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The more you learn, the faster you can learn

pranay.gp

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Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#71

Post by azmodeus »

chaboud wrote: post #14

“I left an important part out of the process above - how do you actually find the best resource. I don’t know. That said, I’ve gotten “lucky” enough times that I think I know how to optimize for finding it.” Pro tip: No, you don’t. I’m game to explain it over coffee to the author, who seems to be in the Bay Area, but this writing reads a lot like someone who just started to scratch the surface on abstract learning an…

Could you recommend a more principled approach to abstract learning and metacognition?

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#72

Post by mrfusion »

NHQ wrote: post #5

This describes me pretty well. I'm a dedicated learner, and I think it's what I do best. I don't master topics. Even the information about the thing can be a distraction. It's about synthesizing info into your working knowledge. Everything is reference. CSS is a great example. Do I know everything about it, even after 10 years? Nope. But I know it well enough that a quick reference is all I need for any problem. Prog…

I was like you for programming languages. Until I tried R. The data types just wouldn’t click for me. Sometimes it’s an array. Sometimes it’s not.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#73

Post by kamfc »

aronowb14 wrote: post #35

Interesting post! It's almost exactly what I've found that has worked well for me. Putting in the three or four hours at the beginning of the process of learning something to find the best resources is essential. That being said, I do think the importance of mastering one or two things should not be overstated, and was kind of ignored in your post. Let me elaborate: for me my deepest skill has been 3D modeling and re…

What would be some fundamentals you can recommend that's not new frameworks with unpredictable lifespan?

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#74

Post by kamfc »

beautifulfreak wrote: post #64
aronowb14 wrote: post #35

Interesting post! It's almost exactly what I've found that has worked well for me. Putting in the three or four hours at the beginning of the process of learning something to find the best resources is essential. That being said, I do think the importance of mastering one or two things should not be overstated, and was kind of ignored in your post. Let me elaborate: for me my deepest skill has been 3D modeling and re…

That is how I felt about mastering Photoshop. "Muscle memory," exactly. And patience, yes, it took time and a lot of practice. I learned to accept intermediate stages as paths to mastery, knowing I'd get better if I just kept trying. Since then, that's how I approach all learning. I know that whatever else I try to master, I will get there, and what seems hard at first will become easier. I mean, that realization is…

I still haven't found the patience to master Gimp the way you have mastered Photoshop :\

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#75

Post by foxhop »

chaboud wrote: post #14

“I left an important part out of the process above - how do you actually find the best resource. I don’t know. That said, I’ve gotten “lucky” enough times that I think I know how to optimize for finding it.” Pro tip: No, you don’t. I’m game to explain it over coffee to the author, who seems to be in the Bay Area, but this writing reads a lot like someone who just started to scratch the surface on abstract learning an…

My wife and I really enjoyed reading and discussing this blog post over our morning coffee. The author said it himself that he has trouble writing and maybe more importantly posting his work for others to read.

That said, I can see how the first paragraph (with it's the self-congratulatory tone) could have primed you with these feelings.

I'm a firm believer that there is nothing wrong with re-explaining a well known topic (learning how to learn).

After blogging for the last 10 years, I find it amazing how my writing on a topic which I find elementary could be such a great resource for someone else in their research and problem solving.

Since you appear well versed in the topic of metacognition, you likely just proved the authors point. You spent time on a beginner/intermediate level resource on metacognition...

It is not the authors fault that you experienced diminishing returns on your time and effort.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#76

Post by Aromasin »

snak wrote: post #69
usgroup wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you probably are getting dumber, look to folks who had the same trajectory as you but are further ahead for confirmation. If your work doesn’t get more interesting you’ll adapt to fight the boredom by becoming dumber. You have to fight that somehow if you value your mind.

Fighting boredom by becoming dumber, couldn't have said it better myself. If you feel like this is happening, it is time for a change.

Anecdotally I felt that the 'become dumb to fight the boredom' mentality spills quite easily into life outside of work if you let it too. If I had a challenging day, I'd go home and study or build something - I'd keep the productive 'train' going. If I had a dull day, which was most days after the first 3 months getting to grips with the job, I'd go home and blank out watching a TV show or playing a video game. I couldn't break out of the 'dumb' mind-set after spending 8 hours in it.

Regretfully I've lost weeks and months to this mindless monotony over the last year. Thankfully Friday is my last day, and I start a post-graduate course in October which should be a splash of cold water for my brain. In short, I'm very much in support of your second point.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#77

Post by sizzle »

usgroup wrote: post #53
meuk wrote: post #50

I found that companies always pretend to be all about learning, but in practice I haven't learned a damn thing after leaving uni, except the idiosyncrasies of their code. Maybe it gets better in senior positions (I spent 7 years in uni and have only 2 years of working experience), but I don't expect so. I feel like since I am working, I am just getting dumber. I miss the time in uni where I was learning new things ev…

Unfortunately you probably are getting dumber, look to folks who had the same trajectory as you but are further ahead for confirmation. If your work doesn’t get more interesting you’ll adapt to fight the boredom by becoming dumber. You have to fight that somehow if you value your mind.

This insight terrifies me along with my complacency at work and my memories of being frustrated as a green new hire at the way things were done inefficiently at a snail's pace in the enterprise world.

Startups allowed me to extend myself and tap back into that motivation and drive from my younger years to try new things and push myself to learn faster.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#78

Post by gingabriska »

civicsquid wrote: post #61

Some of the examples listed when the author speaks about why they are such a good learner felt a bit forced to me. I understand that authority is being established here, but a good number of the early examples seem to be what I would expect from a successful college student who has done an internship or two (e.g. what is recursion, building reusable UI components for a large company). I also clicked through to some o…

If you are in industry and you've some experience, highly likely you are already doing what the author claims to be his fast learning secrets. There are actually no deep secrets I find in his post, all of those things atleast I instictively do. Even my friends use same approach, so I thought it's so common that I don't have to write a blog post about it.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#79

Post by richard23132 »

surelyyoujest wrote: post #66

Basically, Pranay needed to boast his CV to the world and wrote a clickbaity article where half the paragraphs are mentions of his accomplishments and the rest is common sense which can be described as "learn enough to ask good questions and practice."

The first paragraph in which he boasts his achievements is what made me very interested in the article and led to focus reading carefully. I see the boasting is a by product of providing evidence, i don't see boasting alone in the post. It doesn't matter it's useful stuff.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#80

Post by chaboud »

foxhop wrote: post #75
chaboud wrote: post #14

“I left an important part out of the process above - how do you actually find the best resource. I don’t know. That said, I’ve gotten “lucky” enough times that I think I know how to optimize for finding it.” Pro tip: No, you don’t. I’m game to explain it over coffee to the author, who seems to be in the Bay Area, but this writing reads a lot like someone who just started to scratch the surface on abstract learning an…

My wife and I really enjoyed reading and discussing this blog post over our morning coffee. The author said it himself that he has trouble writing and maybe more importantly posting his work for others to read. That said, I can see how the first paragraph (with it's the self-congratulatory tone) could have primed you with these feelings. I'm a firm believer that there is nothing wrong with re-explaining a well known…

Yeah... I don't think you got my point at all (which may be down to how I made it).

The author started with "I amaze people with how well I can learn", bridged with "here's my method", which could be reduced to the mixed-media version of the stereotypical programmer who "read one book about that once" (which drives experts crazy), and closed with "I think I've optimized this! Behold!"

So it easily reads as hubris, possibly mixed in with some raw horsepower, with a dash of Dunning and Kruger giggling in the corner at invocation of their work in what is likely a demonstration of their work.

So it's not the musing on a well-trodden topic that bugged me. It's the tone and subtextual (and, at times, overt) assertions...

Two more things, one of them important-ish:

1. I haven't experienced diminishing returns on my time and effort. I learn much more quickly now than I did when I was a fresh-to-industry voracious hot-head, in large part because I've learned how I learn, a mechanism that doesn't map well to all (or, really, many) other learners. My scoffing at 1000X comes from having thought the same sort of thing 20 years ago and having been dead wrong at how much more ceiling there is.

2. I'm in no way well versed in metacognition, proving a different point: One needs merely know more than the others around at the time to seem like an expert, and slinging some language around can buy one a false sense of expertise, for others and oneself.

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