why 10k hours of learning is idiotic advice

Hey there, solopreneur!

I was talking to my friend Michael this weekend. He runs his own skincare Ecom brand, and we got into discussing how we approach learning new skills in our business.

We were sitting on his balcony overlooking the Mediterranean when I casually mentioned how much I'm currently paying someone to help me get good at YouTube and short-form content.

Daily feedback loops, intensive sessions etc.

Michael stopped mid-bite of his souvlaki and stared at me. "Wait, you're paying HOW much? Are you insane? Why don't you just start making videos and figure it out like everyone else?"

The disbelief in his voice made me realize something:

what I consider the normal way to learn apparently isn't what most people do.

But I think not doing this is actually a mistake that keeps you poorer in the long run. So I want to share what I'm doing and why it works.

Quick disclaimer: I'm not trying to sell you coaching. A lot of coaching is terrible. This is a very specific framework that personally I use for approaching learning new skills in my business.

If you want to compress months of frustration into weeks of rapid progress, keep reading:

why feedback velocity is the holy grail of learnin

After years of trying different approaches, I've learned there's only one thing that consistently works for rapid skill development:

Ritalin.

Joking ;)

it’s getting as much feedback as possible, as FAST as possible and on your ACTUAL work.

When I started writing on X, I found someone crushing it and paid for intensive one-on-one sessions where they'd tear apart every tweet I wrote. Not my strategy. Not my content plan. My actual tweets (and yes that shit hurt!).

The feedback was brutal but precise: "Your hook is not talking to the core desire of your customer. Do XYZ instead." Then I'd test that variable for two weeks before the next session.

Every criticism led to a new iteration.

Volume plus feedback velocity = this is where the magic happens (aka fast improvment)

Most people get this backwards. They spend weeks learning theory, then create one piece of content, wait a week for feedback, then spend another week implementing changes.

And they are hesitant to spend any money in the beginning (that’s the even bigger problem).

I get it, especially in the beginning it feels like a risk to invest.

But if you are confident that you need to develop that skill you owe your future-self to spend all the money you can on it.

why 10k hours of learning don’t matter

Naval has this quote: "It's not 10,000 hours, it's 10,000 iterations."

It’s a meme but it’s true.

But most people are iterating blindly. Without feedback, you don't know what variables actually matter.

You end up mediocre at best.

You can get the same results doing 100 iterations with honest feedback as someone doing 10,000 iterations without feedback.

But what’s gonna happen if you try to wing it all by yourself?

The most likely result is you just stop because you can’t get any momentum.

That’s the real risk.

Let’s talk what that looks like in practice

2 Two Frameworks for rapid learning

Framework 1: One-on-One feedback cycles

Start expensive from day one. This serves as both a seriousness test and fastest learning method. Get a premium level coach to work 1:1 with you.

Key principles:

• Premium coaching forces accountability - expensive advice gets implemented, free advice gets ignored

• Daily feedback loops: create content → send to coach → get feedback within hours → implement on next piece (the faster the better)

• Some days: 2-3 iterations based on their input

• Important: get a coach who is brutal with feedback, someone who really shows

  you all the weak spots and doesn’t try to please anyone

• Optimize for proximity to the coach (as in direct Telegram access, Slack etc)

Framework 2: The Hormozi Agency Model

I learned this from Alex Hormozi when he first taught it a few years ago. I've used it myself since then for different skills.

When Hormozi wanted to learn Facebook ads, he told the agency: "Show me exactly how you'd run ads on my account. Walk me through every decision."

The structure:

• Agency executes (immediate results)

• While teaching methodology on your actual projects

• You learn by watching them work on your real campaigns, not theoretical examples

The pricing: Hormozi pays 10-50% above standard rates but expects additional deliverables:

• Weekly education calls explaining their decisions

• Screen recordings of their process

• Access to ask questions about specific choices they make

• Gradual handoff as you learn their methodology

Sample conversation: "I want to work with you, but I also want to learn this skill internally. I'm willing to pay a premium if you can teach me your process while you execute."

This works for any skill where you need immediate results while building capability.

the way I learn everything

This isn't just about content creation. I've used this approach my whole life for everything I want to learn.

Getting a fitness coach to train with me one-on-one. Finding someone to teach me public speaking. Learning any new skill - I always go for these short iteration cycles with premium coaching from the very beginning.

I was doing this naturally without realizing it was different from how most people learn.

I would be lying if I told you I tried everything on my own first, because it’s just not true.

But I wanted to share it because I see too many people hesitate, especially in the beginning.

And no, i wasn’t born rich and could afford everything without any effort. I always saved my own money for it. But it all had a crazy high ROI for me.

Key principles I've learned:

• Start coaching immediately when learning a new skill - don't wait until you're struggling

• Find someone on the very advanced side who's also a good teacher

• Don't be cheap here - this is one of the best investments you can make

• 30 days intensively is often enough> 6 months casually

• Skip group coaching — you won’t get the feedback velocity you need.

• Don’t waste weeks on theory before doing the reps.

• The plan is to learn as fast is possible and then downscale the commitment

• Focus on one skill at the time, don’t split attention.

Unlike a lot of stuff that gets shared in newsletters that's not actually making a difference, this approach has made a huge impact on my life.

Ole's Bookmarks

reading this book atm, it’s not REALLY about tennis (highly recommend reading it, click the image for the link). it taught me that most performance problems aren't technical - they're mental, and the fastest way to improve at anything is to get out of your own head and trust your body to learn naturally

cool video about consumer products by the goat nikita

this might seem random but I saw this video is going absolutely viral and I think we can learn a lot from the format of real life interaction (with high stakes) + calm commentary. so I think the format is what’s interesting here

I wrote this at 5 AM before the world woke up on a sunday morning. Now it's time to play with my son, hit the sauna, and throw some steaks on the grill. I hope you get as much value from this simple tactic as I did.

Maybe this inspires someone to get after that thing they wanted to learn for a long time.

I’m rooting for you

Best