Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#71

Post by toiletaccount » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 9:17 PM UTC

Exuma wrote: post #70

I learn the hardest things first, not the easiest thing (ie I flip right to the Black-Scholes formula when learning options, gradient descent in neural networks, etc etc). I find that by going after the hardest things first, you learn the most information in the quickest way as all supporting things must be researched on the way. If you only go after easy basic things and try to work your way up, the pressure (and ra…

This depends on what's being learned and the scope of it. We don't start teaching kindergardeners math by diving into linear algebra.

The main thing to me is to practice constantly, and to practice doing it properly. There's also the psych factor, making a little bit of progress every day encourages you to make more progress. Keep the ball rolling, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#72

Post by JamesBarney » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 9:18 PM UTC

Usually Study & Practice in parallel

Different skills will require a different blend. Learning a new snowboarding trick is going to be far more practice than study, where as learning how to store your bitcoin safely will be almost entirely study.

Study

1. Find the experts (this isn't always the most popular person in the field, but that's where I start)

2. Find books, blog posts, and courses

3. Read, and study them, and take notes while you do of all the important points

4. Transform notes in Anki cards

5. Study anki cards

Practice

1. Figure how the best way to get quick feedback on your skill. (this would be running a cold email campaign, practice the snowboarding trick)

2. Set a schedule to practice, then practice

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#73

Post by foreigner » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

When learning a new programming library or framework I start by reading the reference manual from cover to cover (figuratively, I actually read it online). I don't retain it all but somehow it works for me. Then I start the tutorial or prototyping.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#74

Post by User23 » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 9:28 PM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #72

Usually Study & Practice in parallel Different skills will require a different blend. Learning a new snowboarding trick is going to be far more practice than study, where as learning how to store your bitcoin safely will be almost entirely study. Study 1. Find the experts (this isn't always the most popular person in the field, but that's where I start) 2. Find books, blog posts, and courses 3. Read, and study them,…

I’ve been teaching myself org-mode and filling other gaps in my elisp knowledge lately and I organically arrived at this. Except I’m doing zettelkasten with org-roam instead of Anki cards.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#75

Post by 8note » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

I do:

3 times watching somebody do the thing

3 times doing it supervised

3 times doing it unsupervised but with results checked

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#76

Post by egypturnash » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

scarecrowbob wrote: post #37

I learn a lot of songs, both lyrics and performance on other instruments. I've memorized 500-800, and I have a couple hundred tunes I routinely perform in front of people. Slow, perfect practice of component parts in all things is the only easy way to gain skills, IMO. Long-term periodic repetition is the easy way to keep skills. So, for instance, I can learn most generic country songs in about an hour. As with most…

Seconding "slow, perfect practice of component parts".

It is a thing that the good teachers I have had in many skills have emphasized. Dancing. Martial arts. Drawing. Start slow, train your muscles to put this part of your body right there, with good form that minimizes the chance of injury. Once you can do that reliably, start doing it faster.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#77

Post by nomy99 » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 10:04 PM UTC

laichzeit0 wrote: post #9

For someone self-studying mathematics: Do the exercises. Especially the hard ones. Struggle for hours. Don’t worry about solution manuals. It should be painful.

This I think is the same thing as someone saying at the gym, don't stop until it hurts. People get injured and then never go to the gym again.

How about look at the solution, understand the parts. Solve the problem. Revisit, revisit, revisit.

This helped me breeze through engineering and also helped me professionally.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#78

Post by rasengan0 » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 10:14 PM UTC

Constraint, emotion and time.

Over the years, this is I have found that worked best for me, but it is not fast. :-|

Constraint/limitation/dogfooding: Replace any convenient tool, service, etc with what you are trying to learn.

Specific skill: Feel comfortable in a terminal

Example: Use Word or Excel? Replace with unix text coreutils, vim/emacs and/or perl/py library. When limitation is imposed, things get more concrete, less abstract and easier to process. Step by step self-enforced incremental challenges that layer atop one another. Chunk, Chunker, Chunking!

Emotion/motivation: What do you really want to learn that is so important? Things I really wanted to know add emotional salience. I was invested intrinsically, not for external gain. The more motivated I am and USE what I learn, made/makes the next learning step/challenge easier. I think this is underestimated. Otherwise what is the point? If you are compelled externally (such as a job) see the Constraint step above. Make notes (learning) yours: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret... Specific skill: Learn Jira Example: FTS! Use other tools that you enjoy more, ie VimWiki or another DIY issue tracker that maps to Jira fields then transfer to satisfy external demand.

Time: This is the glue that binds the above of constrain/limitation and emotion/motivation. The only discovery here is that we have more time that we think/waste we have. Small caches of time really do add up. I think the Duolingo IPO is onto something ;-)

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#79

Post by rubyist5eva » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 10:20 PM UTC

Quick learning or quick mastery? Seems like you're already good at just "quick learning". Mastery takes time, dedication, and effort - no way around it. You gotta drudge through it.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have a process or a framework to learn specific skills quickly?

#80

Post by rufus_foreman » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 10:37 PM UTC

I don't know about quickly, learning takes time.

The process I learned is from video games in the 1970s and 80s. Do your reading. Learn from the experts, watch what they do. They're not your heroes, you're going to have to top them at some point. Practice, but don't even start to practice until you've done those other prerequisites. Losing is not failure if you learned something from it.