If you’re trying to learn something and are having trouble reading an adult-focused reference book on the topic, consider opting for the children’s version instead.
James Holzhauer has currently won over $2 million planning Jeopardy, making him currently the second all-time winner on the show, trailing only behind Ken Jennings.
In an interview with The New York Times this week, Holzhauer talked about some of his secrets to success, including how he got to know so much across so many different categories.
“I have a strategy of reading children’s books to gain knowledge. I’ve found that in an adult reference book if it’s not a subject I’m interested in, I just can’t get into it,” he told The Times.
“I was thinking, what is the place in the library I can go to to get books tailored to make things interesting for uninterested readers? Boom. The children’s section.”
It’s a strategy I’ve actually used personally in a bit of a different way: learning to code. I love the concept of learning how to code, but even the “easiest” of adult programs always end up being a bit too difficult for me to comprehend after a handful of lessons.
Kid-focused coding classes have been a lot easier for me to move through when getting started with something and afterward set me up for more success with the adult version.
You’re obviously not going to find children’s books on every subject, but if you’re struggling with something that there is a kid’s book about, it might be just what you need to get you on track.
Comments
One response to “Try Reading A Children’s Book To Understand Complicated Or Uninteresting Topics”
I recommend the books by Chris Ferrie for kid’s level introduction to Quantum Physics, Relativity etc 🙂
Another resource along these lines is http://simple.wikipedia.org
If you’re trying to look up information on something, end up on the Wikipedia page and the information is going way over your head, try changing the ‘en’ part of http://en.wikipedia.org to ‘simple’ to see if there’s a simplified version of the page.