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I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

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Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#11

Post by lwerdna »

Here's a poor man's version of dnote in my .bashrc. It's the only thing I've used consistently:

  notes() {
  	local fpath=$HOME/notes.md
  	if [ "$1" == "gvim" ]; then
  		gvim + $fpath
  	elif [ "$1" == "vim" ]; then
  		gvim + $fpath
  	elif [ "$1" == "date" ]; then
  		echo '' >> $fpath
  		echo '# '`date +"%m-%d-%Y-%T"` >> $fpath
  		echo '---------------------' >> $fpath
  	elif [ "$1" == "" ]; then
  		less +G $fpath
  	else
  		echo '' >> $fpath
  	    echo $@ >> $fpath
  	fi
  }
Insert the current date with `notes date`. Store a note with `notes the earth is about 25k miles around` or `notes dentist appointment Thursday` or `notes purfunctory - carried out with a minimum of effort or reflection #vocab`. Look up recent notes with `notes` or read/search the entire notes database with `notes vim`.

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#13

Post by mannykannot »

stockkid wrote: post #2

I wanted to measure how much I was really learning while programming. So I wrote down notes every time I learned something for an entire month in January. The result revealed that we do not actually learn much and that we have misconception about 'learning.'

FWIW, I have found that I am learning more that I realize. This has been brought to my attention when I go over what I have been working on with someone who is in a comparable state as I was when I started (a new team member, for example), and I find myself having to explain more than I would have guessed was needing to be explained.

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#15

Post by dgritsko »

lwerdna wrote: post #11

Here's a poor man's version of dnote in my .bashrc. It's the only thing I've used consistently: notes() { local fpath=$HOME/notes.md if [ "$1" == "gvim" ]; then gvim + $fpath elif [ "$1" == "vim" ]; then gvim + $fpath elif [ "$1" == "date" ]; then echo '' >> $fpath echo '# '`date +"%m-%d-%Y-%T"` >> $fpath echo '---------------------' >> $fpath elif [ "$1" == "" ]; then less +G $fpath else echo '' >> $fpath echo $@ >>…

I really appreciate the minimalism of this approach. Going to give this a try, thanks for sharing!

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#16

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

The approach the author used here is similar to using flashcard apps like anki, except not as well fleshed out.

Normally, in a flashcard app, you would write down a question and an answer. So you can review the question, and see if you can answer it or not. He wrote this down all as a oneliner for each of his "learnings". Its nice to see a frequency graph to see how often you are learning, but it doesn't really serve a purpose besides showing how inconsistent you are learning new things.

I would highly suggest anyone interested in the authors approach to learning to read these 2 articles about spaced-repetition-learning and flashcards, which goes into much more detail.

https://www.jackkinsella.ie/articles/janki-method.

https://www.supermemo.com/en/articles/20rules

Not all things benefit equally from writing things down learned / flashcards. Some things can only be learned through practice, such as learning a sport you aren't familiar with such as football. But flashcards can be beneficial here to learn about the rules of football, the mechanics, terminology, etc.

The hardest part is differentiating what pieces of information benefit from using flashcards and which don't, and consistently recognizing when new information is learned / making a flashcard for it

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#17

Post by Azareus »

I wrote something[1] for taking notes while programming in particular, and it's been incredibly helpful. I use a script to roll up a week's worth of notes and review them, and filter "the good parts" into my personal wiki and Anki to review.

[1]: https://github.com/Az4reus/logrs

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#18

Post by hguant »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #7

I did something similar over last year at work. I put a section called "Insight from today" in the default template I use(d) for everyday work notes, in which I wanted - hoped - to put something new I've learned. Turned out, I'm not learning new things too much at my $dayjob (or my attitude is wrong). Ultimately, I was disappointed, but it made me reconsider just how much I'm really implicitly learning - turns out th…

Unrelated to the substance of your comment, thank you for putting up those citation links.

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#19

Post by enugu »

swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #16

The approach the author used here is similar to using flashcard apps like anki, except not as well fleshed out. Normally, in a flashcard app, you would write down a question and an answer. So you can review the question, and see if you can answer it or not. He wrote this down all as a oneliner for each of his "learnings". Its nice to see a frequency graph to see how often you are learning, but it doesn't really serve…

This thread[1] by Michael Nielsen is a good description of the use of spaced repetition to memorize things.

[1] https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/95776322945477427...

Re: I Wrote Down Everything I Learned While Programming for a Month

#20

Post by infomofo »

I've been doing something similar using jrnl. I use hashtags so I could theoretically look up stuff in the past.

I.e.

> jrnl "@vim type _:noh_ to remove the last search's highlighting"

And then a week later when I can't remember, I could use

> jrnl -n 10 -and @vim

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