How to rapidly improve in any new area
"Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible." - Richard Feynman
It's very simple: when you're an absolute beginner, work super hard to learn it. Learn from anything and everything that you can get your hands on. Try out different things, iterate rapidly.
Keep on working hard and developing expertise, until you've internalized the core patterns in your field. Then, you can coast. Learning will become easier and faster, almost effortless.
When can I coast?
When you can confidently distinguish between good advice and bad advice.
How do I know when I can do that?
When you can confidently distinguish between good advice and bad advice.[1]
1 ↩ This includes the ability to explain why the advice is bad, and the ability to accurately predict the consequences of following the bad advice.