Books like Learn Like a Pro

01

Ultralearning

Scott Young · Self-help

Ultralearning is Scott Young's synthesis of principles drawn from his own extreme learning projects — completing MIT's four-year computer science curriculum in one year, learning four languages in a year, and other aggressive self-directed learning experiments — and from the academic research on skill acquisition and deliberate practice.

Both dig into learning.

02

A Mind for Numbers

Barbara Oakley · Self-help

A Mind for Numbers is Barbara Oakley's guide to learning hard subjects effectively, written primarily for students struggling with mathematics and science but drawing on cognitive science principles that apply to any demanding field.

Shares learning and memory with Learn Like a Pro.

03

Make It Stick

Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger and Mark A. McDaniel · Science

Make It Stick is a book about how memory actually works, and why the study techniques most people rely on — re-reading, highlighting, massed practice — are among the least effective ways to learn.

Shares learning and memory with Learn Like a Pro.

04

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool · Science

Peak is Anders Ericsson's definitive account of deliberate practice — the specific type of focused, feedback-driven training that, more than any other factor, determines how expert people become in demanding fields.

Both dig into learning.

05

Atomic Habits

James Clear · Self-help

Atomic Habits is James Clear's framework for how very small changes — habits so minor they seem to make no difference on any given day — compound into remarkable results over months and years.

A kindred self-help read.

06

Limitless

Jim Kwik · Self-help

Limitless is Jim Kwik's account of how he overcame a childhood brain injury and learning difficulties to become a professional memory coach and reading accelerator, and what he learned about cognition along the way.

Shares learning and memory with Learn Like a Pro.

07

The First 20 Hours

Josh Kaufman · Self-help

The First 20 Hours makes a sharp distinction that most books on learning quietly ignore: the difference between becoming competent at a skill and becoming world-class at one.

Shares learning and productivity with Learn Like a Pro.

08

The Memory Book

Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas · Self-help

The Memory Book is Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas's classic guide to memory improvement, first published in 1974 and still in print over fifty years later.

Shares learning and memory with Learn Like a Pro.

09

Moonwalking with Einstein

Joshua Foer · Science

Moonwalking with Einstein is Joshua Foer's account of spending a year training for and winning the United States Memory Championship, beginning as a journalist covering the event and ending as its champion.

Shares learning and memory with Learn Like a Pro.

10

Deep Work

Cal Newport · Self-help

Deep Work is Cal Newport's case that the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task is becoming both rarer and more valuable, and that people who cultivate it will thrive while everyone else stays stuck in shallow busywork.

Both dig into productivity.

11

Do Less, Get More

Shaa Wasmund · Self-help

Do Less, Get More is Shaa Wasmund's argument that most people's productivity problem is not a shortage of effort or time but an excess of wrong activity.

Both dig into productivity.

12

Eat That Frog!

Brian Tracy · Self-help

Eat That Frog!

Both dig into productivity.