How to Truly Learn and Build Expertise - My Thoughts

Recently, the line between entertainment and education has become increasingly blurred. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok are filled with content that feels educational but often isn’t. Majority of this material is cleverly disguised entertainment, designed to make viewers feel productive while keeping them engaged for as long as possible. The result? People walk away entertained, not educated.

Learning Is Effortful, Not Easy

Real learning isn’t supposed to feel like a casual stroll through a series of 10-minute videos or a motivational thread on social media. It’s supposed to feel like hard work. The experience of real learning feels like an intense workout—mentally demanding, uncomfortable at times, and requiring sustained effort. If you’re not mentally “sweating,” you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough.

This distinction matters. When consuming content, it’s important to clarify your intent upfront:

• Are you trying to learn, or are you trying to be entertained?
• Are you creating content to educate, or just to engage?

These paths lead to very different outcomes, and when they blur together, the result is often neither education nor true entertainment.

Reject Quick Fixes and Snackable Content

For those who genuinely want to learn, it’s important to reject the appeal of “snackable” content. Quick blog posts, “Learn X in 10 minutes” tutorials, and bite-sized social media threads may provide surface-level knowledge, but they rarely foster the depth needed for expertise. Instead, you need to embrace the longform: textbooks, documentation, academic papers, and detailed manuals.

Allocate focused time—several hours, if possible—and engage actively with the material. Take notes. Re-read sections. Rephrase ideas in your own words. Process, manipulate, and truly internalize what you’re learning. This approach will serve you way better than passively scrolling through shallow resources.

The Path to Expertise

If your goal is to become an expert in a field, your journey requires structure, discipline, and focus. Here’s a framework to guide you:

1. Take on Concrete Projects:
   Learn by doing. Start with small, well-defined projects and tackle them deeply. Focus on learning “on demand”—only dive into theory when it’s immediately relevant to the task at hand. This approach builds a practical foundation while keeping you motivated.

2. Teach and Summarize:
   Re-teach everything you’ve learned in your own words. Whether through writing, videos, or one-on-one explanations, summarizing forces you to clarify your understanding and reveals gaps in your knowledge.

3. Compare Only to Your Past Self:
   Avoid the trap of measuring yourself against others, especially in today’s hyper-visible, hyper-curated world. Focus on your growth over time, and aim to be better than the version of you from yesterday.

Beware of Productivity Fakes

In the search for productivity, it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling productive rather than being productive. Setting up elaborate tools—like notion templates, Pomodoro clocks, or specialized apps—can create an illusion of progress. But real productivity boils down to one thing: sitting down and doing the work.

It’s not exciting. In fact, it often sucks. But over time, the discomfort fades, and you build the mental stamina necessary for sustained focus. This is the true secret to getting things done—not magical “flow states” or cold showers, but good old-fashioned persistence.

What I See on Modern Content Culture

A quick glance at Tech Twitter or similar spaces show how much of the discourse has shifted from substance to spectacle. This is my opinion of the current landscape:

• Content creators prioritize engagement over depth, churning out lists, resources, and inspirational threads that rarely dig into meaningful detail.
• Career-switchers with limited experience become “thought leaders” overnight, offering paid mentoring sessions despite a lack of real-world expertise.
• The traditional path of working for a company is often dismissed in favor of flashy side hustles and entrepreneurial aspirations, which aren’t practical or desirable for everyone.

This noise can make it harder to focus on what truly matters. To avoid these distractions, prioritize substance over hype. Follow people and resources that align with your goals, and avoid the engagement-driven algorithms that prioritize clicks over quality.

Final Thoughts

Building expertise isn’t about quick wins or shortcuts. It’s about committing to hard work, embracing discomfort, and focusing on the long term. Whether you’re learning a new skill or deepening your knowledge in a field, the process requires time, effort, and intentionality.

Anytime you’re tempted by a “Learn X in 10 minutes” video or a viral productivity hack, remember: true progress doesn’t come easy. Sit down, focus, and do the work. That’s how expertise is built.