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Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#11

Post by sova »

rhgraysonii wrote: post #5

For me it has always been having a project to apply it to. In college that was always my problem. All thought/review/quizzing, never 'building a thing'. Figure out WHY you want to learn what you think you want to learn and contemplate until you have something you could build (even if its a 'pointless' toy application or library) and do it. An example: I wanted to learn more about the innards of git. So I built Gkv (…

Yes! Having something to apply knowledge to is magnitudes more effective than learning for sake of learning. Start with something simple like "I want to make a website in this language" or "I want to be able to have a conversation in Japanese" or "I want to be able to build my own cabin in the West."

The path you take for learning is shaped by what you want to do. So your question might then take the next logical step: what are things I should apply myself to?

Ideally, whatever you do benefits more than just yourself. If you search for needs that people have, you can find very effective ways of helping people and alleviating stress in the world.

Elon Musk basically had a vision: I wanna colonize space, I wanna make rockets. He had no prior understanding of how rockets were made, but he had the beautiful vision, the happy goal, and everything else fell into place. Strive for a beautiful vision that helps many achieve prosperity and you can't go wrong with how the journey shapes itself.

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#13

Post by rayxi271828 »

What was your thought process like when you decided to beat around the bush instead of getting to learning?

Was it that you'd thought the subject to be "good to know more about", but did not find interesting enough?

I bet there have been at least a few subjects that fascinated you enough to stay awake at night and ignore all the other distractions/quick gratifications.

What are they and how are they different from the ones that you somehow never get to learn?

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#14

Post by rokhayakebe »

When I understood learning and reading are not necessarily task to enjoy, everything became straight forward from there. A simple comment changed my perspective. The guy/gal said something I understood as:

"People ask me all the day how is it possible I read sooooooo many books. Is it fun? Do I have something special? Well no, reading is hard, it's a chore, it's work. It's no fun at all, I do it because it's for my betterment. I read everywhere and at any time: while eating, while waiting for the bus, in the bus, on a 10 mn break. If you understand this won't be fun, you'll get along and get to it."

"Everybody wants to look good, but noone wants to lift those heavy ass weights."

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#15

Post by ratsimihah »

chestervonwinch wrote: post #12

Recognize that you can't be motivated all the time. Recognize when you are. Then attack! I've never retained anything when I'm trudging through material just to get through it.

Good suggestion. If you just do nothing, there must come a point when you feel so guilty wasting your time that motivation will come naturally. If it doesn't, so be it. What's the point of anything, anyway?

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#16

Post by siavosh »

For me, it comes down to a couple things:

1. If it feels like drudgery, don't force yourself. 2. Be patient , and look for inspiration.

A couple years ago, I had lost interest in learning new languages or side projects. I picked up woodworking and have pursued it actively since. Being away from the computer has helped me recharge my batteries.

Through woodworking, I got motivated to build a blog aggregator for all the woodworking blogs I followed. I picked up ruby, node, and redis to build the site that's now being used by other woodworkers.

Recently I finished some sci-fi novels, which I rarely read. Some technology and themes in the book inspired me to get back into learning about AI, something else I had gotten burnt out about since grad school. Now I'm learning Clojure to implement some ideas.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from a well known woodworker:

“We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our lives” - James Krenov

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#17

Post by NY_hudson »

I'd say get rid of the Internet at home. That's the number one distraction. Personally, I can't read more than a paragraph online without jumping to another page...so just kill that beast. Here's an example...I have all the documentation I could ever want right on my hard drive, but I might spend a few frustrating hours surfing the web trying to figure out something out instead of looking at what I already have.

Some other ideas...have a pipeline and modest goals. Be happy if you read 45 minutes every day and don't think you need to read giant text books to learn. Find slim books! 150 pages max. But get really, really good books from the masters in your chosen field.

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#18

Post by hlawson »

Some things that I have found useful:

- Set 2 or 3 learning topic goals - write these down

- Identify what the best resources are available to learn that topic, purchase them (making a financial commit to it helps drive me too), ensure you have a mix of reading, audio and video material

- Find out who the bloggers are in those topic areas and subscribe to their blogs, getting regular news articles and posts helps keeps me motivated

- Join a user group in your local area so you can meet other people to engage in discussion about the topic

- Lock in a few hours over the weekend or in the evenings to go to a cafe or to sit at your desk with a coffee and go over the material

- Write about the topic, talk to your friends and colleagues about the topic, do a presentation on the topic to a user group

This is the process I have been following for years since I left university and has helped me master new technologies and business management theories.

Re: Ask HN: How do I stay motivated to learn?

#19

Post by siavosh »

siavosh wrote: post #16

For me, it comes down to a couple things: 1. If it feels like drudgery, don't force yourself. 2. Be patient , and look for inspiration. A couple years ago, I had lost interest in learning new languages or side projects. I picked up woodworking and have pursued it actively since. Being away from the computer has helped me recharge my batteries. Through woodworking, I got motivated to build a blog aggregator for all th…

Can't help myself, but another quote that might resonate with some:

“Working alone poses problems of discipline and aims, and you have to get on lifelong terms with your work and yourself. For most of us, in the beginning stages and perhaps always, it’s a condition of struggle and discovery and secret satisfactions. Sometimes you are not making as much money as the plumber…, but you are alive with your work, and I think that one of the important points to keep you going is that you enjoy it-not hobby enjoyment or periodic enjoyment, but the enjoyment of being with it.

That, of course, means that you must save your energy, you must develop methods of working with wood that lead to a sort of harmony, a satsifaction that you are, with a minimum of effort, achieving the maximum of sensitivity. You are saying what you want to say, finally, and you’re doing it in a way that, despite all the sweat and hard work, gives you satisfaction.

This is the way you want to live.”

— James Krenov, A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook

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