I get really impatient when learning new things. I tend to want to finish reading the book as fast as possible, which means I end up not doing the practice exercises. Sometimes I just give up because the book is too long.
Also, because I'm always thinking of the million other things I need to learn, I can't really focus on what I'm learning.
Every time that happens it makes me depressed.
How would you deal with this issue?
Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
1–10 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#2Find a little project you want to do using the technology. For example if you are learning Python, come up with a little program/website idea you want to make, and do it in Python. It's always easier to learn "as you go" rather than just reading a book in isolation.
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#3Maybe book learning isn't for you? Try an online resource such as Code Academy or Coursera. You might enjoy the immediate feedback from each lesson as you make progress.
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#4Yeah I get that daily too. I find reading is just a difficult task for me, so I try and watch lectures when I can (e.g. on my lunch break in work).
At home, I just try to work on my own projects as much as possible, but I don't have much time every day. It is hard. I exercise (gym) religiously as I find it helps to keep my mind somewhat in check.
Time is my biggest problem really, so this leads to the frustration you have described.
I also like to play challenging games (LoL) - and that is a HUGE time warp... :(
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#5Just pretend that you are back in school and have exams at the end of the semester.
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#6i have the same problems rather than reading i start thinking i will finished first 5 chapter than next days another x chapters and i end up reading and learning nothing.
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#7Same problem here. I want to read so many things that i come to learn nothing :(
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#8Sounds familiar. Nowadays when I really want to learn something I write everything down to a notebook, sometimes copying paragraphs verbatim. Seems to work for me.
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#9TL;DR: Just start.
I've this too. When I learn something new like a language I often want to do it right, like be "pythonic" when learning Python. It can take long for me to write some simple piece of code because I'm constantly doubting if my code is pythonic. And when it takes to long I lose focus and I stop.
The same thing applies when I started a little Go web app, Go was rather new for me. I decided to use Docker and wanted to have a perfect solution with 3 containers(Nginx as reverse proxy , web app and API), auto rebuild and autoreload in developement mode etc. Than I started with writing in Go and everyone had to be tested perfectly, so I was looking for how to test things and how to run tests automatically after saving a file.
These things slowed me down to a point I where stopped. What did I want? I wanted to learn Go. What did I achieve? I learned how to create have production setup for a web app and api in Docker, I learned something about test suites in Go and I was frustrated because another learning project failed.
My advice, just start your project. You can't do it perfect because you want to learn it!
Re: Ask HN: Do you get impatient when learning new things?
#10Stop thinking of learning as something you do before you can do what you want to be able to do. Think of it as a range of things you practise over and over again in order to develop a skill. For some skills that learning process is something you might do forever (in my opinion coding is firmly in that category).
For example, if the skill you want to learn is mountain climbing it's useful to read a few books before you climb a mountain - but what you get from a book is information to think about, not the skill to actually go out and do it. You learn mountain climbing by practising climbing mountains over and over again (preferably with a mentor). Every skill is like that - if you want to be good at it, keep doing it.
One more thing: If you really enjoy something you'll enjoy the process of getting better more than the end result, so if you don't enjoy it while you're rubbish at it you won't enjoy it when you're good at it either. Don't struggle with learning something hoping that you'll love it later. You probably won't.