How I started to become more "successful"

The "crazy" way I think about our brains

Today, I’ll teach you a unique way to think about your brain.

You may think it’s a little crazy but the framework has been essential to my recent success.

To be fair, “success” and “successful” are loaded words. They mean different things to different people.

So to be clear, by success, I mean the ability to achieve your goals.

For years, I failed to achieve my goals:

• College admissions

• Basketball ambitions

• Investment banker dreams

But now I achieve them regularly.

So that’s why I want to share this with you.

Whether you find this helpful or crazy, I welcome your feedback.

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Start

I sucked at writing.
I sucked at high school.
I sucked at learning Italian.

But now:

I made 4 figures last month writing tweets.
I graduated college summa cum laude.
And I speak German and Chinese.

It’s safe to say, I’m getting better results.

Why?

I believe my small successes over the last two years are because of a unique way of thinking about our brains.

Before I share it with you let me give you a small disclaimer:

I’m not sure if this is the correct way of looking at things.

I might look back at this in five years and think I had it all wrong.

But since it's worked well for me, I want to share it with you anyways.

How Our Brains Work:

I believe our brains work like pattern recognition machines.

Full Credit for this idea goes to Scott Adams.

One of the coolest videos on the internet (link at the end)

How did I confirm this discovery?

Like I said, when I was in high school, I sucked at learning Italian.

But now, I speak nearly native German:

What made the difference?

I learned how to learn languages from YouTube videos like this one:

In short, they taught me the fundamental truth about language learning.

If you want to learn a language, you MUST feed your brain enough comprehensible input over a consistent time period.

So I did just that.

After a couple of months of listening or reading to 1 hr+ of German a day, I had 10xed my German skills.

This was incredibly more effective than the German classes I had attended at university.

Why does this work so well?

Language is essentially patterns.

And there are only so many patterns. For example:

• In my opinion + opinion

• Because + reason

• Conjugations (Ich gehe, I go | du gehst, you go)

Those are patterns.

But for your brain to automatically and subconsciously recognize the patterns, you must feed it enough data over a long enough time horizon. And then put yourself into situations where you need to apply your learnings.

This is the only way to become fluent in a language.

How to master a skill

So now, I’m convinced you only need three ingredients to master a skill:

1. Data

2. Shots on goal (reps)

3. Long time horizon

How this looked when I attacked persuasion

The most recent skill I attacked was persuasion.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. I filled my brain with persuasion data by hand-copying the world’s greatest sales letters, listening to podcasts, and reading books.

2. Then I started to take shots on goal by posting every day on Linkedin.

3. Now I’m in the third phase:

Keep going - Jack Butcher

What problems do people run into?

People generally run into two problems.

The biggest problem people run into is a lack of patience.

Most people like the idea of being fluent in a second language but they don’t like the idea of waiting two years for it.

And most people like the idea of building an audience but they don’t like the idea of posting into the void for months or years.

But those are exactly the trade-offs you need to accept.

The second biggest problem I see (and experience) is a lack of focus.

I was able to dedicate so much time and effort to learning German because covid had canceled my study abroad and I had a semester without classes. That freed me up.

And now, to master persuasion, I had to give up learning Chinese and making Youtube videos. Those were major trade-offs for me.

But they are tradeoffs I willingly accept.

“Do less, do more” - Jack Butcher

Is this Applicable elsewhere?

Yes.

Say your goal is to have a healthy relationship.

You can:

1. Get data

   • By observing yourself and your preferences

   • By observing other good relationships

2. Take shots on goal

   • By meeting potential partners

     • And then integrating those reflections into your data center

3. Remain patient

   • By not settling for the first semi-ok option that crosses your path.

Summary

I believe our brains are pattern recognition machines.

To get good results with your pattern recognition machine you need three things:

1. Data

2. Shots on goal

3. Long time horizon

Thank you for your time and attention.

Do you agree with this idea?

Disagree?

This is one idea that I would love your feedback on:

P.S. The video that first taught me about pattern recognition:

(It’s a little cooky)