Few people would dispute that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX and co-founder of PayPal, is a brilliant man.
But many do wonder how he can become so well-versed in so many wide ranging topics so quickly as to simultaneously run companies that build cars and launch rockets.
It turns out that Elon (a fellow South African) has a system for rapidly absorbing, comprehending and retaining new information, which he shared in a recent Reddit Ask Me Anything session.
"It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to."
We agree wholeheartedly with this approach.
When teaching Accounting Literacy, we start with a tree called the BaSIS Framework. It explains the meaning and purpose of the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement.
By first communicating these fundamental concepts, we ensure that our workshop participants will have a strong structure to hang further knowledge upon.
And, I'm happy to report, it seems to be working!