BRANCHED LEARNING
CLIMB OUT ON THE LIMBS AS YOU WISH
Notes, to enhance and edit, but you can still get the point.
QUICK REVIEW OF HOW TO DO BRANCHED LEARNING
Choose to read straight through for the overall understanding and overview
OR
Choose to "go deeper" (down a branch, via the links) to learn more as needed/interested. (You might go off on several branches and "get lost" in a sense, but always return to the "trunk" of the tree, which is either the program, "sequentialreadinglist", or overview piece you started with that has a sequence to follow.)
This can be "confusing" and, depending on the number of branches you go out on, it can seem like the "long way". But the pieces will fit together and you will have a more comprehensive solid base of learning than just "skipping across the surface of a pond like a thrown rock".
It's your choice. I recommend considering each piece like a module of a semester long course, where you learn the pieces and then bring it all together at the end of the course.
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WHY BRANCHED LEARNING?
Branched learning enables you to get quicker results plus you are able to choose the branches you want to go down - and how far to go down them. However, it takes more patience to do branched learning, because you're being more thorough and deeper as you go - and that takes time - but in the long run it is more efficient and far more effective than trying to go back and close "The Learning Gap" later and/or just missing the underlying knowledge to understand a more complex higher level of thinking/operating.
In learning, it is often best to get the overview in order to see "how it all fits together", and why it is important to learn the subject and what the payoffs will be. The objective is for you to get a greater overall understanding of the areas, so that you have a base from which to operate.
In branched learning, one has a choice of how to proceed:
1. Get the overview first and then go back and go down the branches to fill in all the necessary deeper understanding(s).
2. Go down the branches as you are reading the overall piece or sequential list of some sort.
3. Do a combination approach, perhaps where you go briefly down a branch to understand the basics that are missing for you before proceeding and after you finish the first reading, go back and follow the branches all the way out, as if going from the 101 of a course up to the 201 and 301 of the course.
Choice #2 will have some people feeling a bit scattered, anxious to get "there" faster. I understand that. So those people might choose to "ignore" (or highly limit) the branches as if you weren't even given the option of the links and to just read straight through (then hopefully return to finish the more in-depth understanding facilitated by the optional links so that you have "sufficient knowing" to get the desired results in life).
However, if you can, I urge you to explore and go deeper as you go, as if you are going down a path in the woods and, as you are inclined, you dive down "the rabbit hole" and even go down a few of the side tunnels (made by gophers?). Then you can pop back up and go back down the trail, much wiser than before. (I acknowledge that this can be more difficult in a sense, because we must "choose" among the options, but, I think, it is more productive per amount of energy spent than it would be with a less deeper approach.)
[Note that the advantage of having many pages on the internet is that you can later "look up something" as you need to, using the search engine or going back to an overall reading list in the area of interest. We all "forget" or need to be reminded, so this will help do this. And hopefully you will have studied this sufficiently to understand the basics and the overview - though you can review that also!]
I can assure you that the amount of time you spend on consolidating (making solid) your knowledge more deeply and broadly will more than payoff in terms of more solidly grounded knowledge that will make your life "more better" sooner than in the more surfacey approaches that are much quicker.
Think of this as not waiting til the end of the path to get great results, but learning a new something that has life value of its own that will pay off as you go but also will add more understanding that supports the long run.
You are not spending "extra time", you're just doing learning in a different way than many approaches. In many approaches you have to go back to repair earlier misunderstandings or lack of understanding plus deal with the problems you would not have had if you had not skipped past the relevant understanding. [A simple "truth" is that if one has any problem in life it is because they were missing the sufficient knowledge and understanding that would have avoided (or solved) the problem in the first place. (Duh!). Learning the vital information of life earlier in life saves alot of (unnecessary) future problems!]
All of this, despite what may look like a zig zag pattern, is a part of the "life build" that is the only way to get to a very solid, guaranteed successful way of living.
HOW THIS APPROACH TIES IN WITH A "SITE-LINKED BOOK"
(I wonder what to call this approach to learning. It is tied together, usually, with a book I write where, via the links, the person can access many more "pages" to read to have a more in-depth understanding of the parts of any topic. So a 150 page book may actually, with the links, be an 1800 page book in which you'd read the sections that are relevant to you.)
In the books, one can choose, as needed or later, to follow the branches but they do not burden the text of the book. You can follow the branches any time you choose, in whatever order, but still go as deep as you wish!
IT'S LIKE A "LEARNING TREE"
The learning tree has roots, the trunk, the big branches, the smaller branches, and the leaves (smaller tidbits of data that fill in the tree).
In this learning, there is first an emphasis on understanding more deeply the principles ("the roots") upon which the category is based, so that you will be more effective in understanding the key concepts.
You have to keep your blinders on, in a sense, so that your attention doesn't wander too much from the roots and the trunk, so that you can make great progress on learning the roots and following the trunk (or have a sense of more immediate progress) - and have more perspective on how the overall picture works, which will help you when you go down the branches.
Stick to, or come back to, the core (trunk) as well as you can, but if you need to look at a branch to correct some missing definitions or get a quick overall understanding, you might choose to just do "quick scans" for relevant information and an overview or perspective.
I intend to produce "branched learning" books because they can tie together an overall big subject category, but then allow readers to come back later to choose what to do and which branches to go down (so that they are not left out in the middle of nowhere with insufficient understanding and no way to find what will fill in the hole) - and to go down them as far as they need to to get the greatest value per amount of their time.
All learning must be done by taking each of the necessary steps on the learning path and accumulating knowledge in a broader more workable base (and the knowledge must be at the "sufficient knowing" level, where one cannot stop short of knowing enough to be able to reach the end-goal (or end-objective) of getting the desired result - no learning is done just for its own sake). When people skip over a step, this often will cause a problem later on - needlessly. (Understand this: The Learning Gap.)
So branch learning follows this step by step approach but first does the step by step that leads to a valuable conceptual and contextual understanding that will allow and enable more effective deeper, more detailed learning later.
It is my wish that you use this approach and any other learning approach "all the way to the end", not stopping short of the understanding and knowledge needed.
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DIFFERENT TYPES OF "LEARNING TREES"
(If there is something you want to "fix" in life, scan one of the above for the area and/or use the search engine, entering the topic and a term such as "checklist" or "program" or "course" or "book" or even "procedure" - but you don't have to remember that as you'll find them listed at point where most of you should start on The Paths piece.)
Suggestion: I suggest that you compile a list of the paths, programs, courses, etc., that you would be interested in - and then re-sort the list to the order in which you will do them. That will be your "classes" for the year or so of intensive learning that is appropriate for most people. Always start, though, I suggest, The Only Path To The Greatest Life, as there is one particular decision in there that will determine the quality of the whole rest of your life!
