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Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#81

Post by krallja »

Jenz wrote: post #80
kbutler wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that are fun, and almost everything that is amazing, require periods of not-fun to get there. Practicing a musical instrument, falling while snowboarding, getting up early to be on the mountain for the sunrise. The original poster is asking for ideas to help build enough discipline to power through the tough spots of a learning curve to get to where the proficiency pays off in enjoyment or other benefits.…

> Practicing a musical instrument This is not fun?

STE-PING-UP. STE-PING-DOWN. THEN. A. SKIP

C D E E D C D E C

Practicing a musical instrument is not fun. Playing a musical instrument is fun. Practicing is mostly repeating scales and other patterns.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#82

Post by ryeights »

gerdesj wrote: post #76
crispyporkbites wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really enjoy watching YouTube, or is it just easy to fire up their home page and click on recommended videos with promising titles that ultimately leave you unfulfilled, lonely and disillusioned? Are you wondering how to break this cycle of content consumption? Do you need a break from the hedonistic treadmill of social media?

Quite a few leading questions there! I'm sure you have probably touched a nerve for us all at one point or another but why not go easy on the attack and dive in with some empathy? Or why not play silly buggers with randomish thoughts: Perhaps we could come up with a trail of breadcrumbs that touches on decent YT vids. By leaving carefully coded comments. warms to idea That would leave the trail in YT itself which wou…

I don't think it was intended as an attack, but rather the GP's own experience with YouTube time-wasting. It's certainly mine.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#83

Post by krallja »

adamcharnock wrote: post #26

I'm hoping my reply is more helpful than it sounds at first glance... This is one of those questions where I read and then exclaim (rhetorically), "what's wrong with people?!" Don't take this the wrong way, I often exclaim this. You are quite possibly in the majority and I'm the odd one. To me it has always seemed inherently clear that the way to approach life is to do something if you enjoy it. If you stop enjoying…

Yep. Also, see if there's a game that teaches you the thing you want to learn.

I learned orbital mechanics from Kerbal Space Program.

Assembly programming from TIS-100 and Microcorruption.

And … whatever the heck I learned from Factorio. Logistics? Abstraction?

If there isn't a game, you might try and make it a game. See how fast you can solve the example problems in the textbook. Get the high score on your flashcards. (This doesn't work for me, I get more interested in designing and building the game than playing it.)

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#85

Post by Sevaris »

Jenz wrote: post #80
kbutler wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that are fun, and almost everything that is amazing, require periods of not-fun to get there. Practicing a musical instrument, falling while snowboarding, getting up early to be on the mountain for the sunrise. The original poster is asking for ideas to help build enough discipline to power through the tough spots of a learning curve to get to where the proficiency pays off in enjoyment or other benefits.…

> Practicing a musical instrument This is not fun?

When you know a piece and play it, it can be fun. But the way there can be frustrating and tedious. You'll make mistakes. You'll learn slower than you'd like. You might repeat the same section a hundred times before you feel satisfied. Some days you'll even feel like you've forgotten how to play certain parts properly. But you do it anyways because you know it's rewarding and satisfying at the end of the day (and with a certain level of discipline), not because it's fun moment-to-moment.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#86

Post by poletopole »

This may sound strange but I would recommend practicing lucid dreaming. If you can manage to stay focused and awake in a dream on a regular basis, you'll find that staying focused and awake while not dreaming to be trivial. I was surprised to discover this at first, but it makes sense because it's extremely rewarding to have a good dream. After a while, the line will blur between what is real and not and it won't matter to you if you don't know ML or not because you'll be in control of your inner narrative.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#87

Post by krallja »

stevewodil wrote: post #39
adamcharnock wrote: post #26

I'm hoping my reply is more helpful than it sounds at first glance... This is one of those questions where I read and then exclaim (rhetorically), "what's wrong with people?!" Don't take this the wrong way, I often exclaim this. You are quite possibly in the majority and I'm the odd one. To me it has always seemed inherently clear that the way to approach life is to do something if you enjoy it. If you stop enjoying…

Ok I enjoy watching YouTube, so I will do that

Andrew Ng. Machine Thinking. 8-Bit Guy. Ben Eater. Jeri Ellsworth. I do some of my best learning with YouTube.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#88

Post by submeta »

Check these books:

- Ultralearning by Scott Young

- Deep Work by Cal Newport

- Atomic Habits by James Clear

- How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler

- Mindfulness Meditation (many books by Jon Kabat-Zinn

„Ultralearning“ has lots of valuable ideas. For instance: Directly attacking the skill you want to learn. If you want to learn Git versioning, practice doing it.

„Deep Work“ convinced me that I need to spend focused and uninterrupted (large) chunks of time doing the things that I want to make progress with.

Learn Mindfulness Meditation to be able to focus, to deal with inner distractions and a wandering mind.

„How to read a book“ showed me that I was only reading for information at best, but mostly for entertainment. And it taught me how to read for understanding. Reading-ability at this level is one of the most under-valued skills today (in a world full of tutorial videos).

And finally: Make a schedule, block out chunks of time, stick to the plan. Track your progress in an app or on paper. Repeatedly doing something will give you tremendous amounts of progress in that area. (see „Atomic Habits“)

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#89

Post by bigmit37 »

joipel wrote: post #71

Your problem sounds like some combination of "I don't know what to work on" and "I wish I already knew X." For the latter problem, unfortunately, there's no royal road to mathematics, as they say. If you want to learn something, you're going to have to put in the time. My biggest advice here is to make sure you're applying the knowledge somehow. If you're studying something but never putting it into practice (and the…

This is a great post. Time is limited and you have to make sacrifices somewhere.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#90

Post by pksebben »

I have the same issue, and being a self-taught SWE, it's a real problem.

There are a few different methods I've implemented to manage my time (daily journals, project-specific tracking documents, rabid control over my work environment) and they deal with different aspects of the more general problem of "stay focused and track progress", but the thing I use that seems to fit your case most specifically is the pomodoro technique (https://pomodoro-tracker.com/). It helps in four very specific ways:

1. Motivating to sit down and work on a task: work is divided into 20 minute chunks, so it doesn't feel emotionally expensive

2. Staying focused on the task at hand: you have a named timer maintaining your focus on the goal of that block

3. Planning a route: being forced to regularly and intentionally state what a block of time is meant to accomplish helps breaking down large and complex problems

4. Self assessment: you end up with a list of twenty minutes blocks that you either had to repeat or got finished with early. For me, this revealed a lot about where my time was going that I didn't realize at first.

As a bonus, there is zero learning curve, and nearly no added overhead. Hit the link, type in the goal for the next 20 minutes, and go.

Hope this helps. Best of luck!

Edit: formatting and a link

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