Performing a skill well is more valuable than knowing that skill. The person with a very large, but shallow knowledge base, is going to be less efficient than the person with a large, but deep knowledge base. You are always better off having less and knowing it very deeply, than having more and only having a superficial knowledge base. The best way to learn is to do. Do one thing well, then try to do it better. Each level of mastery expands the realm of possibilities. The more you know, the more you can do and know. Each time you do something, you also will know a little more about doing that thing in general. If you want to get better, focus on doing one thing a lot until you have mastered it, then pick another. And then another. To get better, learn from others. Don't copy, learn. Mastery in any discipline does not come about by sitting still, doing nothing. Mastery comes about from practice and action. Mastery comes from moving forward. From https://crmeyer.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/the-mastery-model/ A: I think you should focus on specific pieces that you're not doing so well at rather than generalizing. Specific problems in skill execution give you an opportunity to examine it and see where you made a mistake, then take the time to fix it. As the saying goes: "You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." And for a professional role in particular, especially if you're getting paid, you'll want to focus on your best skillsets. You don't want to be mediocre at every aspect of the work, because you may not get hired at all. One thing that I've done in the past, for example, was learning to play keyboard as an accompaniment. My instrument is the piano, and sometimes I find it convenient to play guitar as well. The problem was my accuracy with the piano was pretty good, but my timing wasn't perfect. So instead of trying to get my timing together all at once, I would focus on playing a few songs (at least) a day, with my instrument of choice (I used to play both piano and guitar). After a couple of months, I found myself becoming more accurate with the pianos because I had developed a better sense of timing in general. My own experience is that it's a lot harder to correct bad timing if you don't know how it's supposed to sound in the first place. A: The Mastery Model provides a good basis for approaching the problem of "learning stuff fast" in general. It should be noted, however, that all it takes for the theory to be useful is to put it in practice. Even if the model itself (or even the idea of learning) is not entirely new, if it manages to improve the process of learning a subject, even to a marginal degree, then it's worth at least trying out. I've implemented it personally in regard to learning a language and several programming languages (C/C++/Objective-C) with some success. Now I'm trying to apply it to the subjects of music, photography, and physics. However, some things have to be done in a more or less structured way, e.g. the practice part of the mastery model should be accompanied with regular reflection on the achieved results. At least in regard to learning, another important aspect in addition to finding the best possible order in which to learn the things is the correct methodology and a good instructor. To further elaborate, the Mastery Model describes a general process of acquiring and applying knowledge. As discussed above, if you want to make use of the model, you have to put it into practice and observe the results. However, some of the key ideas behind the model are important as well when trying to pick a proper methodology for acquiring knowledge. From the point of view of learning, the major problem with the model is the need to master a skill. This is indeed a large (and usually unresolvable) problem in its own right. You have to find a way to measure mastery of a skill, the necessary time frame (and the required regularity of checking), the way to evaluate the quality of the result, the most efficient order in which to learn it, and so on. The model itself doesn't say anything about these aspects. The best way of doing things to a large degree depends on the specific subject you're studying. In addition, there are a few general principles that may provide a good starting point. There are two kinds of things to learn. The first one is skills and the second is knowledge. For example, "learning how to play the piano" is a skill, "learning the chord progression to Stairway to Heaven" is a skill, and "knowing who the Beatles were" is knowledge. A skill requires you to achieve some kind of a result. In the case of playing the piano, for example, this might be to master a specific piece of music. The skill then "matures" after you've spent enough time trying to master it. It goes without saying that these skills require to be worked on regularly. Some skills are extremely difficult, and can only be learned with significant effort, and this applies in particular to the skills that have little external relevance (or no obvious use). On the other hand, there are a few skills that can be mastered at any time: they do not improve and get more difficult with time (in fact, if anything, they become easier). For example, the ability to understand a foreign language should be one of these skills; one of the ways of learning this skill is the Mastery Model. Other examples would be: knowing a common prayer; writing your name; or being able to tie your shoe laces. Once you've mastered a skill you can say that you know it. Now it's important that it should be done right the first time. Once you've mastered a skill, if you have to start from the beginning again, the most time-efficient way of doing so is to learn it "for the second time", so that you already know how to do it. For example, this is a very effective way of learning how to play a song on a piano. When you try to learn a skill for the first time, you usually make one or more of the following mistakes: you don't pay enough attention to the instruction, or you only partially follow it; you make silly mistakes (which can be fixed as you move forward) and waste your time by constantly redoing the wrong things; you do not understand the instructions, or get something wrong in the instruction; you try to work too fast and don't practice the instructions thoroughly enough; you get overwhelmed by the volume of instructions or do not have enough time; you try to work around the instructions by doing other things, and don't understand why it doesn't work; you don't learn from your mistakes. Once you have mastered the skill you should apply it. You can learn a lot from observing other people practicing the skill. This might not be done perfectly and it can be very time-consuming. It's probably easier to apply the skill yourself, rather than watching how other people apply it. In the case of a language, for example, there is more benefit to writing texts in a language yourself than