Let's say you have very limited time to learn and that you are not doing much learning in your day job. How do you decide what to learn? What is your process for picking up topics to learn (other than "this is interesting")?
Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#2Generally I look at the stuff I do day to day and then honestly critique myself for where I'm weakest and then learn from that.
Since I'm the only dev and I have to do back end and front end I realised that I was weakest on the front end (particularly JavaScript) so I made a concerted effort to learn JavaScript properly since apart from picking it up organically for years I'd never really studied it.
The funny part (to me at least) is that while I'm never going to like JavaScript I dislike it a lot less than I used to once I understood the underlying structure better.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#3Don't underestimate "this is interesting". Couple it with a goal (like building a personal site, doing some home automation, building a NAS) and make sure you take notes (if not a blog). You'll learn heaps in no time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#4Other than that: 'This is useful' ;)
I believe something can be useful when I need to know it or when it is a good basis for other more applied topics.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#5I'm someone who has decided not to learn new language or framework that comes my way.
If there is something that can speed up my workflow, I learn it. If it improves my applications speed without much time to implement / learn then I work on that.
For new shiny Javascript libraries I really have held back to see what the winner will be; backbone used to be the go-to lib, ember (tried to learn but it changed a lot in the early days), angular (decided not to invest any time into it).
There are 24 hours in a day, don't try and learn everything, just try and be productive with the tools you have and the ones that will get the job done for you.
My time these days are spent learning Nepalese, React and trying to build a business in Nepal....keeps me busy.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#6Generally I look at the stuff I do day to day and then honestly critique myself for where I'm weakest and then learn from that. Since I'm the only dev and I have to do back end and front end I realised that I was weakest on the front end (particularly JavaScript) so I made a concerted effort to learn JavaScript properly since apart from picking it up organically for years I'd never really studied it. The funny part (…
What resources are you using to learn JavaScript? Any advice for people just starting on this path?
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#7I use "This is interesting" to give it about three or four days. After the "this is interesting" stage, things that fall into the "this might be useful" bucket get a couple of weeks. Then it is either getting used, or it is getting put on the back burner indefinitely.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#8I keep a list of things that interest me with sublists about interesting observations I make about each item on the list (I use workflowy for this task - no affiliation). The observations can be anything from ideas, to blog posts, books, online courses or articles about the subject.
When I want to learn something new I pick an item from the list and work on it (usually some idea I came up with). My preliminary research efforts often help me realise an idea or it gives me a chance to compare two different learning sources. I also try to create something using what I learned. Through craft I feel like I draw more from the learning experience. The outcome can also be that I need to find better references or that I simply want to learn something else.
The most difficult thing is getting started. I find it useful to be systematic about it by explicitly devoting time to it. Once you have a system in place you like it eventually becomes a habit. Also note that it is helpful to break tasks into small subtasks. Having a feeling of accomplishment leads to a more positive experience of the learning process which further leads to increased learning drive.
Note that my process is not much more sophisticated than "this is interesting". However, instead of acting on some hunch in the moment I act on observations which I gather over time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#9I pick a project I want to complete or a cause I want to contribute to. Then I look at the smallest step I can take to work toward that (learn the basis of a new language, protocol). Then I iterate (learn a framework, tool). Then I try to close a bug or release the project to the wild. This usually leads to comments on a PR or someone opening bugs with the project, and then I have to learn something new to fix it.
I think it's much easier to learn things when you have a goal because you have to learn tiny nuggets of knowledge that are useful. I find learning something without the context of how to apply it to the real world is very difficult, so I generally don't just go out and learn things (tech-wise) without a legitimate usage in mind.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next?
#10Thanks for asking, I have been struggling with the same problem for some time ow.