Watch someone pick up a skill unusually fast and you'll notice they're not smarter than the room. They're running a better loop.
1. Get feedback sooner than feels comfortable
The gap between doing something and finding out whether it worked is the single biggest lever in learning. Film the set. Run the code. Taste the sauce. Play the take back. Fast learners shrink that gap to seconds.
2. Practise the specific thing, not the general area
"Get better at cooking" is a wish. "Dice an onion evenly, ten minutes, every day this week" is a plan. Name the sub-skill, drill the sub-skill.
3. Stay at the edge of your ability
Comfortable practice is entertainment. If you're not failing perhaps a third of the time, you've picked something you already know how to do — and it's costing you the hour anyway.
4. Sleep on it
Skills consolidate overnight; the gains from today's session mostly show up tomorrow. Cramming steals from the one process you can't rush.
The uncomfortable summary
None of this is a shortcut. It's a promise that the hours you already planned to spend can be worth two or three times what they currently are — which is a much better deal than talent.