How to Learn Faster Than AI (Even If You Don’t Have a Degree) | Siddharth Rajsekar | Episode 7

Alvin Toffler said that the successful people of the 21st century are not the ones who are able to learn and retain more information in their heads. He said that those who are going to be successful are the ones who will be able to learn, unlearn and relearn with speed. In this video I'm going to go deeper into the aspect of continuous learning and why it is the most critical skill to build, especially in a fast paced digital age. And I'm going to break this video into multiple parts. First I'm going to talk about the different eras of wealth and why learning was introduced in the first place. I'm going to go from the past, projecting into the future. And once you understand that, I'm going to then go to a concept called the cone of learning, which was introduced by a person called Edgar Dale. And he speaks about there are different styles of learning and which is the most effective form of learning. And then towards the end of this video, I'm going to give you some action steps on how you can improve your speed of learning and how you can improve your speed of application by using a formula called ldt. And I'll tell you more about that towards the end. So if you're watching this video and if you're not yet subscribed to this, please subscribe to this and please watch my previous episodes because I've covered a lot of ground to come to this particular point. Once you finish this video, please go through the previous ones as well so that you understand the depth of what I'm actually sharing with you. So let's talk about the eras of wealth. Back in the day, people would learn through different kinds of modalities. People would go to a gurukul, there would be a master, there would be people from all different backgrounds from that village who would come and learn from that particular master. The master would teach them all different subjects, whatever is relevant for them based on their aptitude, based on their skill sets, based on their traits and character traits. The master would designate them to different parts of society to contribute to society. Whether they would go more into administration or they would go into being more like the intelligence or the brains behind the monarchy, the rulers. Or he would assign them to be a part of the economic engine of business or maybe just the people in the supporting the other different areas. So education was not so much about information, it was more about being valuable to society. And there when people would go to the Gurukula system of education, the master would embody the qualities. Whatever he would teach, he Was not teaching something that he was not as a person. And all of these elements contributed to the learning. And then the next era after that came the industrial era. This was during the agricultural era, from zero to probably 1768. And after that, right through the 1800s, we got introduced to the current education system, what we have today, introduced by the Britishers, which is all based on the industrial era. And it was introduced in such way where anyone who'd enter the system of education, they had to comply to specific standards that could contribute to the industrial growth during that time. So I think right from 1800s to say 1950, which was the rise of the industrial era, what were we experiencing today in our education system and learning? The foundation was built in those days. So ringing bells, factory like model batching kids based on their age group. And they would complete the batch one year at a time, they would get the graduation, they would build these skills so that they could fit perfectly well into the workforce. So our education system was designed to create more workers for the workforce. And it did its job brilliantly well. But then after 1950s, 1960s, we saw the next era which was the distribution era. The ones that controlled wealth are the ones who had multiple outlets. We saw this whole consumerism boom across the world. And then we came into the 80s and 90s which was a technology era. So those who were able to build applications, build softwares. And it was the rise of the software engineers as again it was the same industrial era learning system. But the topics that were taught just changed in the next era. And we are talking about things like software engineering. And this was the entire 90s and 2000s was a boom of the software engineer. Everybody did their be, did their ms, went to the US and I have many cousins and relatives who went through that path of learning. And the era after that was the era of going from technology to information era. The era where the Internet became big early 2000s. Now instead of going and reading from textbooks, people would go and learn directly online. They would go to Google and get all the information that they want. And people that created wealth during that era were those who learnt how to manage and give information to others. Google became the biggest company, started around that point of time. Even Amazon started around that time. And then from the information era we moved to the next era which was the era of the information Entertainment era. From 2010 to 2020, we saw the rise of Internet bandwidth. We saw more and more smartphones coming into the market. Before that it was just button phones. And the way people would learn would not be in classrooms, but people would be learning on their phone itself. And it happened right through 2010 to 2020. So even if you look at the way the next generation is learning, it's way different compared to when I was growing up where there was no technology. I was brought up in the 80s, 90s. I'm very happy to say that I've seen both that and especially those of you who are watching this video and you're born in the 70s, 80s, you know the time when there was no technology, you know the time when there were pagers, you know the time when the mobiles were introduced. Now you know the time that smartphones introduced and we have seen the entire spectrum. And I'm here to tell you this, that what we are experiencing right now in our current generation, our great grandfathers would not have seen this drastic of a change in such short span of time. Because our great grandfathers or great great grandfathers and grandmothers, they were still at a point where in their entire life of 80 to 100 years they would have seen only a few changes happening. But in the last 30 years we have seen such drastic changes where learning is a very, very critical aspect of society. And the way we learn and the way people need to make progress is going to completely change. And it is already changing. So in other words, our formal education system that was built in the industrial era, it is outdated for the era that we are living in right now. Because accessibility to information with AI and the fast changing trends, the only way to be a continuous learner and grow fast is to be a part of vibrant learning communities. Which is what I shared in the previous video where you pick whatever you want to learn, learn it really fast, learn it from a mentor who is an implementer, not just a professor who's done research that also has its, has its role. But what people really need now is real world, hands on, tangible, experiential knowledge that can be applied in the real world. Because what happens typically is people, they go to a college, they go to school, they learn, they get the degrees, they go through the entire system and then when they get into the job again, they're relearning in that job, they're going through the entire process once again. And most of us, we are not applying the knowledge what we would have learned in school and college. So there's a fundamental shift that is happening in the world. And I'll come to the different states and the different ways of learning based on the cone of Learning by Edgar Dale. I'll come to that next. But the main thing is this, that now we are living in an era which is not just info and entertainment. We are moving into the AI era right now where now AI can even think for us, AI can even do stuff for us. And we are moving into a world where it's going to go into agentic AI probably it's already happening right now where you just need to tell technology what you want to get done. It'll do everything for you. Even if you go to Google right now, the Notebook LLM and just do deep research on Google, you'll be amazed with that. Even if you go to ChatGPT and just say do a deep research on this particular topic, it'll analyze all the articles, it'll analyze all the different things and it'll give you such an in depth research with where that is enough for you to learn any topic rather than going and getting a textbook because it is going to pull information from all different directories and resources. So accessibility of information is in our fingertips. Even a person who's in rural India, they have access to 5G, they have access to ChatGPT, they have access to Google Gemini, they have access to deep SEQ or whatever AI tools that are there. So we are on a level playing field right now. So why am I sharing this with you is that self learning is going to be a critical component to your success. One of my favorite mentors, his name is Jim Rohn, he says that formal education can make you a living, but self education can make you a fortune. And I'm a living and breathing case study of that because I don't have a degree, I'm only a 12th pass. I don't have any degree next to my name. But in my community of 35, 40,000 people, we have people from IIT, IIM, all these big, big designations. They're coming and they're reinventing themselves through the self education journey. It's not that whatever they studied in the college and university did not have any value, it did have its value. But at the time and age in which we are in right now, even people who are highly qualified are restarting their learning journey and they're in the continuous learning journey. So now let's talk about what is this cone of learning because you've understood that in the eras that have passed, we are at a stage where it requires a reinvention, it requires a different thought process when it comes to learning. And I'll give you some tips towards the end as well. Now, Edgar Dale did a research he was born in the 1900s or he was more prominent during the 1900s. And he did a deep research on what helps people have maximum retention when they learn. And he came to understand that those who are just listening to lectures, where it was just a one way communication, their retention was less than 20%. In fact it was 5 to 10% retention. In the second stage, when people were given demonstrations of different things to learn, their retention improved to 50% to 60% when they were shown how to be done it, not just somebody speaking about it. And then he came to know that the maximum retention was when people were made to do activities and when they were made to teach others, where the retention went up to even 90%. And the end of that case, that end of that entire research was that the highest retention is when people are engaged, when people are sharing knowledge with others, when people are actually doing the thing. So even in this video you're picking up some information from me. But when you actually start applying this knowledge, when you do the tasks that I give you at the end of this video, that is where you will see the real impact of the knowledge. Otherwise you've just spent maybe 10, 15 minutes with me and you're going back to your real, your life. So go to Google and do a research on cone of learning at Girdale and there's a lot more that you can get from this just by looking at that infographic. There's a beautiful infographic you'll find on Google and you can do research on that. So now the third part I wanted to share is ldt. What is this formula for you to be a speed learner? What is the formula for you to be relevant in a fast paced digital age? What is this formula for you to be ahead of so many others? This is a formula that I've been following for many years. Okay. And as, as you would have seen in my previous videos, I've said this before, I'm not a call, I'm not a graduate, but I have learned by being a part of learning communities. So when I did my sound engineering, I was a part of the music community. Then when I went into my workspace, I was doing mobile application as a part of that mobile community. I was learning from there corporate job. Then from there I came into the social media world and I started to train on social media and everything was self taught. I just picked up some courses, but I just learned from those courses. But I applied the knowledge and through application I got better experience in that. Then I went into building my Agency. I got into business and I did not do any mba. I did not learn from any professor an MBA in business. I learned business through the school of hard knocks where I got knocked hard, where I lost money, I was not profitable, I was going down business. And that taught me more than anything else. So when you look at the formal education system, there's a taboo of failure. Like when somebody fails or scores less marks based on rote learning, memorization. The people are rewarded in the, in the academic system are the ones who are having a high intellectual quotient, iq. But today that does not matter because iq, it only has a small part to play. It's more about AQ adaptability quotient, EQ emotional quotient. Do you connect with fellow human beings and sq, do you have a strong spiritual quotient that actually where you're thinking beyond just yourself, your family and others, where you're actually making a higher, bigger difference in this world. So coming back to the point, we are living in a world right now which is moving extremely fast. And whatever I have been through in my experiences in my life journey has all been through practical experiential knowledge that I got from courses that I got from mentors who are implementers of that knowledge. And the reason I'm even recording this video for you is to inspire you to be that mentor to others so that you can learn the way that we teach. I heard I've gone in depth into this concept called accelerated learning techniques. There are so many techniques that I apply in my webinars, in my workshops where I bring the magic out of the room. I basically get get it out of the student. Great teachers, they don't just give information. Great teachers help their students think for themselves. And if you can be the teacher to others, you can actually get a lot more from them. So what is ldt? L stands for? Learn. Be a voracious learner. Learn every single day in whatever medium that you want to learn. For example, I'm not a bookish kind of a learner. Even if I'm reading books, I don't read the entire book from COVID to cover. I may be reading multiple books. I may just read 1, 1 page, 2, 2 pages. And I just try to extract the idea and how I can apply it. In fact, I'm not so much of a reader myself. I'm more of a listener. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. So I would listen to an audiobook for 30 minutes, go to another one for 30 minutes. I go through multiple topics and I'M not hard on myself. Oh, I did not finish what I started. That's a very school thinking. Right? So I was coming back to that point. In school you're getting rewarded for your marks. But in business, if you want to build something in a digital world, you're going to get rewarded for your experience. The more you fail, the faster you fail. When you fail, fast fail forward and look at failure as a feedback, that's going to be your biggest teacher. So the first thing is to learn. Learn through your own ways. Learn through your. By observing the world around you, you can learn from anywhere. You're walking on a road, you just see a billboard, you learn something. You're taking a flight, you open a magazine, you see something really interesting, learn something. Maybe you're walking down on the you're going somewhere for a party, you go for a wedding and some kid comes and tells you something and you're like, wow, amazing knowledge. You can get wisdom from anywhere, provided your antennas are alert, your egos are in check. Be a lifelong learner. Okay, so that the first thing is learn. And I learn a lot from my community with more than 30, 40,000 people every week I do calls with my community members. I ask them to ask me questions on a Google sheet. I have more than 10,000 questions on a Google Sheet and I've answered possibly 5,6000 of them over the last seven years. And that Google form where they've asked me questions, that is my food. I just need to look at what they want and what they want, which I don't have. I go learn, I apply, and then I share that knowledge with them. So this is like an amazing feedback system for you to learn. So that's the first formula. D stands for do. Okay. If you're just learning and teaching, you're just copying and pasting, which is not going to have an impact on your students. You're like a parrot, you know, just learning from here and sharing with them. But when you learn and you approach, apply that knowledge and then when you teach from your own practical experience, it will have depth. Because from my analysis, I've noticed that there are three kinds of teachers in this world. The first kind of a teacher, they are the ones who are only learning and teaching others. Their impact on their students are very shallow. The second kind of a teacher is they learn, they apply, and they teach their students based on their application of knowledge. Their impact on their students is much deeper. And you have the third kind of a teacher that I want to inspire all of you to be is where you are living and breathing your topic. You're not doing stuff, you are being that day in, day out, you are teaching. I mean you are living your topic. And those teachers who are living and breathing their topic and they teach it to others, the impact that they have in their students will be extremely deep. They may say something very small, but it goes, it lands because it is coming from a space of being, not just doing so. T stands for teach. L is learn. D is do. T stands for teach. So if you want to be in this continuous learning journey and you want to be relevant even 10 years, 20 years from now, just start teaching others by doing whatever you want to teach. Now how do you teach others? Very simple. Pick up your phone, start recording one reel every alternate day. Maybe you learned something from this video. Just pick up your phone, record one minute reel. Just say, I was watching this video by Sidharth Rajshekhar, I learned this topic and I want to share this with you. Here are the three points I learned. Share it. Somebody there will watch it. They'll be like, wow, tell me more about it. They may share some comment and that will give you a feedback and you want to do more. Then another thing you can do is record a YouTube video like this. YouTube videos may be a little bit longer. Start with a 5 minute video or 10 minute video. Anything that interests you, go to ChatGPT, go to Google, Gemini, go to some place, do research for 30 minutes on any topic, a topic that you don't know. Also do research and then you record a video. Just say that okay, I did my, I did around 30 minutes research on this and I'm recording this video for two reasons. One is I wanted to learn what I wanted to learn this topic. And two is I wanted to share this knowledge with you. And by me sharing this knowledge with you, I'm going to also apply this knowledge. So here's the video and you start recording the video. So that's another thing you can do. And the third thing you can do is start a community. So record a video and say please click on the link and join my community. It could be a WhatsApp community, it could be a telegram group, it could be a Facebook group, it could be any group. You create a community and people are interested, they'll be a part of your community. It could be a free community. Just start a community. And once they are part of that group, every week do a webinar with them. Webinar is slightly longer. A video can be 10, 15 minutes. But a webinar could be 60 minutes, 90 minutes, where you teach for one hour and half an hour, just answer questions, ask them to ask you questions, and you keep answering questions. And you know what? This one exercise, what I've shared with you right now, will completely transform you as a person. Because teaching and coaching is a form of therapy. You will grow as a person. Whatever problems that you have, whatever challenges that you're facing, the minute you start teaching it to others, you'll start embodying that knowledge consciously, subconsciously. And this is how our thousands of students in the Internet lifestyle hub have grown over the years. Not by just teaching others, but by also learning in the process. So continuous learning, according to me, is continuous teaching. And it can be as simple as one minute video, a five minute video, a 90 minute webinar. And eventually, I want to inspire you to build a vibrant learning community like us. If you have not seen the previous video, please watch the previous episode where I've actually detailed out what are the elements of a vibrant learning community and how you can build something of your own. In the next video, I'm going to talk about the essential element of impact, which is contribution. How you can serve first and succeed later. I'm going to go deeper into what are my philosophies and thought processes when it comes to contribution. And I want all of you to check out that next video now. If you're not subscribed to this channel, click on the link. Subscribe right now. And if you're not a part of my community, this is your moment. There's a link in the description. Get into the community. Experience whatever I've shared now in this video. And if you're already in my community, I would love you to share your comments below on what were your biggest learnings from this particular video before you move on to the next. Cheers. God bless and I truly want to see you succeed in the digital age. It's no more about memorizing and vomiting information like what happens in school. It's about actually living and breathing your topic by learning every single day and teaching others. All the best and I'll see you in the next video.