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The more you learn, the faster you can learn

pranay.gp

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Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#41

Post by VvR-Ox »

ct520 wrote: post #10
Rapzid wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:D I found out the fun way this trait often doesn't fly in interviews when they ask about your best quality.. Scuttled a phone interview with a hiring manager at Cloudflare real fast and he condescendingly chortled that "Everyone says that". Thought I did an okay job rescuing the interview after that but.. Wasn't feeling the dude anyway after that so I guess the feeling was mutual :)

I agree. But I feel the people / company that recognize and appreciate your broad skill set is the place you want to be. I struggled a bit on this myself.

It's their loss and it's a huge reward seeing their faces when you touch something that becomes a really good business after they declined ;-)

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#42

Post by omeid2 »

samvher wrote: post #37
lacampbell wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh... once you know a handful of languages, it's fairly easy to adjust to a new one. If I have experience in C++, C#, Ruby and Javascript, do you really think Java is going to blow my mind? Or I won't be able to write decent Python? I'm sure I'd pick up a few tricks and my code would get idiomatic but I am going to be 90% there from day one.

I'm pretty sure Erlang, Prolog and Forth would blow your mind.

Prolog blows my mind ever time I come back to it.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#43

Post by flukus »

aur09 wrote: post #33
stan_rogers wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The determined Real Programmer can write FORTRAN programs in any language." - Ed Post, Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal , 1982. There is a hell of a lot more difference between the various programming languages than their syntax. Natural languages as well - you can render idiomatic English in any language, and if you don't care very much about getting your intended meaning across (and your listeners are both patien…

100% agreed. You can write C-style code in JavaScript, but it won't be idiomatic C and it won't be idiomatic js. Syntax is a very minor piece of the programming language pie. If Python, Haskell, and Rust all shared the same syntax an expert Python programmer would still have a hell of a time getting anything done in either of the other two languages.

Discovering the differences between languages is all part of the learning process If you can start off with "this is how I would do it in C" and try that in JavaScript you'll speed up your learning by focusing on what features are unique/different in JavaScript. Ultimately they have more in common than they differ.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#44

Post by johnchristopher »

samvher wrote: post #37
lacampbell wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh... once you know a handful of languages, it's fairly easy to adjust to a new one. If I have experience in C++, C#, Ruby and Javascript, do you really think Java is going to blow my mind? Or I won't be able to write decent Python? I'm sure I'd pick up a few tricks and my code would get idiomatic but I am going to be 90% there from day one.

I'm pretty sure Erlang, Prolog and Forth would blow your mind.

And C would blow his foot, like it does for everyone at some point ^^.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#45

Post by bobowzki »

NHQ wrote: post #5

This describes me pretty well. I'm a dedicated learner, and I think it's what I do best. I don't master topics. Even the information about the thing can be a distraction. It's about synthesizing info into your working knowledge. Everything is reference. CSS is a great example. Do I know everything about it, even after 10 years? Nope. But I know it well enough that a quick reference is all I need for any problem. Prog…

Dunning-Kruger effect?

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#47

Post by pranaygp »

aronowb14 wrote: post #35

Interesting post! It's almost exactly what I've found that has worked well for me. Putting in the three or four hours at the beginning of the process of learning something to find the best resources is essential. That being said, I do think the importance of mastering one or two things should not be overstated, and was kind of ignored in your post. Let me elaborate: for me my deepest skill has been 3D modeling and re…

I love this. Yup, it's something I've completely left out, but that was (partially) intentional. I wish I did a better job explaining this, but yes - the technique I talk about won't let you master anything, but will let you scratch the surface on a lot of things really fast. There are things I want to master, but there are too many things out there that fit that bill for me and I still haven't found something I'm able to spend the amount of time you've put into 3D modeling without getting distracted.

I hope to write a follow up post to this when my own thoughts on this topic are more clear.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#48

Post by userbinator »

samvher wrote: post #37
lacampbell wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh... once you know a handful of languages, it's fairly easy to adjust to a new one. If I have experience in C++, C#, Ruby and Javascript, do you really think Java is going to blow my mind? Or I won't be able to write decent Python? I'm sure I'd pick up a few tricks and my code would get idiomatic but I am going to be 90% there from day one.

I'm pretty sure Erlang, Prolog and Forth would blow your mind.

Or anything from the APL family such as APL itself, or the ASCII-only derivatives J and K.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#49

Post by samvher »

pranaygp wrote: post #17
downandout wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it made me flinch, but that is not a throwaway line. It deserves some additional, I'm sure quite interesting, explanation. But I believe he is referring to HQ, and there have been other write-ups on HN about how to automate beating it.

I love telling this story, but that wasn't the point of the post

At the end you mention you may have found a good resource to improve your writing. Which resource is that? It's something I want to get better at as well.

Re: The more you learn, the faster you can learn

#50

Post by meuk »

I found that companies always pretend to be all about learning, but in practice I haven't learned a damn thing after leaving uni, except the idiosyncrasies of their code. Maybe it gets better in senior positions (I spent 7 years in uni and have only 2 years of working experience), but I don't expect so.

I feel like since I am working, I am just getting dumber. I miss the time in uni where I was learning new things every week. I'm thinking of taking a year off just to learn new things.

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