What are the 3 C's of Faster Learning?
The 3 C's are Compress, Connect and Commit. I must admit, just before writing this, I had to ask Gemini what they were again cause I forgot the last 2. Primacy effect anyone? I guess I should define each like AI does huh?
- Compress: to shrink the volume of information down to the most important bits. Look up the pareto principle, it's invaluable here. This stage is always overcooked. Don't over cook this step.
- Connect: take what you're learning and associate it to something you already know.For example, like I don't know, I think of code flow like water rushing through a pipe system with different valves or something... I don't know why I used that as an example. I don't know much about code flow or pipes, LOL.
- Commit: My understanding here is weakest, but it's like testing yourself or something. I guess it's what I'm doing with this blog. Testing my ability to regurgitate information as a qualifier to my own understanding? Ok, next section!
Who I learned these from - The MIT Monk YT
Originally I learned this framework from a youtube video titled, "How to Learn So Fast It's Almost Unfair" by theMITmonk I love that guy.
Why I think they're important
To quote Steven Segal, "everybody want to be the master, but no body want to put in the work." I don't know if he actually said that, but I'm pretty sure I saw it in a movie of his. Anyways, mastery is sexy. E.g. knowing how to dance salsa like a pro - hot. Learning to dance salsa, not hot. Trust me. However, *Proper* learning is the furthest thing from sexy. It's annoying, ugly, demoralizing, hard, enfuriating even (if done correctly). But if you want mastery, you gotta get through the ugly stage. I think if there's a way to make the ugly stage as *short* as possible, sign me up.
How I am using the 3 C's in 2026
- Compress: Applying pareto to my AI prompts, "What's the 20% of [THIS] that I need to learn in order to get 80% of the benefit." I'm guilty of overdoing this, big time.
- Connect: I could do a better job of this. Example coming soon...
- Commit: I write a blog post about something that I am learning or have learned recently. You're reading it!
Thoughts on primacy effect
This is a thought that occurred to me after I asked what the other 2 C's were in my research, "Why do I only remember the 1st C?". After some more research, I rediscovered the primacy effect. I linked the wikipedia page to it earlier. But I find this concept fascinating (wow that work was tough to spell, fask-in-ating). How many other things are we overly prioritizing just because its first on the list, what are we underdeveloping?
Closing thoughts
If you're reading this, I'm sorry. JK, I'm doing this for me. For my learning journey. But I'm writing it down so what I learn in my life doesn't just die with me. I would like to have something to leave the world after I'm gone.
Thanks for reading this post by Christian Gomez, see you next time.