How to Start Learning a Subject from Scratch? 2.0
Methodology upgrade from 1.0 to 2.0: shifting focus from past to present and future, building knowledge systems based on papers rather than textbooks, forming a purpose-phased results-action learning model.
How to self-study a subject from scratch? 2.0
All reading is a waiting encounter.
All encounters are manifestations of destiny.
In early January 2024, I finished writing version 1.0 of "How to Teach Yourself a Subject from Scratch." On December 20, 2024, I finished writing version 2.0 of "How to Teach Yourself a Subject from Scratch."
When you read this article, version 3.0 of "How to Teach Yourself a Subject from Scratch" will also be taking shape.
There is no denying, and indeed no doubt, that refining my self-learning system has been the most important turning point in my life over the past 20 years.
In the years to come, it will remain the foundation of everything.
2024 will also be a special and meaningful year because of it.
The world is in turmoil and the situation is unstable, but fortunately, I have my own anchor.
01
At the end of 2023, he said, "You think that just opening a book and studying hard is enough, but smart readers compare the tables of contents of several books at the same time and build their own knowledge system."
In order to build my own knowledge system and find more economics-related books, as well as to make it easier for myself to compare tables of contents, I first created a large list of economics books on Douban at the end of 2023.
See the book list at: https://www.douban.com/doulist/157234291/
Currently, there are nearly 200 books on the list, including classic works by influential figures arguing with each other and related biographies, as well as textbooks for beginners and popular science books.
Once you have a long list of books, the next step is to further determine your reading objectives in the field of economics.
As someone who is still an outsider to economics, the most pressing issue to resolve is "how to form a basic understanding of economics in three months."
Therefore, I started with the history of economic thought and the principles of economics.
Based on Douban ratings, book categories, editions, and availability, I selected Stanley L. Brou's "A History of Economic Thought (8th Edition)," Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," and Paul Samuelson's "Economics (19th Edition)" as my main reading list.
Supplemented by Wei Lili's \A History of Economic Thought\, Zhang Xukun's \A History of Economic Thought (4th Edition)\, Marshall's \Principles of Economics\, Mankiw's \Principles of Economics (8th Edition)\, and Arnold's \Think Like an Economist\, I conducted selective readings and close readings of these texts and created my own booklist on Douban.
See the book list at: https://www.douban.com/doulist/157336551/
Next, I compared the table of contents of four books—Stanley L. Brouwer's \A History of Economic Thought (8th Edition)\, Wei Lili's \A History of Economic Thought\, and Zhang Xukun's \A History of Economic Thought (4th Edition)\—to conduct an initial review of key works, key figures, and key schools of thought in economics. I then used "What is economics?" " as the foundation, and "core schools of economics" and "core knowledge structure of economics" as the first-level nodes, I have preliminarily constructed the framework of a tree-like knowledge structure for the field of economics.
After that, I compared the tables of contents of Marshall's Principles of Economics, Mankiw's Principles of Economics (8th edition), and Paul Samuelson's Economics (19th edition) to construct a preliminary hypothesis of the core knowledge structure of economics.
Finally, to verify whether there were still some deviations in my preliminary assumptions, I went to the city library and randomly flipped through the tables of contents of a dozen or so personal monographs, textbooks, and popular science books on economics.
I found that these books all revolve around classical economics, neoclassical economics, Keynesian economics, Chicago economics, scarcity and efficiency, supply and demand, input and output, fairness, currency, finance, inflation, unemployment, and so on.
So, in the end, we came up with "Four Books to Get You Started in Economics."
02
At the end of 2023, he said, "You think that reading a book a hundred times will reveal its meaning. Smart readers have clear reading goals, make assumptions round after round, and quickly grasp the essence of a book."
Before I started reading, I made my first assumption:
Stanley L. Brou's \A History of Economic Thought (Eighth Edition)\ can help me effectively organize the birth dates of important figures in economics, the first publication dates of their important works, and the first emergence dates of important theories.
When I opened the book and finished reading the introductions of the first five key figures, I found that my assumptions were incorrect.
On the contrary, Wei Lili's "History of Economic Thought" surprised me. Through the diagrams and tables in the book, I was able to effectively sort out the birth dates of important figures in the field of economics and the first publication dates of their important works.
Before sorting things out, I made a second assumption:
The mainstream schools of economics are independent of each other, with clear time divisions between them, and economists are people from different eras spanning centuries.
After sorting out their dates of birth and death and the publication dates of their works, I found that my assumption was incorrect again.
Because you will find that some of them were contemporaries, not much older or younger than each other, and even close friends or enemies, influencing each other's work.
For example, you will find that when economists such as Ricardo, Senier, and Little Müller were actively discussing political economy, Marx jumped in to criticize them and then wrote "Critique of Political Economy" and "Capital."
For example, you will find that after Marx finished writing Capital, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk of the marginalist school turned around and criticized him, writing Karl Marx and the End of His System.
The relationships between these characters and the connections between the works give you a strange sense of vitality.
You will find that the names of people and books are not unfamiliar, independent, or cold, but vivid and three-dimensional, standing right in front of you.
Therefore, in the end, a review of key works, key figures, and key schools of thought in the field of economics was conducted.
03
At the beginning of 2024, I began to realize that the contents of books can only represent the past, not the present, and certainly not the future.
So, for me, the most important thing is to read papers, not textbooks, academic monographs, or popular science books.
These translated books were published 10 to 20 years ago, while the papers represent the present and can predict the future.
The key works, key figures, and key schools of thought in economics, both now and in the future, will only exist in various data related to academic papers. For example, the number of citations a paper receives. For example, the number of papers published by scholars.
Therefore, the next step is to select a thesis.
Here, we need to use the WOS academic database to download the complete high-impact papers from the five top economics journals, and then use quantitative tools to analyze the data.
After downloading the papers, classify them according to their themes. For example, general knowledge, finance, quantitative analysis, political economy, etc.
I downloaded the top 25 highly cited papers from The American Economic Review. These 25 highly cited papers cover a wide range of topics, including capital, economic growth, bounded rationality, game theory, and more.
If the classification is accurate, you can actually compile a series of economics textbooks that are suitable for yourself.
In the end, you will find that most of the papers in top journals are written by a few familiar scholars. They are the key scholars or leaders in economics today.
In the end, you will find that some authors of papers in top journals have published only a limited number of papers but have won various academic awards, such as the John Bates Clark Medal. It is highly likely that the key scholars or leaders in economics in the future will emerge from among them.
When time and energy are limited, reading their papers is the most cost-effective thing to do. Because you can see both the past and the future.
Only by seeing what others cannot see can one discover academic, commercial, and professional arbitrage opportunities.
So, in the end, we got "What arbitrage opportunities exist in the top economics journals of the century?", "247 key works in the field of economics", "100 key figures in the field of economics", and "15 key schools of thought in the field of economics".
So the question arises: with so many important works and figures, where should one start?
It depends mainly on what your purpose is.
If you really don't know, start with the thinnest, most familiar, and latest ones. Spend three months at a time to form a basic understanding of them.
04
Finally, distill the above experiences, and you will discover an action model.
This action model consists of three elements: purpose, phased results, and actions.
On the surface, this model looks a bit like OKR.
Essentially, there are still differences between the two. OKR goals are based on external motivation, and you may not necessarily want to do them yourself.
This action model is based on one's own internal motivation, enthusiasm, and passion for the goal, which makes one willing to do hard work.
In this model, the top layer is the goal, which is the result you want to achieve. Everything you do afterwards revolves around this goal.
For example, if I want to build a knowledge system for economics, then everything I do in the future must be related to it.
The middle layer is the interim results, which means that you should leave behind something tangible that you can see from the relevant things you have done.
For example, a book list you have compiled yourself. For example, articles you have written yourself.
The bottom layer is action, which is what you need to do to achieve the phased results.
For example, if you want to create a book list, you must first open Douban, then create a new book list, search for relevant books, and finally save the relevant books to the relevant book list.
When you have completed a series of actions, you will find that you are one step closer to the first milestone. And when you have achieved the first milestone, you will find that you are one step closer to your ultimate goal.
Ultimately, you will find yourself entering a positive cycle.
Let's take another example.
For example, I want to build an economics knowledge system 2.0.
Compared with 1.0, 2.0 represents the past, while 1.0 focuses more on the present and future.
The top layer is the goal, which is the result you want to achieve. Everything you do afterwards revolves around this goal and this result.
For example, constructing an economics knowledge system 2.0.
The middle layer is the interim results, which means that you should leave something tangible behind for everything you do to achieve your goals.
For example, organize a list of key works, key scholars, and key theories that have appeared and will appear in the future in chronological order.
For example, use articles to clearly answer questions such as: Where does the core knowledge system of economics originate from? What is its unique discourse system? What is the secondary discourse system of economics? How do other disciplines or fields view major issues in the field of economics?
The bottom layer is action, which refers to the steps you take to achieve the results you want.
For example, if I want to sort out the key works, key scholars, and key theories that have appeared and will appear in the future in chronological order, I need to find the data of papers published in the top five economics journals, analyze the current key works, key scholars, and key theories through quantitative analysis software, and analyze the future key works, key scholars, and key theories. Then, I need to organize them together to form a complete list of articles.
In the process of sorting out key works, key scholars, and key theories, you will come across various classic books and papers, and write various cards. Through them, you will naturally form a deeper understanding of economics, naturally complete the second stage of results, and finally form your own economics knowledge system 2.0.
In short, everything should be centered around achieving your own goals. Don't waste time doing things that are unrelated to your goals and don't help you in any way. That's just a waste of time.
So for a while, I didn't have TikTok, Xiaohongshu, or Weibo on my phone, and I even turned off the short video and "Look" features on WeChat.
This is actually the best way to do things and study. First, we build a comprehensive understanding from the top down, then we do the groundwork from the bottom up, repeating this cycle over and over again to get closer to our goal and ultimately achieve it.