Learn Anything with the 80/20 Tutor
A free guide by Kamran Imam — Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Most of any subject is detail you don’t need yet; a vital fifth explains most of what matters. A human tutor’s real value was always knowing which fifth — and that’s now a prompt away. The five-prompt system, in order:
Prompt 1 — the 80/20 map
Teach me [topic] by the 80/20 rule: the handful of concepts that explain most of it. For each: what it is in plain language, why it matters, and what it connects to. Then tell me what you're deliberately leaving out and when I'd need it. My starting point: [what you know already].Read this once and you have the skeleton every detail will hang on. Skeleton first, details second — school taught the reverse order, which is why school forgot.
Prompt 2 — the gap finder
Quiz me: 5 questions from that material, one at a time, mixing recall and application. After each answer, tell me not just right/wrong but what my answer reveals about how I'm thinking about it. Then teach specifically to my gaps — not a general re-explanation.The re-teaching aimed at YOUR specific confusion is the thing textbooks can’t do.
Prompt 3 — the analogy bridge
Explain the concept I'm stuck on ([concept]) as an analogy to [a field you know well — cooking, sports, your job]. Then show me exactly where the analogy breaks down — the breakdown point is usually what makes the concept its own thing.Prompt 4 — the spaced re-test
The one everyone skips, the one that makes it stick: two days later, new chat, no review first:
Test me cold on [topic] — 5 questions, one at a time, harder than last time. Track what I've retained vs lost, then give me a 5-minute repair session on the losses.Retrieval WITH forgetting in between is what moves knowledge to long-term memory. It feels worse than re-reading and works about 10x better — the feeling of struggle is the mechanism, not a bug.
Prompt 5 — the build checkpoint
Design me a small real project that proves I can USE [topic] — something with an artifact at the end [sized to: 2 hours / a weekend]. Then act as my reviewer when I bring you the result: what does the work show I've understood, and what's still shaky?Knowledge that hasn’t produced anything is a rumor about yourself. The artifact settles it.
Run the loop
Map → quiz → analogy where stuck → re-test in 2 days → build. For a serious skill, wrap it in a syllabus (/r/codes) and repeat the loop per module. Total prompt count: five. Total tuition: $0-20/month. The bottleneck in learning anything is now honestly just: showing up to prompt 4.
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