Nick Velasquez

  • New Site – Thinking Lab

3 Myths About Learning That Can Hurt Skill Development

by Nick
Reading Time: 5 minutes

We’ve all heard, “Oh, I’m no good at math. I’m right-brained!” Similarly, someone might say, “I can’t learn by listening. I need to see the information.” Or even, “Don’t bother. Old dogs can’t learn new tricks.”

These three statements have one thing in common: they’re all myths that can limit our learning potential if we believe them.

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How Learning Physically Shapes the Brain

by Nick
Reading Time: 4 minutes

When we learn new skills, whether it’s speaking an unfamiliar language, dribbling a soccer ball, or playing the violin, we experience more than a metaphorical shaping of the mind—the brain physically adapts, too. 

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Learn. Improve. Master (Start Here)

by Nick
Reading Time: 24 minutes

If you are new to my work, here’s an interview I did recently about my new book Learn, Improve, Master: How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at it. It will give you a better idea of what I write about, why it matters, and how it can help you improve your life. Feel free to jump to any question that catches your attention.

If you want to read the first chapter of the book for FREE, you can get it here.

Why did you write Learn, Improve, Master?

I’ve always wanted to learn too much, but learning anything takes time. It looked like my choices were to cut down on the things I wanted to learn or to become a better learner. I chose the latter. I began studying learning science, cognitive psychology, and skill acquisition in search of ways to optimize the process. 

After years of research, I had enough information to create a learning guide I could use for my life. Then I thought, “If I’m going through all this trouble to create a learning guide, why not turn it into a book and solve the problem for other people.” Had I known what I was getting myself into, I’m not sure I would have done it. I’m glad I was ignorant of the amount of work in front of me, and that I was so passionate about the subject, otherwise I don’t think this book would exist.

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(Start Here) Learn. Improve. Master

by Nick
Reading Time: 24 minutes

If you are new to my work, here’s an interview I did recently about my new book Learn, Improve, Master: How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at it. It will give you a better idea of what I write about, why it matters, and how it can help you improve your life. Feel free to jump to any question that catches your attention.

If you want to read the first chapter of the book for FREE, you can get it here.

Why did you write Learn, Improve, Master?

I’ve always wanted to learn too much, but learning anything takes time. It looked like my choices were to cut down on the things I wanted to learn or to become a better learner. I chose the latter. I began studying learning science, cognitive psychology, and skill acquisition in search of ways to optimize the process. 

After years of research, I had enough information to create a learning guide I could use for my life. Then I thought, “If I’m going through all this trouble to create a learning guide, why not turn it into a book and solve the problem for other people.” Had I known what I was getting myself into, I’m not sure I would have done it. I’m glad I was ignorant of the amount of work in front of me, and that I was so passionate about the subject, otherwise I don’t think this book would exist.

Read

7 Qualities To Look For In A Mentor

by Nick
Reading Time: 8 minutes

There’s immense value in working with a coach, teacher, mentor, or someone who has more experience than us in our domain. They guide us through the process, give us valuable feedback, and help us avoid unnecessary mistakes. When we work with a mentor we are cutting down the learning curve by taking advantage of the accumulated knowledge and experience they’ve gathered. We get to learn from their past mistakes and replicate what they discovered to work best.

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7 Qualities To Look For In A Mentor

by Nick
Reading Time: 8 minutes

There’s immense value in working with a coach, teacher, mentor, or someone who has more experience than us in our domain. They guide us through the process, give us valuable feedback, and help us avoid unnecessary mistakes. When we work with a mentor we are cutting down the learning curve by taking advantage of the accumulated knowledge and experience they’ve gathered. We get to learn from their past mistakes and replicate what they discovered to work best.

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The Memory Mistake that Gets In The Way of Mastery

by Nick
Reading Time: 2 minutes

With today’s easy access to information it’s common that we no longer memorize “content”, but instead we make mental notes only about where to find it. We dog-ear book pages, underline paragraphs, bookmark websites, save videos. Etc.

If there’s something we need to be reminded of we know where to look for it. This creates the problem of not committing information to memory. We feel like we no longer need to, that we only need to know where to get it. Our memory has become an index. It shows us where to find the knowledge, but never holds the knowledge itself.

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The Only Goal-Setting Advice You’ll Ever Need

by Nick
Reading Time: 7 minutes

Most people quit their goals soon after they set them. Here’s how to stick to yours.

1. Don’t make a list. If you need to write a list of goals, it means you are trying to do too much at a time. That’s where most people go wrong and end up quitting a few weeks into their journey. It’s overwhelming.
We approach goal-setting like a wishlist when we should think of it as a budget. We have limited time, energy, and willpower to work on all our projects and new habits.

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The “10k Hour” Lie

by Nick
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The “10k hour rule” is a learning misconception popularized and echoed by some authors in recent years. This is what the research truly found on learning and mastering skills.

The idea behind the 10k hour “rule” is that it takes 10.000 hours of practice to reach mastery in any field. This is a misrepresentation -turned into a marketable soundbite- of a serious and thorough research led by an authority on deliberate practice and expert performance, K. Anders Ericsson.

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Mastering Habits: The Principles and Strategies for Lasting Change

by Nick
Reading Time: 7 minutes
Most of our behaviour is directed by habits. They can be created outside our awareness and once they are lodged in our brain they influence our decisions and our actions, often without realization. This is the benefit and the danger of habits. If you build the right ones they will improve your life behind the scenes, but if you build the wrong ones they can destroy it. Here, we’ll look at some tools to take control of the process so we can create and maintain good habits.

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  • New Site – Thinking Lab