Interviewing to Learn

Leverage interviews with subject matter experts to focus and improve your learning.

A while back I read Timothy Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life. While I found the cooking content quite interesting (I still haven’t started to cook — maybe someday), the reason I read the book was for the “learning anything” part of its content.

One of the strategies that Ferriss mentions when you want to learn something is interviewing. This is a strategy I’ve recommended for years to anyone about to undertake a learning venture, self-directed or otherwise.

When you plan to learn something, no matter what it is, one of the first things I (and Ferriss) recommend you do is interview people with high levels of knowledge or expertise in that area. Why? Because you want your learning to be focused on what’s truly necessary and important.

That’s not always what you get when you embark on learning without such information. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone mention that they learned something in school or elsewhere only to find out later that it’s not the same knowledge or skill set that’s needed in the real world. You might as well hone the focus of your learning on what matters most early in the process.