How to Learn So Fast People Assume You’re Naturally Gifted (with AI)

In this video, we're going to break down 13 of my top tips on how to learn anything faster with AI. Let's get into it.

Tip number one, think of AI as your personal tutor. One of the most

personal tutor. One of the most underrated things you can use AI for is not just using it as a thing to [music] do search queries or to get your work done. It's to use AI as the world's best

done. It's to use AI as the world's best personal tutor. And because one of the

personal tutor. And because one of the factors that drives fulfillment in life is learning and growing, we don't want to just be outsourcing our thinking to AI. We actually want to be using AI to

AI. We actually want to be using AI to learn more stuff. Because if we're able to learn stuff while building stuff, then life actually just becomes much more fun. And we also then level up our

more fun. And we also then level up our brains rather than letting our brains atrophy thanks to kind of just over over relying on AI. And honestly, with the power of AI these days, you can learn so much more in just a single weekend than it probably would have taken you an

entire semester at college to learn. And

crucially, you can do it while having fun and you can do it while actually building a cool project.

Tip number two, start with a specific project. Now, whether it comes to

project. Now, whether it comes to learning to code or learning to do anything in the business, I am not a believer of learning things just for their own sake. Because unless you're particularly very interested in the thing, learning stuff for his own sake just ends up feeling like a should. It

ends up feeling like an obligation. And

it's also hard for things to stick in our own brain if we can't connect it to some kind of real world experience. And

so, that's why I'm so bullish whenever learning anything actually just starting with the project. Now, the project that we're going to use as an example in this video is over the weekend I built a local home security system with cameras with a mini PC that I got that I

installed Linux on, which took a while, but you know, figured it out, and cameras connected to the home security system, so that now we have cameras in the house and instead of feeding their feed to like the internet where theoretically people can spy on it and

stuff, they're all now feeding into this local home security system that is not even connected to the internet and that local AI models can run on to be able to sort of AI analyze the footage again without having to connect to the internet. And before doing this project

internet. And before doing this project this weekend, I knew absolutely nothing about any of this stuff. I knew nothing about Linux. I've obviously I've heard

about Linux. I've obviously I've heard of it, but I'd never like installed it.

I didn't know anything about how security cameras worked. I didn't even know it was possible to run local AI models on a cheap computer. But through

the course of working on this like home improvement project cuz my wife asked me to. I was able to learn so much about

to. I was able to learn so much about Linux cameras, networking, SSH, security protocols, like the history of all these things. And it was just super

things. And it was just super interesting, like a really enjoyable and energizing [music] way to spend like a Saturday afternoon, which has now opened up my mind to this whole world of computers that I just was not aware of before. And so if you are trying to

before. And so if you are trying to learn anything fast with AI, my suggestion would be to start with a project in mind, something that you're trying to make, something you're trying to build, or something that you are personally curious about. If you're, for example, a student and you're just doing

it because you just need to ace your exams, then that's fine. I've got a bunch of videos about effective study techniques like space repetition and active recall and stuff from back in the day. But for the rest of the video, I'm

day. But for the rest of the video, I'm going to assume there is a thing that you care about learning. Not just

because you want to maximize exam performance, but because you're actually curious and care about learning the thing.

Tip number three, use voice rather than typing. All right, so we've got the

typing. All right, so we've got the project. Now we just need to talk to AI

project. Now we just need to talk to AI to tee it up to teach us interesting things while we are working on the project. Now, in the context of this

project. Now, in the context of this particular home security system, I happened to watch a video from a guy called Network Chuck, who is one of my favorite YouTubers. And in this video,

favorite YouTubers. And in this video, he talked about Linux. He talked about a thing called Frigot. He talked about being able to use some sort of camera protocol to connect like some videos to Linux and Frig, whatever those things mean. And I watched this video a few

mean. And I watched this video a few months ago and so it was sort of in my mind that like, okay, I know that this is definitely possible and so we can just open up whatever our favorite AI is and we can just like spiel all of this stuff into it. Now, I'm using Whisper Flow for dictation because I don't want

to type. But all of the AIs basically

to type. But all of the AIs basically have voice features built in. So either

use something like Whisper Flow or you just use the voice feature built into the AI. I'm going to show you exactly

the AI. I'm going to show you exactly what my prompt looked like. So you'll

see that it's it's nothing that special.

All right, Chad, I want you to help me out, mate. Basically, I want to create

out, mate. Basically, I want to create some sort of home security system. I've

heard that I can install Linux on a thing. I've heard that Frigot is a

thing. I've heard that Frigot is a thing. I've heard that you can use some

thing. I've heard that you can use some sort of protocol to connect like cameras to the thing cuz I watched a network chuck video about it. And this is a cool home improvement project that I want to do cuz my wife told me about it. But

along the way, I would like to learn cool stuff about like Linux and how all this stuff works cuz you know, I'm kind of into computers, but I've never really dabbled with Linux. So, yeah, can you help me work through this? What's like

what's the deal? So, super basic prompt.

I haven't used any prompt engineering.

I'm literally just speaking to it as if, you know, it's a it's a tutor or a friend who's like insanely intelligent.

Anyway, let's see what happens. All

right. Whoa, this is way too much stuff.

I don't like it when the AI gives me loads and loads of stuff. Oh, wo, mate, this is way too much stuff. Uh, can we can you just like give me stuff one at a time and I'll like let you know when I'm ready to move on to the next thing, please? Oh, here we go. Much more

please? Oh, here we go. Much more

digestible. Okay, so a camera sends a video over your home network to a computer. Frigot, what the is

computer. Frigot, what the is Frigot? runs on that computer and

Frigot? runs on that computer and watches and records the video. That's

it. So, you need two things. You need a camera and a computer running frigot.

We'll ignore Linux, Docker, RTSPE, AI, networking, and everything else for now.

When you're ready, say next and I'll give you exactly one more piece. Nice.

This is This is what I want. Wait, what

the is Fri? Okay, Frigot is basically software that turns a computer into a smart CCTV security camera system. You

install it on a computer, connect your cameras to Frigot can show you live camera feeds, record footage, detect things like people, cars, dogs, and packages, and save interesting events.

Wow, that's fun. So, Frigot is the security camera software. and then I'll explain what kind of computer frig actually runs on. Now here I could just continue on next or I could be like you

know follow my curiosity and [music] like explore a branch. So I'm now I'm going to follow my curiosity and explore a branch.

Tip number four, follow your curiosity.

All right, so reading this I'm like genuinely interested. I'm like here's

genuinely interested. I'm like here's here's here's the question I have. Wait

a minute. Are you literally telling me that there's free software I can use that someone else has created that literally creates a home security system for me? That that seems utterly bizarre.

for me? That that seems utterly bizarre.

Like, how does that work? Yep, that's

literally what I'm telling you. Forget

it is open source software. A bunch of developers built it, publish it so everyone can run it for themselves for free. The slightly mind-bending bit is

free. The slightly mind-bending bit is that the expensive looking thing a security company sells you is often mostly just camera feed, recording software, detection software, and a nice app. Fri gives you the software layer.

app. Fri gives you the software layer.

It doesn't magically create the whole system out of nothing. You still provide the computer, the cameras, the storage, and network, but once you do, Fri handles a huge chunk of the security system behavior. Awesome. Now, again,

system behavior. Awesome. Now, again,

following my curiosity, wait a minute.

Like can you explain what Linux actually is and why it's interesting? Okay, it's

an operating system. It's open- source hardware operating system application.

Why is Linux interesting? Cuz it takes you a layer deeper into how computers actually work. Nice. On a Mac, Apple

actually work. Nice. On a Mac, Apple hides a lot of the machinery. Of course,

Linux happily lets you poke around in it. Wait, you can have a tiny computer

it. Wait, you can have a tiny computer sitting silently in a cupboard with no monitor key monitor, keyboard, or mouse running your house 24/7, and you control it remotely. That sounds cool. Here you

it remotely. That sounds cool. Here you

can see that like the goal is home security project. But along the way, I'm

security project. But along the way, I'm asking these questions just cuz I'm curious. And Chang or Claude or Gemini

curious. And Chang or Claude or Gemini or Grock or whatever your favorite AI model is these days does an insanely good job at like speaking to your level and explaining things in an interesting way. And by the way, if you're anything

way. And by the way, if you're anything like me, then probably quite a large amount of your day is spent typing stuff at a computer. Emails, messages, prompts to AI, notes to yourself, content for socials, whatever the thing might be.

And that is where the sponsor of this video comes in, Whisper Flow. VoiceFlow

is a fantastic voicetoext [music] tool that's integrated into whatever app you're using on your computer or your phone. And you just say whatever you

phone. And you just say whatever you want out loud and it inserts the text automatically. It clears out all the

automatically. It clears out all the typos. It automatically formats things.

typos. It automatically formats things.

And so, for example, if I'm sending an email, this is what it might look like.

Uh, hey Nicole, three things on socials this week. Uh, first, can we hold off

this week. Uh, first, can we hold off the real until Thursday? Uh, wait, uh, Friday, because the video is now going out on Thursday. Uh, second, can you pull the September numbers for Instagram and, uh, Tik Tok, uh, whichever one's quicker. And then third, um, can you

quicker. And then third, um, can you send me the October posting schedule?

Uh, once that's done, nicely formatted.

It turns it into a numbered list. I can

send this as an email or as a Slack message or even as a WhatsApp message if I wanted to. I didn't touch the keyboard. It's way faster than typing.

keyboard. It's way faster than typing.

Even though I'm insanely faster at typing, it's still faster to speak. And

it's automatically gotten rid of mistakes like, you know, Thursday, no, Friday. Like, it just takes all of that

Friday. Like, it just takes all of that into account, and it does it blazingly fast. It's magical. Now, some people

fast. It's magical. Now, some people say, "But yeah, my phone or computer has already got dictation built in." To

which I would say, have you seen how bad the built-in dictation is in your phone or your computer? Uh, hey Angus, uh, can we do the team meeting at 3? Uh, wait,

actually 4:00. And, um, I'm coming from West Kon, so I might be a few minutes late. So, yeah, just keep that in mind.

late. So, yeah, just keep that in mind.

And yeah, this is just absolutely terrible. It's kept in the MS there. It

terrible. It's kept in the MS there. It

sort of said instead of wait for, it's like called it like W AI T, which is the surname of one of my friends from university. It doesn't know that West

university. It doesn't know that West Cowoon is a place here in Hong Kong that Whisper Flow knows about, but the built-in Apple dictation doesn't. And

so, if you're someone who does any kind of typing, you may as well just use Whisper Flow. Whisper Flow is free to

Whisper Flow. Whisper Flow is free to use and if you want to use it loads then you can upgrade to Whisper Flow Pro which gives you unlimited words and there will be a link and code in the video description that will get you one month completely free so you can try it out to your heart's content. So thank

you Whisper Flow for sponsoring this video and let's get back to it.

Tip number five, create visuals. Now

obviously this video is about how to learn anything faster with AI rather than going into the details of Linux and the home security camera system. And so

I want to share a few of the principles around effective evidence-based learning that we can apply to learning anything at all, including a home security system with AI so that it actually clicks and actually sticks. Now, there's a few

actually sticks. Now, there's a few different ways of like taking something complicated and making it click for you depending on your context. One of my favorite ones is instead of getting the chat to just chat me through the thing,

getting it to create visuals. Okay, I'm

still confused about this whole thing.

Can you turn this into like an HTML visual artifact or something that helps me see how this whole system fits together? All right, awesome. Simple

together? All right, awesome. Simple

visual explainer. Let's see. Ah, okay.

How the home security system fits together. Camera sends Vizio over a

together. Camera sends Vizio over a small computer. You got the cameras, the

small computer. You got the cameras, the home network, mini PC, the whole system at a glance. Cameras, home network. You

know, I don't really like this. Uh, I

actually prefer how Claw does this. Can

you give this to me with more like interactive diagrams or something that I can click on, etc.? You get me? All

right. So, let's see. Show the flow.

This is slightly janky, but you can see I can click on camera. Okay, that sends footage to the home network, mini PC, Linux. Frigot is a software. And then,

Linux. Frigot is a software. And then,

oh, I watch this on an app. So, just by asking it to give me a visual immediately I can like visualize the system a lot better. And often our brains learn better with visuals than with text. And so, this makes it easier

with text. And so, this makes it easier to learn anything. you can almost always find a way for Claude, Chad, GBT, Gemini, Grock, whatever to turn whatever you're trying to learn into an interesting visual that makes it click

in your mind. Tip number six, connect it to a fictional story. Okay, so one of my favorite ways of understanding anything is by just asking the AI to connect whatever I'm trying to learn to either

the world of Harry Potter or the world of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmir because these are two fantasy worlds that I have a deep level of familiarity with. So,

let's find something a little bit more complicated than this. How does Linux actually work? What about Ubuntu

actually work? What about Ubuntu and Debian and stuff? What's all the latest stuff I read on Twitter about Omari?

Explain this all to me using uh Harry Potter analogies and world etc. Again, there's nothing fancy about this prompt.

I'm not doing some like, you know, 2023 level prompt engineering. Linux is magic itself. And Debbie and Ubuntu Arch are

itself. And Debbie and Ubuntu Arch are different wizarding schools that teach and package that magic differently. Om

marchie is basically a very opinionated stylish Hogwarts house built on top of arch. Now the wizarding schools start

arch. Now the wizarding schools start appearing. Debian is like ancient

appearing. Debian is like ancient serious Hogwarts. Lots of tradition,

serious Hogwarts. Lots of tradition, massive community, conservative about changing things, extremely concerned that everything works reliably. Debian

has enormous repositories of software and very deliberate release processes.

Okay, so Debian is Hogwarts founded a thousand years ago. Ubuntu is Hogwarts, but someone has added signs everywhere, produces student handbook, modernized the dormatories, and hired a customer support department. And then what's cool

support department. And then what's cool about this is where this gets relevant to your frigot project. Your little

server is basically house. You don't sit at the desk, you tell it, do show me your storage. Dobby responds, Dobby, on

your storage. Dobby responds, Dobby, on my camera's running. Doby, install this software. Sick. So immediately, I've now

software. Sick. So immediately, I've now connected this historical thing about Linux or whatever the thing you want to do is to a world that I'm very familiar with and I can I can understand it by analogy using analogies, using stories, using metaphors and stuff. Again, just

makes things click for us, but also makes them stick. I'm now basically never going to forget about like what the difference between Debian and Abuntu is. Having now that I have the visual

is. Having now that I have the visual metaphor of, oh, okay, it's sort of like Hogwarts, but like this and this and this in my mind. This is how you learn anything faster with AI.

Tip number seven, find the drama.

Another thing when it comes to learning anything is that if there is an emotional charge to the thing that you are learning, then it makes it stick much more than if it's just a raw fact.

Raw facts are boring, but stories are interesting. And what makes a story

interesting. And what makes a story interesting? Well, it's stakes and

interesting? Well, it's stakes and drama. We love drama. And so in just to

drama. We love drama. And so in just to continue this particular example, can you tell me about anything any interesting controversies or any any interesting recent drama around all of

this stuff that could be interesting?

Let's just see. This points to possibly the great meta drama of Linux. Linux

people cannot agree on how Linux should work. Just simultaneously it greatest

work. Just simultaneously it greatest weakness and it greatest strength. One

camp says, "Make it polished, standardized, and easy enough that grandma can use it." Another camp says, "Standardization inevitably means someone gains control. Give me the pieces and let me decide." Another says, "I don't care about either of you. My

server hasn't rebooted since 2023." And

then someone using Nick Ny Nick's OS, whatever that is, appears from the basement and says, "Actually, the entire configuration of Hogwarts should be described decoratively in a reproducible file and everyone stops inviting him to parties."

parties." Cool. Again, it's interesting.

Cool. Again, it's interesting.

Tip number eight, find the opinions, preferably controversial ones. I'm

currently reading a book called The World: A Brief Introduction by a chap called Richard H. The reason I'm reading this book is because I literally said to AI the other day that I want to understand more about how the world works because I've realized there's

stuff happening in the news and I have no idea what's going on just broadly and I feel like I don't have a handle of the world as a whole like politics and geopolitics and obviously I know bits and bobs here and there but I feel like

because I went straight into medical school from high school I never really took any proper classes other than in like when I was like 13 about like history or about politics or about economics and then so there's there's

all this stuff that to really get a handle on the world. You just have to have quite a reasonable foundation in knowing what's going on. And so I said all this to AI and it basically recommended me this one book like the world brief introduction by this guy

Richard H. And so I've started reading

Richard H. And so I've started reading the book. The reason I'm saying this is

the book. The reason I'm saying this is firstly because you can learn anything by just asking AI to recommend resources to you. But secondly, there was a moment

to you. But secondly, there was a moment that really stuck out to me which involves NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. You've probably heard of

Organization. You've probably heard of NATO. It's like the collection of like

NATO. It's like the collection of like the US and like a bunch of Western countries and this sort of anti-Russia.

Now, the thing I knew about NATO roughly, cuz I learned this in Cold War history in when I was like 14, is that NATO was set up during the Cold War as like a anti-Russia type vibe. And then

the Russians set up the Warsaw Pact a few years later as a sort of screw you NATO kind of vibe. And that was kind of my understanding of what NATO does. And

it's like, you know, sort of like this alliance where if you attack one of the countries, you're attacking all of the countries and then they'll come to each other's defense. But what I didn't

other's defense. But what I didn't realize and what he talks about in the book is that actually at the end of the Cold War around 1989 to 1991 depending on who you ask, all of a sudden the Russian threat sort of went out the window for now. And so NATO as an

organization didn't really have anything that it was particularly focused on. And

so what they did was they started like expanding and getting more countries to join NATO as member states and stuff.

The reason this sticks out in my mind is because Richard H, the author of the book, shares a controversial opinion.

And his controversial opinion is that NATO should have been disbanded in 1991 once the Russia threat was out the window. And he feels that actually the

window. And he feels that actually the fact that NATO membership has been expanding since 1991 is actually one of the factors that's caused Putin to become like screw you Europe and the West and resulted in way more drama

compared to if NATO had been disbanded.

They they could have found better ways to deal with Russia. And he feels controversially that the world would be a better place without NATO being expanded from 1991. Now that's

interesting. The author has shared an opinion. The opinion is controversial

opinion. The opinion is controversial and so it's inherently interesting because the stuff that sticks in our brain is the stuff that feels dramatic and interesting. And so with whatever

and interesting. And so with whatever you are trying to learn, if you can find the drama, if you can find the interesting or the controversial bits or the bits where historians disagree or the bits where politicians disagree and you can ask AI to give you the steelman

for each side of the debate, you can actually get a reasonable understanding of loads of different issues. Because

especially in the news, almost anything that's interesting will have two sides of the debate. We can argue all we like about which side is better, but especially when it comes to learning stuff, especially if it's controversial, you want to be able to really steal man

the opposite side of the thing, right?

If you're like, "The Labor Party is just way better than the Conservative Party or whatever." You want to understand why

or whatever." You want to understand why do loads of people vote Conservative?

Like, what are the absolute best reasons for doing it? And then what's the best rebuttal to those best reasons? Now,

back in the day, this used to be hot cuz you would have to sort of Google it. You

would maybe see something on Reddit, maybe see a blog post. You would have to trust the author. But now with AI, because it's basically read the internet, you can basically ask it to argue with itself. And at least for me, I found that this has given me much more of an understanding of just [music]

everything by just asking the AI to firstly find the controversial stuff and then secondly steelman both sides of the argument.

Tip number nine, trust the AI, but with a grain of salt. Now, all of this might be the question like, yeah, but can you trust the AI? What if it a hallucinates and just makes stuff up? Or some people say that certain AIs have been trained

or like prompted by the system prompt to have a particular political stance and so you can't really get like neutrality out of the AI. So part of the thing is like will it just lie to you and then the other part of the thing is will it

like have have a bias that you don't realize. Both of these things I think

realize. Both of these things I think are valid and my view on this for both of them is that you don't need to think too hard about it depending on how high stakes the particular question is. So if

for example I'm visiting a random museum in Japan and I'm interested in what was the controversy 1500 years ago between like the different dynasties or the different empires or whatever. Like

that's not a high stakes decision. I

don't really care if it hallucinates a couple of things. I don't really care if it's got like a slightly anti-western or slightly pro-western or slightly projapan stance. Like it doesn't really

projapan stance. Like it doesn't really matter. It's just like directionally

matter. It's just like directionally it's still broadly teaching me sensible things about the world. For the most part, every single day, the AI is getting better at not hallucinating and just randomly making stuff up. So a lot of the people in the hallucination camp

are thinking to the free version of Chad GPT from 2023 rather than the modern paid frontier models that have gotten way better at actually knowing that fact. And I think yeah, the political

fact. And I think yeah, the political bias argument around can you trust it also makes sense. This is kind of why I like it to steel man both sides of the position because usually it will do a very good job of this. People say Claude is a bit left-leaning, but if you ask

Claude for like the most strong right-leaning arguments in favor of, I don't know, anti-abortion or like anti-immigration or anything, it will also give you a pretty good sense. So,

you can be like, okay, this is I can see why people think that. I might not agree with it, but I can still see why people think it. If it's something like that,

think it. If it's something like that, sometimes I'll just ask Grock, and Grock is famously a little bit more unhinged.

And so if I really care about like what is Twitter saying about the thing cuz Twitter has strong opinions on both sides of the political divide, I'll just ask Grock. But again, it kind of depends

ask Grock. But again, it kind of depends on the stakes. If you are like you and me and for the most part you are a normal person just trying to understand stuff, the stakes are not that high. If

for example I were the aid for a state leader and giving them a briefing about Crimea or about Ukraine or about Russia or about anything, then of course the stakes are much higher and I would want to actually fact check my sources. But

for most of us, most of the time I don't think we need to bother with that, especially when the stakes are low.

Tip number 10, let the AI correct you.

The single best way to learn anything is a technique that I've been talking about for years called active recall. All of

the studies that have ever been done on how to learn stuff puts this right at the top. What this basically means is

the top. What this basically means is you test yourself. The way you learn stuff is not by reading stuff. It's by

reading stuff first and then trying to recall it at a later date or at the same time. Active recall is often combined

time. Active recall is often combined with something called space repetition, which is sort of like counteracts the forgetting curve where you forget lots of stuff very quickly. And so you test yourself like on the day and then you test yourself a day later and then you

test yourself a week later and then you test yourself a month later. And with

this sort of spaced repetition plus active recall, this is how you learn basically anything you want super fast.

I've been talking about this stuff on this channel since 2018. These days when people come up to me in the streets, they will often say that they firstly that they used to watch my videos, but secondly that they used to watch my videos while they were at school or college or university. and that the

study techniques in particular of active recall and space repetition like got them through their exams. If that is you at this point in the video, I'd love to know in the comments if that holds true for you as well. But like these two techniques, active recall and space repetition, are just by far the best ways to learn anything fast. And the

great thing about AI is that you can ask AI to help facilitate these for you. So

active recall is basically where you quiz yourself. And there's a couple of

quiz yourself. And there's a couple of different ways of doing this. The first

one that I really like is you just spiel what you think is going on and let the AI correct you. So just for illustration, I'm going to start a new chat. And let's say I want to learn

chat. And let's say I want to learn about something random like the history of banking just cuz why not? Maybe I'm

visiting a museum or something. This why

I often talk to the AI while I'm visiting museums now which makes museums way more interesting than I've ever found them in the past. Okay. So I'd

like to learn about the history of banking. Uh what I'm going to do is I am

banking. Uh what I'm going to do is I am going to say what I think the rough my rough understanding of it is and then I want you to correct me and sort of explain where I'm going wrong. Okay. So

the history of banking I feel like when was the first bank created? I don't know like,000 BC 500 BC. What empire was that? Oh

Are we talking like ancient Greeks? Damn it. When were coins

Greeks? Damn it. When were coins invented? Vaguely remember. A few

invented? Vaguely remember. A few

thousand a few thousand years BC maybe.

But like as soon as you get coins, surely you would have had banks. Surely

surely ancient Greece was like the big one for that. Surely they had banks in the Roman Empire. Like in Game of Thrones, they've got the Iron Bank of Braavos. And so that's like a medieval

Braavos. And so that's like a medieval thing. So surely banks were [music]

thing. So surely banks were [music] around, right? How how did banks work?

around, right? How how did banks work?

Did the crown hold hold the banks? When

did the Bank of England come to be a thing? Why banks? Okay. What do you

thing? Why banks? Okay. What do you reckon? Obviously, you can tell I don't

reckon? Obviously, you can tell I don't know much about the history of banking, but I'm just going to chuck it into AI and let's see what it responds and how it corrects me. Your instincts are actually pretty good. The main thing to fix is that banking is much older than coins. Oh, sick. Banking began as

coins. Oh, sick. Banking began as recordeping and lending. Coins came

later. So, the mental model of once people had coins, surely they had banks is reasonable, but the causality is almost backwards. The first banks were

almost backwards. The first banks were probably temples and palaces. Go back to Mesopotamia, roughly 3,000 to 2,000 BC.

Sick. Coins are much later than you think. Coins were not around a few

think. Coins were not around a few thousand years BC. First, widely Oh, 7th century BC. Okay. especially in Lydia in

century BC. Okay. especially in Lydia in what is now western Turkey. So writing

and debt was 30,000 BC. Lending was

before 2,000 BC, but coins were only about 600 BC. That's a gigantic gap which reveals something profound. Money

as debt and accounting is older than money as coins. Interesting. This is

also a little bit long. If I were actually doing this, I'd be like, give this to me in a much more simpler way.

Simpler way cuz I don't like massive ass thingies [music] that Chady produces, but whatever. And so now I have the

but whatever. And so now I have the history of banking. So you see in that context, I'm doing a little bit of active recall here. I'm like racking my brains to think like what do I know about banking? And I'm totally chill

about banking? And I'm totally chill with getting it wrong because it's just the AI, you know, I'm not filming it for various people to see. And then the AI is able to correct me. And it's cool because it tells me where my instincts were right and also where they were wrong. And that is a much better way for

wrong. And that is a much better way for me to learn compared to if I just asked it, tell me about the history of banking.

Tip number 11, let the AI quiz you again. Continuing on our active recall

again. Continuing on our active recall theme, something you can do whenever you're learning anything. Okay, cool.

So, I've read about the history of banking. Now, um, I want you to generate

banking. Now, um, I want you to generate for me some multiple choice questions that I can answer just to test myself.

All right, here we go. Banking history

quiz. Let's see which came first. Coins,

paperike, lending, and record keeping, central banks, and paper money. Okay,

well, obviously it was B. I'm just going to copy paste that. Where did some of the earliest banking like activities appear? I think they said Mesopotamia.

appear? I think they said Mesopotamia.

What was one major role of temples and palaces in early Mesopotamian finance?

Uh, I think it was this. Roughly when

did coinage first appear? I think 700.

Yeah, easy. 700 BC. Which place is strongly associated? They said Lydia

strongly associated? They said Lydia which is in western Turkey. Ancient

Greece bankers were known as trapeziti.

What did they commonly do? Probably

that. Which statement best describes Roman banking. Ah crap. I I stopped kind

Roman banking. Ah crap. I I stopped kind of reading at that point. These multiple

choice questions are a bit bad cuz I think you can often infer the answer from the from the way it's phrased and so on. Oh, 11 out of 11 correct so far.

so on. Oh, 11 out of 11 correct so far.

You stopped at 11. So here are 12 to 20 again. So you can kind of do this. You

again. So you can kind of do this. You

can get it to do it one at a time. You

can do it all in one go. You can even get it to not do multiple choice. So for

example, you can say, "Okay, I want you to ask me one question at a time that tests my understanding but not as multiple choice. Just ask me the

multiple choice. Just ask me the question and then I'll tell you what I think the answer is and then I want you to correct me and then ask the next one.

Why could sophisticated banking exist before coins were invented? Because

coins were quite late and uh from what you told me I think like wheat and barley and silvers used as currencies and stuff way before coins were a thing.

Exactly. Great. Next question. What

problem did medieval builders Yeah. So

you get the idea. We're doing the active recall process. Back in the day, before

recall process. Back in the day, before we had AI, you would have had to either create your own flash cards, which takes absolutely ages, or you would have had to download someone else's flashcard deck, which then is not tailored to the stuff that you personally care about,

unless you're explicitly Where's their mosquito? Unless you're explicitly

mosquito? Unless you're explicitly preparing for some kind of standardized test that like loads of different people take, like the USMLE or the NEA or whatever.

Tip number 12, ask the AI for help if you are stuck. All right, so going back to my home improvement security project over the weekend, I was doing the stuff.

I asked the AI to give me a shopping list of things to get. I ordered them from HKTV mall, which is sort of like the Amazon of Hong Kong. I got this stuff arriving. I unboxed it and along

stuff arriving. I unboxed it and along the way, I was taking photos of stuff and asking the AI for help in what to do next. So, for example, I unboxed the PC

next. So, for example, I unboxed the PC and the hard drives and connected it all up and then I realized I didn't have a monitor to plug it into. So, I asked the AI and guess what it told me? It told me I do have a monitor. I could in fact use my TV because it had memory that it knew

that I had this particular TV. And so,

then I found an HDMI cable connected to the TV and connected a keyboard to the TV and now I was able to get started without the additional friction. And

then while having this computer connected to the TV with my junky keyboard in like the baby's play pen, I was saying stuff like, "Okay, awesome.

It works. Windows is now set up. What do

I do next? Do I install Linux or what?

How do I get it so I don't have to keep it to connected to this TV forever? I'd

like to operate it headless via SSH.

Maybe via tail skill. What do you reckon?" And so it gave me a

reckon?" And so it gave me a recommendation. And so now I'm setting

recommendation. And so now I'm setting up the stuff. How do I restart Windows with just the keyboard? Windows key R and then type in this stuff. Shutdown/

R/T0.

Boom. And then I needed to actually install Linux, but I didn't have a USB stick cuz who has USB sticks these days?

And so I was like, hm, I don't have a USB stick. Could I just use the hard

USB stick. Could I just use the hard drive that I've got, the spare hard drive? And so it gave me specific

drive? And so it gave me specific instructions on how to use the spare hard drive. Along the way, one of the

hard drive. Along the way, one of the apps that you use on a Mac to like load up uh an ISO file to install an operating system crashed on me for whatever reason. And I just told the AI,

whatever reason. And I just told the AI, it's crashed on me. And it gave me some terminal commands that I could use to basically replace the functionality of the app. I wouldn't have been able to

the app. I wouldn't have been able to figure this out by googling back in the day. I' just been like, "Oh, damn it. I

day. I' just been like, "Oh, damn it. I

have to wait another day because I have to wait for a USB stick to arrive from like Amazon or whatever." And so then by just following the instructions in the AI and asking it to explain stuff along the way, you know, plugged in the hard drive to the computer, I managed to

ultimately install. And then I managed

ultimately install. And then I managed to run Windows in recovery mode, which I hadn't done for like decades. And then I get this sort of black stuff and it's going on in my screen. And so as I'm going through this, I'm taking photos, sending it to the AI, and asking it to

guide me through what to do next. This

is the sort of like technical friction that always happens when you do stuff like this. And so literally at every

like this. And so literally at every step along the way, I have no idea what's going on on the screen. I just

take a photo, send it to the AI, ask it for help. And by just following this

for help. And by just following this process over a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon while my wife was having a nap and the baby was asleep, I was able to ultimately install Linux on this little box, able to connect it to and format this hard drive which now

records the home security camera footage. Install Ubuntu server and then

footage. Install Ubuntu server and then this thing called Docker and then this thing called Frigot and then connect the cameras to it to create this home security system. And now this is super

security system. And now this is super cool. Like we have the system that

cool. Like we have the system that works. I'm very excited to play around

works. I'm very excited to play around with it. We've got the basic version of

with it. We've got the basic version of the camera set up. I learned a lot about Linux and cameras and security protocols and like SSH and all this sort of stuff while doing it. And now my next project that I want to do is I want to figure out a way to like in fact you know what

I'm just going to do it now. Okay, I

have a home lab set up on a Linux server in like my bedroom. I would really like to automate the opening of our bedroom curtains at 7:00 every morning. How do I

go about like motorizing curtains and making them open automatically at 7:00 every morning? Ah, home assistant

every morning? Ah, home assistant server. Okay, switchbot curtain 3.

server. Okay, switchbot curtain 3.

They're retrofit motors. You attach them to the curtain railroad you already have. Oh, sick. That's cool. Okay, nice.

have. Oh, sick. That's cool. Okay, nice.

So now this is going to be my next home lap project. And then again as I work on

lap project. And then again as I work on this specific project of it would be cool to open the bloody hell. And then

as I work on this specific project of it would be cool to automatically open our curtains at 7:00 in the morning so that it you know it's a nice alarm clock. I

will learn more about like the hardware side of stuff. Maybe it'll involve some soldering. Maybe I'll learn how that

soldering. Maybe I'll learn how that works and what that is. And it's just like really cool to have these little projects you can do in your work or personal life and learn cool stuff while you are working on the projects. And

crucially, if you get stuck along the way, you just take photos, send it to AI, and ask AI to help you along the way. So now there's just no excuse for

way. So now there's just no excuse for not being able to do cool stuff and then learning cool things along the way. And

then finally, tip number 13 is know when to stop. Now, obviously, when it comes

to stop. Now, obviously, when it comes to learning stuff, there is an endless rabbit hole you could keep on going down. My barometer for when to stop is

down. My barometer for when to stop is literally just following my own curiosity. At a certain point of if I'm

curiosity. At a certain point of if I'm in a museum and learning about like this coin and why this coin is relevant and why it's dramatic and why it's interesting and why it's controversial, I will be like, "All right, cool. I feel

like I've learned enough." and then I move on to the next thing. So again, the point of the learning stuff isn't that learning should start to feel like work.

It should feel like play. It should be fun. And if you're not finding it fun,

fun. And if you're not finding it fun, well then find a way to make it fun or just stop doing it because like again, when you're enjoying the process, then you'll just learn everything way faster and way better rather than if you're forcing yourself to if you're like

shuing yourself into like doing the thing. Learning shouldn't be a should.

thing. Learning shouldn't be a should.

Like once you're outside of the school system, university system where yeah, it's kind of a should like you should want to learn things. And so it's sort of like reading, right? Like a lot of people should themselves into thinking that they should be reading more books.

But one of my favorite quotes from Naval Raakan is read what you love until you love to read. Like reading shouldn't be a chore just like learning shouldn't be a chore. And you can totally read and

a chore. And you can totally read and learn about stuff that you are interested in. To get started with

interested in. To get started with reading, you might want to start reading like I don't know Harry Potter fanfiction if that's what floats your boat or like romantic. And then once you enjoy the art of reading then sure you can tackle something a bit more difficult like Charles Dickens or like

the classics or like non-fiction texts or whatever. But it's like if you focus

or whatever. But it's like if you focus on enjoying the process, then the learning will eventually take care of itself, the reading will take care of itself, and you'll just have a way better life overall. And if you enjoyed this video and you are interested in diving deeper into how to use clawed code in particular, this is my

beginner's guide to claude code, which lots of people have said to me has changed their [music] life and was the thing that got them into actually doing coding with AI, especially if they didn't know how to code beforehand, or especially if they were a little bit like technically afraid of like the

coding stuff because they consider themselves a non-coder. So, that video is right over there. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you there.

All right.