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Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

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Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#21

Post by welanes »

So, I've spent the last 7 days working on a new feature to help people set and work towards goals.

The concept goal: Learning Japanese! (I've been 'learning' for 3 years now).

Here's a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/afAW49V.png.

Basically it's a moodboard that combines a timer, todos, insights, notes, images and links.

'How does that help me learn new things better' you ask?

The challenge with goals - as I see it - is keeping the path from the you of today to the aspirational you (the one that speaks Japanese) clear. January kicks off, a whole bunch of life gets in the way and when you finally get time to focus that path has become a nebulous mess.

The idea with Goals is to be able to open the app and immediately know:

1. What have I achieved so far: insights on hours spent, tasks completed and how close you are to your goal.

2. What do I have to do next: this is your "how". Tasks, links, audio files, notes.

3. Why am I doing this, again? images, media, notes.

The 'Why' doesn't really fit into most methods of learning but I think forgetting this is the biggest point of failure.

I'm going to grab a coffee and get this shipped. I'll post it to Show HN tomorrow and you can see if it's for you.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#22

Post by du_bing »

I think you should feel that things are done frequently. So decompose big things you want to do into little, viable things, and do one little thing a time. So you can feel that you are successful every time, it's great, then it's more likely that you can continue.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#23

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

I learned Chinese at my best pace by watching Chinese TV streams while practicing calligraphy over and over, as well as studying vocabulary and grammar with the streams of Chinese TV in the background.

Chinese TV sucks. I paid no attention to the ctl+c-ctl+v plots. However it did help me learn tonality in a way that the butchered American classmate pronunciations could never do. Subtitles also helped with learning characters.

I have found that learning works best with as much immersion as possible. It is never as casual as a subway commute crossword puzzle.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#24

Post by g00gler »

wturner wrote: post #12

What works for me is to integrate the thing I want to learn into my lifestyle and do it everyday. If I have a day where I am inspired or particularly creative I just funnel that energy into the topic. Along the way I give myself small project goals that emerge from exploring the activity. The ideal scenario is to become immersed so the topic becomes "part of you". I also give myself a two year gestation period of inc…

This. I had programmed on and off for awhile, never anything big, until I started doing it everyday. Now it's part of who I am and the way I think, kinda crazy.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#25

Post by garysieling »

jdotjdot wrote: post #13
garysieling wrote: post #10

I find learning more motivating within the context of a project, although that is more relevant to drawing or tech knowledge. Also, I built a search engine for lectures, which has a lot of talks from tech conferences, which I find helpful for learning about software development topics - https://www.findlectures.com

Thanks for sharing! I really enjoyed looking around the site. What do you use under the hood for searching and faceting, Solr?

Yeah, solr- the UI is custom. The real work is getting metadata that gives good signals for quality :)

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#26

Post by whyileft »

I don't have much on learning in general but drawing has been a big chunk of my life so I figured I'd just chime in on that.

Drawing is a giant world that means many different things. Being good at drawing is also very subjective.

A fantastic example of that is the book "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain" which I see mentioned already. That book is an interesting read and I did enjoy it myself, but I should caution that it teaches more about visually tracing. Some people consider that an example of skilled drawing and if that is what you are looking for then go for it.

From another angle some people consider skill at drawing to be how pleasing it is to look at. This generally has more to do with the line work and shading and color usage. You can draw a significantly anatomically inaccurate arm with beautiful line work and styling and some people would consider that skilled drawing.

Yet another would be to create something from the mind without a visual reference. This has more to do with an understanding of mass and depth and space than either of the two above. And to some people this is what they would consider skilled drawing.

These are only three of the many, many possible goals of a drawing.

Why am I telling you this? Because to me the endeavor of learning to draw is learning what you personally consider a good drawing. The physical world is not made up of lines and smudges. When you draw you are continually making those translations and decisions. That process of discovery is what will lead to you become better at it.

In the end, there are only two reasons why you put a line in the wrong place. Either you physically missed the correct spot with you pencil, or more likely, because you haven't discovered where the right spot is yet.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#27

Post by ludicast »

Asdfbla wrote: post #14

Maybe just throwing it out there as an additional resource: Coursera has a "learning how to learn" course, which includes lots of references about the theory of learning but many hands-on tips too. It's not too time consuming and doesn't cost anything, so probably can't hurt to look at it. I liked it and try to apply some of the ideas when learning. https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/

Going through the class myself. Really good approach - probably more valuable than any other class I've done.

Can't praise enough.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#30

Post by sp3n »

I have been learning to draw for the past 2 months or so. I want to get into digital painting but I am still learning the fundamentals with a pencil + paper.

A few things that have helped me so far:

- Setting aside at least 1 hour a day to draw. This one is the most important.

- Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

- Fun with a pencil by Andrew Loomis

- Ctrl+Paint: http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ especially the Traditional Drawing, Composition, Perspective and Anatomy sections.

- Sycra's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0373FA2B3CD4C899

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