It can be a new programming language, or learning a new subject or subtopic or whatever. What rules do you follow to pick up the new unknown thing?
Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#2I'm interested in something and then I read or watch about it or something.
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#3Skim whatever seems to be the official documentation, like the Rust book. Keep an eye out for interesting new terms.
Find a tutorial where you build some simple thing.
Then start coding, see what roadblocks you hit, and hopefully those words you indexed will come in handy.
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#4If I am serious about retention I will summarize learnings and write them down with pen and paper.
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#5Most new things I learn, are somehow related to solving problems that have piled up in the years. So, I just pick out that problem, try solving it with this new thing I've learnt. I start with watching a video on its simple usage or, read some sort of documentation on it. I wouldn't per say call them rules, but more of a guideline.
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#6I like to build side projects. As a general rule, I always have a few "in the works".
And when I do, I always find myself making the same mistake-ish: trying a bunch of new things, as in languages, libraries, paradigms, concepts, whatever.
The bad part is that it usually derails the whole project as I hit roadblocks, unsupported features, abandoned dependencies, etc.
The good bit is that I get to keep learning things even if my day job is with a very stable and boring tech stack. And I'm usually familiar with the cool shiny toys before they become mainstream.
So that's when we're talking about tech stuff. For the rest, I procrastinate a lot here on HN and on Wikipedia and similar places, so I just read a lot on whatever seems interesting.
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#7Build my own project with it, ideally for fun -- if it's a tool or a programming language. Try to apply it immediately if I'm learning something new.
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#8I read, I play, and then I write an interactive page about the thing. E. g. https://wordsandbuttons.online/complex_numbers_and_conformal...
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
#9My newest way is actually YouTube! Often there’s a talk by someone good introducing or describing the technology which is greatly informative (I typically don’t find tech YouTubers to be worth the time though).
Re: Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?
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