I'd place this skill, "Learning how to Learn", with Cal Newport's notion of "Deep Work". Part of me wants to say that the latter is a precondition of the former, but I'm not sure that's the case.

If you need to learn how to learn then you don't know how to learn. How can you learn to learn if you don't know how to learn?

Jokes aside I'm really into learning science and make youtube videos covering learning and learning papers + an ipad app. I keep a running list of my favorite learn-to-learn resources here:

https://www.ahmni.app/blog/learn-to-learn-resource-list

If I had to recommend only one resource it would be: The ABCs of How We Learn: 26 Scientifically Proven Approaches, How They Work, and When to Use Them by Schwartz

Long has been.

Best bit of career advice I ever got, back in the 90s: "Get really good at the help system".

(At the time, it was MSDN DVDs).

"Teach to the test" started this a while ago - memorizing and then forgetting bullet points vs engaging more deeply with a subject.

If we're lucky, LLMs force people to put more effort into assignments and grading and then that would help kids learn to learn as well.

We’re in dire need of this right now. The number of people that I work with who refuse to pick up new tools and technologies is astounding. If they _do_ try something new, they seem to avoid all but the most basic knowledge of whatever it is, and look at me crosseyed if I suggest going the slightest bit deeper (`git add -p` rather than `git add .`, for example).

Google's top AI scientist says 'learning how to learn' will be next generation's most needed skill

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-google-ai-scientist-gene...

Learning how to learn is the most important skill to acquire in school. If I may add, learning how to learn effectively is a lifetime journey.

I run a program for high schoolers to emphasize this skill. However, the entire K-University pipeline is designed around credentialism. Ie. do whatever you need to, cram/cheat/regurgitate, to get the rubber stamp. It's really hard to communicate the importance of self-directed education/learning how to learn when the vast majority of students' formal educational experiences tell them otherwise. Very frustrating but perhaps things are changing ...

The importance of "learning how to learn" has been emphasized by all of my teachers since I was in highschool, or maybe even 8th grade, decades ago.

My computer engineering professors also emphasized user centered design. For one of Google's top scientists to bring this up is an admission that they won't, or can't, design a good user experience for their tools.

One issue that is not discussed enough when talking about learning is mental preparation for learning. We have all had days when learning seemed easier than on other days, but we didn't pay too much attention to it, or we thought that the subject we were learning was more favorable to us, or we classified it as one of the many inexplicable or unrepeatable circumstances of life.

While we understand the importance of warming up for physical activity and recognize the need for a certain aptitude for running, weightlifting, or boxing, when it comes to more intellectual activities, we often leave things to chance: sometimes we are more alert and receptive, while at other times we are less so.

Over the years, I have found enormous benefit in practicing autogenic training, a more Western and scientific version of meditative practices that today seem to arouse the interest of those who deal with these things. I am mentally more alert, more receptive, and learning, which is always challenging, is faster.

As a Curriculum Designer and OG dial-up Millennial I agree wholeheartedly. Too late though. Enlightenment, collaboration, and advancing human experience isn't profitable.

In other words, until one learns how to hammer a nail, it's unreasonable to assume knowledge of how to tell another to do so. AI is no exception. It's speed-running US society's final threads being severed, and okay, sigh, here we go. No, I'm not interested in fixing the problems he's identifying.

My ex had a saying from bench science..."if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitant." That part. Off to go live in a van down by the river...