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Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

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Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#1

Post by geeko »

Hi, I started work at a big coorporation with a three letter acronym about a year ago. The consulting job is quite challenging and fun. Most of all, I get to learn how to deal with people.

However there's one general thing which bugs me about work life: During my uni time, I always found time to study beyond the "required stuff" (i.e. to pass the exam) and focus on the fun part (aka. study for f's sake). Looking back over the last year, I haven't been able to read any scientific book, learn a new programming language, read any fundamental papers nor any published specification of my field. It just feels like there's no time for things which are important but not urgent and instantly useful.

I assume this problem doesn't only apply to people in a big corporation but even more so for people in a startup, where time is scarce and execution is king.

How do HN people organize their time in this regard? How much time do you spend in actively learning fundamentals vs. time spent on building stuff?

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#3

Post by geeko »

benedwards wrote: post #2

I learn by building stuff. Being able to show off something you've built is better than showing a certificate for something you studied for.

It sounds easy to do so. Too often however, I find myself reading how-tos and copy-pasting tutorials while building stuff...and forgetting everything after I finished.

I have the feeling that google has significantly changed the way I store things in my head (for the better or worse). Instead of remembering how things are done and why so, I at best save a mental hyperlink to the information or worse, I just rely on google to be available and give me the tutorial/code snippet I need at that very moment (and again forgetting all afterwards).

Being forced to reproduce what you've learned at least once without having google is actually useful (at least for the way my brain works).

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#4

Post by Mz »

I have been, in effect, "working two full time jobs" -- one for a paycheck, and the other spending a great deal of time resolving my health problems. Getting more efficient and healthier has gradually started providing me some time, energy and mental focus for doing more than just getting through the damn day. For many people in this trap, I think that general approach may be the only way out.

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#5

Post by roc »

geeko wrote: post #3
benedwards wrote: post #2

I learn by building stuff. Being able to show off something you've built is better than showing a certificate for something you studied for.

It sounds easy to do so. Too often however, I find myself reading how-tos and copy-pasting tutorials while building stuff...and forgetting everything after I finished. I have the feeling that google has significantly changed the way I store things in my head (for the better or worse). Instead of remembering how things are done and why so, I at best save a mental hyperlink to the information or worse, I just rely on g…

The trick is to not use the How-Tos.

Build something you actually care about. You can refer to the tutorials to get the basic skeleton up, but fleshing out the details is where you'll learn and retain.

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#7

Post by gte910h »

geeko wrote: post #3
benedwards wrote: post #2

I learn by building stuff. Being able to show off something you've built is better than showing a certificate for something you studied for.

It sounds easy to do so. Too often however, I find myself reading how-tos and copy-pasting tutorials while building stuff...and forgetting everything after I finished. I have the feeling that google has significantly changed the way I store things in my head (for the better or worse). Instead of remembering how things are done and why so, I at best save a mental hyperlink to the information or worse, I just rely on g…

Then find out why these snippets work better than you're doing.

Favor books over the web. Books generally have better exposition.

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#8

Post by Ixiaus »

I came to a similar conclusion as you have about seven months ago. My conclusion was that 9-to-5 takes far too much time and energy out of my own life; I'm essentially giving all of that time to someone just for the ability to pay bills and enjoy eating out on the weekends.

I had very little time to do any of my personal self education or projects (not all of them are programming related either).

I chose to resign from a great company and a great job to pursue my own interests. I've been pinching pennies everyday for the last seven months living off of what passive income I have. I've been (with more-or-less consistency) rising at 6AM every day, showering then meditating and running a spaced repetition program for thirty minutes. Three days are dedicated to projects and two days dedicated to self education.

When I speak of self education I am not speaking exclusively of programming which seems to be the common interpretation amongst techies - it's a full fledged curriculum involving Mathematics, Logic, Rhetoric, Psychology, Physics, Philosophy, and etc...

I've completed two major projects in that time and actually read more books in the last seven months than I ever did in the three years I spent in the work force. 9-to-5 is quite a sham, unless you happen to have a job working in the R&D department of some corporation where you have the opportunity to explore, learn, and be creative that the other cubicle workers do not share.

After seven months though, I'm a bit weary of pinching pennies - I want to be able to eat out at a nice restaurant when I want to or buy that new computer because I want to; or go sailing for the weekend with my girlfriend and friends. Many things require money. My solution here? No job, but contract work - I now have a two month contract that will make me enough money to live for another seven months. I've also considered going into part time contracting so that I can continue to make money but also have enough time to pursue my polymath interests.

Good luck, leaving the group mind is worth the risk (it really turns out there isn't much risk) - you will feel much more free with your intellectual pursuits, projects, and personal development.

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#9

Post by samdk »

geeko wrote: post #3
benedwards wrote: post #2

I learn by building stuff. Being able to show off something you've built is better than showing a certificate for something you studied for.

It sounds easy to do so. Too often however, I find myself reading how-tos and copy-pasting tutorials while building stuff...and forgetting everything after I finished. I have the feeling that google has significantly changed the way I store things in my head (for the better or worse). Instead of remembering how things are done and why so, I at best save a mental hyperlink to the information or worse, I just rely on g…

My solution is to make my first project in a language too complicated to be able to search around and find code snippets to incorporate. That's not to say I don't spend a ton of time searching around for tutorials or things like that, it's just that most of the things I find are at best tangentially related to what I'm doing, and just copy/pasting isn't enough to actually help me: I need to adapt what I find.

When I do this, I find I get a better understanding of things faster and also retain it for a lot longer.

Re: Ask HN: How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things?

#10

Post by ax0n »

I was recently laid off from (oddly) a Three-Letter-Corporation after a 3.5 year run of things, but probably not the one you work for. For the last 20 years, I've been passionate about technology, and for more than half of that, I've been publishing technical articles (or at least rants) on my findings. It's now been a little over a week since I was let go and you'd think I'd be up to my elbows in projects and knowledge... but now, I'm having trouble mustering up the drive and passion I used to have. It's like my soul is gone.
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