For me it’s 20% what everyone else is saying and 80% stack overflow. For real.
Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
21–30 of 83 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#22For difficult subjects, or stuff I might not work on immediately, I go through a book or class and take COPIOUS notes.
The idea is that they're good enough for me to use to explain the subject to someone else; the old proverb about "You only understand something when you teach it to someone else" is really true.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#23Some really random, obvious things I do:
- I really look for learning materials that have diagrams, or videos. Plain-text blog posts and documentation are really obtuse for me to actually grok what's up
- I've got into a good habit of writing (with a notebook and a notes app). I actually do weekly check-ins, almost like "sprint retros", just for myself. Sometimes they're silly, but they're handy to crystallize whatever I was thinking about the last week
- If I want to learn a programming language or framework, I try to build something I'd actually use, or something someone else can use. It's a useful motivator!
Also, checking HN is a good way to stay on top of things :)
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#24I don't have time to do a proper write up this morning but I've got a pile of brain dump for you.
First, learn to operate your "hardware" efficiently.
Look into NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming, it gets some crap for being pseudo-scientific, which is not entirely undeserved, some NLP folks play fast and loose with science.) I recommend this book, but there are others: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3803577-get-the-life-you...
Also, investigate self-hypnosis. The biggest mistake people make is trying to think with only their conscious mind.
Next, what kind of learning? Most of what you're talking about is "little stuff", really. Learning on the level of values or identity is much more powerful and far-reaching than picking up a new habit or skill.
Levels of learning, from most profound and general to most specific:
identity
values
beliefs
capabilities
behaviours
Fun stuff:
"Programming and Meta-programming the Human Biocomputer" John C. Lilly (YMMV)
"Psycho-cybernetics" Maxwell Maltz This is based on self-image modification. Dr. Maltz was a plastic surgeon who noticed that some people had profound psychological changes from cosmetic surgery while others didn't. Upon investigation he discovered that the difference was whether or not the external change in appearance affected their internal self-image. The surgery was a (hellof a) way to effect change in the patient's self-image. So he started teaching people how to do that directly, so they didn't need the cosmetic surgery.)
"Super-learning" Ostrander, Schroeder, & Ostrander Old but interesting stuff.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#25My strategy is roughly: Figure out what is the hardest part and do that first. Spend a lot of time to do it right. Then iterate until there are no hard parts left. Or in other words, don't waste time doing things you are already good at.
To anyone experienced and good at something, this is such an ingrained habit it's one of those obvious things we easily forget. Average musicians practice the song over and over, great musicians practice the hard part over and over.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#26take 3 months off and do a project that requires a new skill
this may be a personal observation (not sure it's industry-wide), but companies are averse to letting in-house people apply new skills on the job. They can even be averse to reading and experimentation during work time. Even when they're cool with it, the work day isn't structured for heads-down time.
Most managers have little patience for intentional 'try fail' cycles.
structured work is especially hostile to category jumping -- for example, I switched from high-speed finance to web, I picked up marketing & branding knowledge, from self-started projects. It would be hard to seriously try these at a job but they've paid dividends in my career.
there's a forgiveness / permission spectrum here but interrupting an ongoing job for 'mini grad school' has been the way that I keep fresh and make vertical jumps in my programming / tech management career.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#27For me it’s 20% what everyone else is saying and 80% stack overflow. For real.
Yes! SO is one of my biggest learning resources. I'll go into a little more detail: the minute I want to learn something I start looking on SO for questions to answer. Yep, questions to answer. I can't answer any of them at the beginning, but I sort of try to brainstorm it a little and guess at an answer. And when someone else does answer, I learn a little. Eventually I can start to actually answer a question here and there. Sometimes I get it wrong and people correct me. And that's another learning experience. Repeat on a daily basis or even several times a day and it hugely increases my learning rate on any give tech topic.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#28I use my wiki (https://philosopher.life) to help me reason about everything. Some things take a long time to discover or digest, and I like that I get to structure the path that I take.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#29I make a plain text file of a certain topic (e.g chess, economics, politics) and progressively add my own thoughts on in it and useful info I get from others (books, videos, lectures).
A lot of early modern thinkers had this thing called a commonplace book. like John Locke, William Paley, Jonathan Edwards, Leopardi, Bacon, Emerson and Thoreau. I think it's a pretty good way to learn. I prefer having a digital version of it since it's much easier to access and I don't have to worry about losing it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?
#301. When learning something, learn it in small chunks — like reading a chapter at a time from a book. Then write things down on paper and review regularly.
2. Keep a bullet journal[1] for learning new things.
3. Try explaining what you learn to your spouse, friend, coworker, and see if they can understand it. If you’re able to explain it in simple enough terms then most likely you have mastered that. Also, teaching reinforces your knowledge.