My biggest challenge is how to decide what to learn. And then how to keep at it without letting the FOMO in. It's an eternal struggle.
Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
51–60 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#52This might sound kind of bizarre, but I don't really try to learn. I think I have a minor learning disability where I have a very hard time remembering things that I deem (consciously or not) as unimportant in the long term. Instead, I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details. An example might be: learning the purpose of a wristwatch and its power source, ve…
>I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details.
You're a mapper, like me. The only reason I ever want to learn details is if they are important corner cases.
>In tech this can be an obstacle when communicating because many engineers have an extremely fine-grained memory, seemingly all the time.
Those folks are packers, they know all the corner cases, and worry incessantly about them.
Google "mappers vs packers" to learn more, far more.
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#53I like to use the phrase "practice makes permanent" - not "practice make perfect", cause every instructor disagrees, and not "perfect practice makes perfect" because perfection is subjective and a fool's errand. In a nutshell, whatever you do in practice will be what you do in application. This leads to then what I consider "foundational knowledge", or refining your understanding on Bloom's Remember, Understand, and…
>I like to use the phrase "practice makes permanent" - not "practice make perfect", cause every instructor disagrees, and not "perfect practice makes perfect" because perfection is subjective and a fool's errand. In a nutshell, whatever you do in practice will be what you do in application. This is a great view. To add to this from a learner's perspective, though I'm not a professional educator (thanks for sharing yo…
> "Stay calm. Remember, you can’t become worse off than when you started."
Yup! I refer to this an "analysis paralysis" (a lot of my terms I'm stealing from martial arts). In essence, I freak out trying to fix my car because there are so many parts and I don't want to get it wrong, so I just... "don't". This is why we pay professionals the big bucks, but from a learning perspective, I think its what causes many people to abandon attempting something. They are scared to mess up, end up messing up, and leave due to feeling like a failure.
If, on the other hand, you can have an environment that supports experimentation and failure, and provides feedback on that failure, there will be less chance for abandoning the skill. This can be orchestrated through a combination of practice and a positive social network within the skill (peer mentors, growth mindset instructors, etc.). While persistence/perseverance/grit is still being researched, I think the social aspect can help strengthen it as well because you have a vested interest in succeeding and helping peers succeed.
"Sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something" ~Jake the Dog
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#54I use notion. I have one doc that's built out as a learning framework. I categorize the different areas I'm learning about. As I come across an insight (blog, tweet, book, news article, podcast), I put a link and some quick notes about it in there. Then, I take time on the weekend to go through and synthesize and pull out the signal. I'm also fortunate to be in a relationship with someone who's into learning just as much as I am. We talk about these things.
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#55This might sound kind of bizarre, but I don't really try to learn. I think I have a minor learning disability where I have a very hard time remembering things that I deem (consciously or not) as unimportant in the long term. Instead, I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details. An example might be: learning the purpose of a wristwatch and its power source, ve…
I feel similarly. I need a conceptual understanding of something to properly contextualize details. Like mental scaffolding to build my understanding.
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#56Getting high-level understanding of anything first and then looking and retaining details if required. If not required or not relevant, focusing on things that matter. If forget, revisiting it again (easy when you have high level understanding already).
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#57This might sound kind of bizarre, but I don't really try to learn. I think I have a minor learning disability where I have a very hard time remembering things that I deem (consciously or not) as unimportant in the long term. Instead, I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details. An example might be: learning the purpose of a wristwatch and its power source, ve…
>I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details. You're a mapper , like me. The only reason I ever want to learn details is if they are important corner cases. >In tech this can be an obstacle when communicating because many engineers have an extremely fine-grained memory, seemingly all the time. Those folks are packers , they know all the corner cases, and worr…
Very interesting
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#58I don't know if I have ever learnt anything or not and at this point I just know that no matter what I do, I am never enough. I have a knowledge base of concepts and mostly importantly where to find these concepts. I sometimes wished I had found SRS earlier so that I could have kept revising the things I learnt.
After that spoiler, here is how I learn things:
1. Get the difficult stuff and read through it as long as your brain can parse it.
2. Once you have the first overview, rest and visit the same thing next time.
3. On second attempt depending on the context: i. If it is problem solving: Attempt to solve problems (look at examples and try to establish relationship) ii. If it is theoretical: Note down the key assumptions, key steps, key proofs.
4. Until you are confident, loop 2 and 3.
5. After 1 month or so, you will forget what you have then, thus go back to step 1.
Yes, this is highly inefficient. I really want to break out of this loop. But the issue is I am so accustomed that my brain goes into this mode by default.
The result is I get my own version of understanding which may not be the actual true understanding. But it is as close as it can get (70-80%). So I am happy about it!
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#59I'm a mapper [1], and as such, I tended to seek out information that matches some edge of what I know, and when I find it, I'm then able to incorporate that knowledge, and check for inconsistencies with the other fact I know. I just keep reading, and browsing until I find the right puzzle piece, and then I understand. I like instructions that specify how things work, so I can route around problems, and understand wha…
Variation and interleaving of materials is a good way to increase learning efficacy and fluency.
Repetition of the same problem type or set can give illusion of fluency through short term memory familiarity.
Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?
#60As a working adult: - don't take rigorous notes because it ends up replicating a lot of the material that I'm consuming anyway - still write some notes if something interesting stands out; it's usually related to some core idea/explanation, not to technical details - don't obsess over having "complete" notes or worry too much about organizing them - try to write some relevant code alongside whatever I'm learning - sp…
You can improve memorization efficacy through conceptual understanding. Memorization of arbitrary information is always difficult unless you can lace these with meanings.