31–40 of 98 posts
def learn(thing, max_time=0, max_attempts=1):
while run_time Edit: I don't write code very much, and certainly don't claim to earn my living on it.
Prior to learning a new topic, I try to make mind/concept map of the material based on my initial understanding from reading articles or browsing books, docs and examples. It also helps to have an end goal or project in mind to connect concepts to actual outcomes. You can also try explaining what you just learned to a non-technical person; forcing you to "make sense" of a concept while converting to non-technical jargon.
Overall, it just takes time. After years as an autodidact, I haven't found many short cuts around hard work. There are many great techniques out there--some will work for you and others won't--but consistent practice is usually the underlying theme.
Sometimes I don't have a project to work on, but I'm interested in something. For these things I'll push to use on new projects at my company, and will read a book or two about them prior to convincing people its a good idea. This isn't always ideal because the knowledge doesn't really stick without applying it to projects, but it scratches my itch to a certain extent.
def learn(thing, max_time=0, max_attempts=1): while run_time Always set a time limit or a maximum number of attempts. Default to at least try (you may already know it). Edit: I don't write code very much, and certainly don't claim to earn my living on it.
For books, you have to generally read them like 5 times. The first pass might take me like an hour, it's mostly to establish a general mental framework for what's in the book (actually try to read the table of content, and like familiarize yourself with the words you might not know). On the second pass, you will actually try to read the book and retain like 20% of what you read. On the next one try the next 30%. This…
This was on HN quite some time ago: http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/howtoread.pdf I find it valuable for another reason: I'm always constrained for time, so I might not get through an entire book. If that book is deeply technical, it discourages me from continuing, because I have to take the time to re-skim what was read previously. I somewhat recently started trying the above method. With multiple iterations thro…
Those are good, but you should also watch professionals use the tools on really complicated projects in person or in screencasts. While you won't be able to follow along fast enough and will be in way over your head, you will learn what's possible and be able to remember in the future when you run into a problem that needs complex radial symmetry, or whatever, that there a way that is much faster.
It also broadens your notion of what is possible in the application, rather than trying to reason from the ground up of the simple tools you have learned in a beginner tutorial.
I warmly recommend Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt and Alex Martelli’s lecture “Good Enough is Good Enough!” from EuroPython 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHG9FRSlPxw
More notes on learning: https://www.simongriffee.com/what/learning/
1) Read the documentation 2) Sometimes, do a tutorial. 3) Build a small project and ask questions via Twitter/IRC/Slack along the way.
Add text and images quickly, so you can type along with a lecture, or by copying and pasting text, html or pdf from documents you are reading. At the same time it must be easy to add and scale images.
Tidy up and restructure your note. Just typing your notes is not enough. You also need to think about it, and restructuring or tidying up your notes is a great way to do that. The tool you use should not make you redo or rewrite the notes completely. It should just be click and dragging without messing up the formatting.
Show structure in multiple ways (colors, sizes, shapes, connections etc). Making notes in a text editor is limited. You need something that does not just scroll up and down, but also left and right. Something that looks more like a diagram or a mindmap, to which you can also add connections, labels, arrows, and colors. Having notes that look more like infographics helps me alot to remember or retrieve what is in them.
Have overview and detail in the same map without to much clutter. I myself like having notes on a topic in one document, but it must still be easy to show the structure and the details.
I am pretty pleased about how all this works in Breakdown Notes (my project). If you would like to check it out I suggest you take a look at an example map about english grammar: https://www.breakdown-notes.com/makemap/load/grammar
I have two learning modes. When I first come across a new topic, e.g. hadoop, I will go broad and skim as many learning materials as I can to get an idea of the lay of the land. Once I feel confident I have a handle on the major parts and technologies involved, I'll switch to the second learning mode and work through the subjects / technologies one by one by searching online for "best way to learn X", figuring out what the common denominator is, and then working my way through that while taking notes in onenote.
The note-taking is crucial for retention as well as keeping track of salient points (it's all in a onenote notebook, so I can find something relevant again even if I don't recall the particular book it was in).
What I wish existed was a sort of wikipedia for learning, keeping track of every subject / technology and giving a reference to the best learning materials in a crowd-sourced way. Right now learning sites focus on their own content, but it's not always the best, and it is not crowd-sourced. The best hits for learning resources are usually stackoverflow or quora links, but neither are the right format for such a thing.