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Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

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Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#41

Post by ptsneves »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #35

I know exactly what you mean. As a counter point to the many "burnout answers" here which I completely agree with by the way. It could also be an example of "neuroplasticity" (hear me out). I'm 40 and been coding like it feels forever, I find it "relatively easy" to learn new frameworks or languages. What is much harder are new paradigms; example OOP vs functional. The last few months I've started to learn Clojure. M…

I am still in my 30s and due to antecipating this issue, I started doing basic formal mathematics based on Spivak's Caluclulus book and this small blog post [1]. The mindset needed to prove things is novel and came quite hard at first, but i feel it flowing faster and faster. I even started making my own problems, and proved my first algorithm.

Funny enough I also started with clojure and for me the meta-character mnemomnics are the hardest parts, not necessarily the way paradigm is.

[1] https://medium.com/swlh/why-a-0-0-and-other-proofs-of-the-ob...

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#43

Post by danuker »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #35

I know exactly what you mean. As a counter point to the many "burnout answers" here which I completely agree with by the way. It could also be an example of "neuroplasticity" (hear me out). I'm 40 and been coding like it feels forever, I find it "relatively easy" to learn new frameworks or languages. What is much harder are new paradigms; example OOP vs functional. The last few months I've started to learn Clojure. M…

I am almost 30 and attempting to learn Clojure was to me like swimming through mud. It is definitely not just you.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#44

Post by rawoke083600 »

nicoburns wrote: post #39
rawoke083600 wrote: post #35

I know exactly what you mean. As a counter point to the many "burnout answers" here which I completely agree with by the way. It could also be an example of "neuroplasticity" (hear me out). I'm 40 and been coding like it feels forever, I find it "relatively easy" to learn new frameworks or languages. What is much harder are new paradigms; example OOP vs functional. The last few months I've started to learn Clojure. M…

> I keep telling myself I'm a seasoned senior dev, worked on all sorts of systems Web/Non-Web/hardware/software you named it ! Why is it so damn hard for me to "get it" Could this be the problem? Being open to what you don’t know and taking a “beginners mindset” is really important for learning. If you think you already do know how to do something then it’s hard to learn how to do it!

I think you on to something; Things that "seem similar" could very well not be ! I.e OOP vs Functional. Sure they both "programming" but very very different !

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#45

Post by readonthegoapp »

i'd guess:

  - burnout
  - world stress
  - aging (you getting dumber)
the burnout happens to everyone. whether you end up killing yourself, or taking a few months off, or switching careers completely or just internally like going to product, or getting fired/pushed out just depends on all the usual stuff - how stubborn are you? do you listen to friends? do you have friends? do you have any sane friends? and/or family? do you have any money saved? did you find a good therapist who told you the truth (you're burned out and you need to change careers or stop for at least six months)? etc.

the world stress is caused because we're all more likely to die more horrible deaths every day that goes by but no mainstream news is talking about our imminent deaths by nuke or gw, and we stay distracted with nba or serials or crypto or drugs or metaverse. you have to find indie news that hasn't been canceled yet to hear anything that is compatible with what you're seeing with your own eyes every day.

aging makes you dumber in the computing sense at least, and also because brain fog creeps in more quickly on a standard garbage western diet. saying this true thing got zuck some pushback ten years ago precisely because it was true, and it's more true today.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#46

Post by rawoke083600 »

danuker wrote: post #43
rawoke083600 wrote: post #35

I know exactly what you mean. As a counter point to the many "burnout answers" here which I completely agree with by the way. It could also be an example of "neuroplasticity" (hear me out). I'm 40 and been coding like it feels forever, I find it "relatively easy" to learn new frameworks or languages. What is much harder are new paradigms; example OOP vs functional. The last few months I've started to learn Clojure. M…

I am almost 30 and attempting to learn Clojure was to me like swimming through mud. It is definitely not just you.

>swimming through mud

You describe it perfectly !

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#47

Post by tehmillhouse »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #35

I know exactly what you mean. As a counter point to the many "burnout answers" here which I completely agree with by the way. It could also be an example of "neuroplasticity" (hear me out). I'm 40 and been coding like it feels forever, I find it "relatively easy" to learn new frameworks or languages. What is much harder are new paradigms; example OOP vs functional. The last few months I've started to learn Clojure. M…

I think there's definitely something to the neuroplasticity thing. Learning does take longer as we age, that's just a biological fact.

> Man what a frustrating journey it has been ! I keep telling myself I'm a seasoned senior dev...

This right here, that's something you're misunderstanding. Learning something new is supposed to be uncomfortable. To learn most effectively, you want to shape your mental behavior to minimize surprise (i.e. grok things) while shaping your outward behavior to maximize surprise (i.e. challenge / update your understanding). That's frustrating. Even if you've learned other things before.

The only thing you're missing is a healthy set of expectations. Accept and welcome the discomfort, and you'll learn like you've never learned before. Thinking you should be exempt from this just adds internal resistance to an already uncomfortable process.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#48

Post by sillysaurusx »

telman17 wrote: post #30
sillysaurusx wrote: post #18

For what it's worth, as a 34yo who has also been doing this for ~15 years professionally, are you me? Because I probably could've written this post. Don't feel alone. Just remember to take advantage of your strengths. You may not be able to keep up with the 24yo's, but the 24yo's really suck at "choosing the right problems to work on." You know, the most important thing. It's very natural to feel overwhelmed, even 5…

Thank you. Your comment (among many here) is incredibly kind and I will take it to heart.

Some of the worst periods in my life were due to jobs that, in hindsight, I just wasn't suited for. I felt like I had to stay at them, because reasons. But the truth was, I probably could've found something else, if I'd decided to look.

So just remember -- "deciding to look" is often the hardest step, and the easiest to forget. After all, the default is to just keep working at the same job, and to feel bad about yourself.

But that's no way to live life. Seek out happiness, and follow it wherever it leads. I'm rooting for you.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#49

Post by senko »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #35

I know exactly what you mean. As a counter point to the many "burnout answers" here which I completely agree with by the way. It could also be an example of "neuroplasticity" (hear me out). I'm 40 and been coding like it feels forever, I find it "relatively easy" to learn new frameworks or languages. What is much harder are new paradigms; example OOP vs functional. The last few months I've started to learn Clojure. M…

> I have become too comfortable or "set in my ways" as a dev over the years (decades)

If OP has been working in React and Angular for years and now has trouble learning Vue, it's not due to this. Vue is pretty similar to React.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#50

Post by bbarn »

I'll pile on to the burnout suggestion with my own personal solution to how I fixed that problem.

I'm early 40s, started coding around 13 or so, so it's been 30 years of software for me. About ten years ago after living in the web programming world for a few years I got kind of the same feeling you have. I missed my forms and windows app development, so I went to another company doing what I remembered enjoying.

You can guess what happened next. I hated it. I remembered all the things that annoyed me about windows app development, and realized I was just tired of coding every day. Coding has never been what I like about coding, it's building things that do things. I started focusing more on the building side, this time with the team around me, and also just some non coding fun projects like learning auto mechanics, etc. I drifted into a management role by accident and found a ton of fulfillment in coaching and mentoring. After a while I started to miss the coding side, so I went into an architecture role where I still got to do coding but it was mostly exploratory POC stuff to decide on new technologies or not. I took a role after that as a principal engineer, and while these are all mostly just title changes, it gave me enough variety to be exciting again.

Today I tell prospective employers that I am someone that drifts between IC and leadership roles. I believe experience in both helps both. My drive waxes and wanes but I think that's totally normal for humans. I just came to terms with it and stopped worrying about it, and now I'm very satisfied in my career.

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