and hands-on experimentation whenever I needed more. Finding a teacher capable of guiding your first steps can be crucial. A good online course may determine whether you can gain your footing—although courses with more valuable, income-related knowledge often cost considerably more.

Print or E-Books: The Beginning of a More Solid Structure

When a field leads you to reference books and textbooks, you are usually beginning to build a more substantial knowledge structure. Good books take a long time to develop; authors often treat them as compressed expressions of their expertise and even of a life’s ambition. That makes them a strong source of depth—excluding, of course, low-quality books produced merely to have something to sell.

Good online resources, courses, and experienced practitioners will usually point you toward the books everyone in a field should know. If a subject does not require a teacher to usher me in or explain every step, I often skip lectures and read the relevant books directly. Reading can be faster and, for me, easier to absorb.

For certifications in SAS and environmental work, I mostly bought books and studied them myself—even during class. Course content often does not exceed the textbook and may cover less, especially when the audience wants only what will appear on an exam. That is not necessarily the teacher’s fault; the audience and schedule create the limit. If I want broader understanding, I have to seek it myself.

I create searchable digital notes for every book, and for online courses too.

Because physical books take space, I used to donate them to libraries after reading and taking notes. Eventually I shifted toward e-books. I still browse Eslite and visit book fairs, flip through promising titles, check whether an e-book edition exists, and place it in my cart. That is how I build a reading list.

A Teacher in the Field

Here I mean an in-person teacher, not an online course. I see three main situations in which physical instruction becomes especially valuable.

Practical or hands-on courses

Videos can teach practical skills, but many decisive details are small techniques no video happens to mention. Those solutions emerge from years of practice and from overcoming real problems; books often omit them. Direct contact with an experienced teacher lets you glimpse that hard-earned knowledge.

I felt this strongly in a Level A air-pollution-control course. The most valuable parts were not the examination notes but the situations the instructors had encountered in practice. One had participated in discussions of proposed legal amendments, so he could explain why provisions were written as they were and the context behind them. That was far more interesting than simply reciting statutes, even if the exam did not test it. XD. Likewise, in pollution-control technology, the instructors’ design experience mattered more to me than another repetition of the underlying principles.

Technical courses that require continuous correction

Drawing is a classic example. Everyone can draw something, but drawing “correctly” requires understanding anatomy, believable folds in clothing, and careful observation of ordinary objects. If you only want to have fun, that is fine. If you want the result not to look strangely wrong, every part needs work. Learners often cannot see their own blind spots. A teacher can identify what is wrong and show how to correct it, keeping practice on a sound path.

Courses that require attendance

There is not much mystery here, right? XD. Some courses simply will not count your hours unless you appear in person. In that case, you have to go.

Earning a Degree

Would anyone really pursue an entire degree just to learn one body of knowledge? I know more than one person who has—although I may simply be surrounded by unusually determined people.

A degree may be worth considering when you need a credential to prove your background, improve pay or working conditions, or change careers. It may also make sense when the knowledge structure is too large to acquire through scattered outside courses and requires a university’s connected sequence. Some people also enter degree programs in the hope of discovering something their current field has not yet revealed.

The wildest thing I have done was enroll in a graduate law program because I wanted to complete a thesis on a subject I considered worthwhile. Starting with no familiarity with law and reaching the point of completing that thesis took about four years.

For the story behind that decision, see My Journey into Law, Part I: My Background, First Encounter, and Preparing for Graduate School.

A degree consumes enormous time. Yet during later job searches, I felt that mine demonstrated both a specialized legal background and a relatively strong capacity to learn. It is also expensive—especially because National Chengchi University charges by credit rather than offering an all-you-can-study plan. Orz. Unless it is necessary, I would not recommend earning a degree merely to enter a new field.

My Learning Method and Process

After reviewing the resources I use, we can address the central question: how can we build a broadly useful and efficient process for learning?

Different subjects require small adjustments, but the overall structure is similar. I will walk through the process I use. These steps will not suit everyone; they are simply the methods that have worked well for me so far.

Confirm Your Starting Point and Final Goal

Before planning the route, determine your baseline in the field and which background knowledge is missing. When I entered law, I barely remembered middle-school history, geography, or civics, so I scheduled preliminary work to rebuild them. When I learned frontend development, I already had basic coding ability and needed much less preparation.

Your initial knowledge determines the entry threshold. If that threshold is very high and you urgently need a result, temporarily outsourcing or paying someone may make more sense than learning it yourself.

The final goal matters just as much. Are you learning for personal intellectual satisfaction, or does progress on the project matter more? How strong is your learning ability, and what would outsourcing cost? Consider all of these together. If the work is not urgent, time is abundant, and curiosity is the point, then learning it yourself may be the best choice.

Build a Skill Tree

Once I know my starting point and intended result, I use what I have found online and learned from people in the field to construct a skill tree.

To edit a podcast suitable for a platform, for example, I need a basic understanding of audio signals, familiarity with the Audition interface, and techniques for editing and correcting sound. I can then locate materials for each branch and arrange them into a learning list.

Skill trees for hands-on work allow many kinds of resources, from online material to an in-person teacher. For knowledge-centered subjects, the tree emphasizes structure and sequence: what must come before what, and which ideas are prerequisites. In law, substantive law generally comes before procedural law, and foundational fields before special legislation.

Resources for law were comparatively straightforward: usually the right textbooks. Apart from one year in a cram school for the national examination, I learned most of it independently.

Break the Final Goal into Smaller Goals—and Define Evidence for Each

Even when you know the final goal, it is easy to quit midway without smaller milestones and repeated checks. You might also continue in the wrong direction and lose sight of the larger purpose. For every milestone, decide how you will verify that you truly learned it, and adjust your pace as the evidence comes in.

This is something I appreciate in the online courses mentioned earlier. Che-Yu Wu’s web course includes practical work after each section. After HTML and CSS, students build a small weather box that combines what they have learned, making gaps immediately visible. Luke’s course can quickly lead students to a convincing mock e-commerce site, and each section contains practical work rather than theory alone. That is an important criterion when I choose an online course.

I also used milestones in law. Because my final goal was a thesis on occupational safety and health regulations, my first stage was repairing the missing middle- and high-school foundations; I even completed civics examination questions. For every part of the thesis, I combined classes and textbooks with reading, organizing, and producing notes from relevant literature. Only later did I expand into other areas of law, and later still toward the essay-writing skills required for national exams.

Well, I have not actually begun that final output yet; the schedule has not reached it.

The point is the importance of small goals and staged verification. Treat learning like engineering acceptance: a project is inspected in stages, and knowledge should also be tested and corrected throughout the process. Even if a course or book offers no exercises, I create my own outputs and practical tasks. Output reveals learning more clearly than endless input.

Of course, I still have to find time to do the assignments. It is extremely hard to squeeze in a side project right now. Sob.

Execute

Once the resources, smaller goals, and acceptance criteria are ready, execution depends on your schedule and the urgency of the final goal. I track time very precisely—even using a stopwatch—so I can fit in quite a lot. If you regularly wonder where your time went, time one ordinary week. The record can reveal gaps you can reclaim.

I have other techniques for saving and using time well, but perhaps those belong in another article.

For knowledge and skills, the most efficient method I have found is first to observe how someone experienced does the task and imitate it. This does not mean copying without thought. Try to understand why each action is taken and how it might be improved.

For science subjects, for example, I think the best beginning is to watch someone solve a problem, understand why each line leads to the next, and consider whether another route might work better. With time, the pieces connect. You develop a line of reasoning that genuinely belongs to you—and gain a stronger command of the knowledge.

Conclusion

As someone who has crossed into many fields, I have developed a learning approach that is both relatively efficient and broadly reusable. It has helped me avoid many disadvantages when entering unfamiliar disciplines. Even when my background placed me far behind others at the beginning, I could often catch up and later move ahead.

This article has shared the learning structure and techniques I use. Learning methods still depend heavily on individual habits and, to some extent, aptitude. Yet I have barely mentioned “being smart.” The emphasis has been on method, direction, and mindset.

I once feared learning new things too. After gaining command of this process, I found that the world I could see became wider. I moved closer to people I once admired and sometimes even found myself standing alongside them.

I never imagined reaching that height. Having the courage to learn and try can truly make a difference.

I hope this helps you meet an entirely new field without fear, take up the challenge, and travel much, much farther than you expected.