BTW, this guy Timothy Ferris is a brillant guy in general. He takes everything in everyday life that surrounds us, analyzes them, finds commonalities, and then explains them in somewhat laymen terms for the average person. He has a pretty good video where he talks about the how-tos of swimming, becoming fluent in languages (I think he's fluent in Japanese, and 6 other languages), tango dancing, etc. It's a 16 minutes video that was pretty entertaining and informative to watch.
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_smash_fear_learn_anything.html