What Is the Best Way to Learn Anything?

David Senra, reading Kevin Kelly's Excellent Advice for Living, says the best way to learn anything is to try to teach what you know. He knows the line is true because he experiences it all the time. So many times he hears himself talking about a part of a book and has to stop. He does not think he actually understands it, so he goes back. Explaining what he learned from the reading to somebody else is how he understands it more deeply.

The line in the book just before the learning advice is about a ridiculously ambitious goal. The advantage of a goal like that is that it sets the bar very high, so even if the effort falls short, it may exceed an ordinary success. Senra marks the learning line, not the goal, as the one he knows is true from experience. A gap shows up while he is talking, he goes back to the book, and teaching the idea is what makes the understanding deeper.