Hey everyone,

Introduction

After seeing this subreddit pop up as trending, I immediately watched all the popular videos posted here and was blown away by the potential that this place holds. So, without further ado, I would like to outline some concepts that may help in becoming an expert:

Choosing One Skill

/u/saintpatricius started a thread (link) asking fellow redditors what they would like to become an expert in. There are many great replies by folks looking to achieve expertise in a wide range of skills. Some of the replies involved a single redditor wishing to attain expertise in a multitude of skills. While I applaud his or her aspirations, we should remember that achieving a level of expertise demands many hours of hard work and practice into one single skill--never mind two, or more! In conclusion, I beg everyone to have a good, long think about which skill means the most and would be the most fulfilling before attempting to double, or more, up. /r/theXeffect has a similar issue, whereby fellow redditors take on too many habits at once, and this detracts from their ability to focus wholeheartedly on creating one everlasting habit.

Setting Milestones or Mini Goals

The second concept we will cover is the power of setting small, attainable goals. In software development, the AGILE methodology takes an entire software system and breaks it down into subsystems. These subsystems are then broken down further into small chunks that can be tackled by a developer in a reasonable amount of time (usually between 1 day and 2 weeks). While that is a grand over simplification of AGILE, the moral is that our aim is not to go out and say "I am going to become a badass expert in X," as Mr. Smith explains here. The trick is to break your area of focus down into sizable chunks, and attack those chunks with ferocity.

Extra Qualities

Consistency

It should go without saying that, without being consistent, overcoming our goals is wicked hard. Though not impossible, an inconsistent schedule creates unnecessary chaos, and it's unlikely that anyone can't find 30 or so minutes every day to spend honing a craft.

Active Participation

Becoming an expert means putting aside our passive consumerism side of life and turning on our active contribution side. This means taking notes when watching YouTube videos about your topic, instead of just watching and moving on and reviewing those notes at a later date/time. It also means breaking out of the analysis phase and into the operating phase. On many niche subreddits, questions often crop up such as "Is X right for me?" or "Should I do X?" and almost always, the answer is "Try it." Go out and apply a new technique that you learned from watching YouTube. Take one of your chunk-sized goals and research and practice, research and practice, and research and practice until the technique becomes second nature to you and you can implement it into your craft.

Feedback & Improvement

This is majorly important. Keep a log, journal, audio or video recording, or whatever you need to do to have some sort of record of where you were, where you are, and where you want to be next. Also, seek out someone in your craft, preferably better than you, who can provide feedback to you so that you know which areas you can improve, which areas you can look into next, and what you're doing well already.

Conclusion

Well, that's all I have for now. If this helps even one person, then it will have been worth writing up. Good luck to everyone, and I look forward to seeing how many experts this sub can help create. :)

P.S.: If you have any suggestions for edits, removals, or additions, feel free to post them, and I'll do my best to keep it up to date and helpful.