Ask HN: What is your system for learning new things?

1. Find a good textbook on the topic that is around the right level for you, and that also has many practice questions in it. 'Good' is determined by a combination of reviews plus an initial skim of the book.

2. Read and work through the textbook. Use Anki to memorize the key points/equations and do the practice questions as you work through each chapter.

3. Continue to use Anki for several months/years to review the things that you learned. This only takes a few minutes a day, but the benefits are astounding.

1. Print the page/article/book as pdf

2. insert printout in OneNote

3. Read printout on iPad: highlight important info, add my own notes on the side, add tasks if I need to look up sth

4. Collect my notes in OneNote page, look up tasks.

If I am learning something new, I usually start with Wikipedia and grow from there. Lately, I am also using ChatGPT to look up stuff I am curious about. Prompt I usually use: "Explain to me XYZ from first principles". I write stuff down in OneNote and query stuff I dont know + supplement research with other sources.

For example: I want to learn the PostGIS PostgreSQL extension. I install the extension and make a sample database with PostGIS datatypes. Then I will make a bunch of the following searches:

"postgis gotchas", "postgis tips and tricks", "postgis common mistakes", etc. Open everything you find in a new tab.

Then I will edit the sample database to try to reproduce each of the bugs or tips, and understand why they were problems and what the correct thing should have been.

I learned this when I was learning C++ in college from the book "Effective C++", which is basically a list of common pitfalls paired with a discussion of how to avoid them. This hones the parts of my mental model that were wrong or underbaked.

1. If you are learning something small, like a function API usage or a language sugar, find a suitable doc, and write some simple test cases to verify that you understand it correctly. Absolutely, you can write down some notes about it.

2. If you are learning something complicated, like mastering a web framework, or master a new programming language, such tasks cannot be done in one day. You need to break down your learning goal into several smaller goals, and make a feasible study plan. That way, you'll get closer to your ultimate goal every day.

Then I do the Feynman method and explain it to someone else.

For things that require pure memorization I do spaced repetition with flash cards and katas / koans.