The more you learn, the faster you can learn • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by civicsquid » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 8:19 AM UTC

Some of the examples listed when the author speaks about why they are such a good learner felt a bit forced to me. I understand that authority is being established here, but a good number of the early examples seem to be what I would expect from a successful college student who has done an internship or two (e.g. what is recursion, building reusable UI components for a large company).

I also clicked through to some of the projects to find that they were team efforts, not independent projects that the author miraculously completed due to their own precociousness alone. This felt a bit misrepresented to me, although I understand the intent was probably just to show the breadth of involvement.

All in all I was happy to read the author's advice about learning but something about the intro rubbed me the wrong way. The author clearly has had quite a good number of experiences and I'm glad they're publishing these thoughts on those experiences. I just wonder if the post could do without the early hints of (forgive me) vaingloriousness? It felt quite academic and intriguing past the intro for me.

As the author may see this: please don't take this as anything other than a single individual's thoughts. I mean in no way to discourage you.

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

#62

Post by jezclaremurugan » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 8:36 AM UTC

meuk wrote: post #50

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 ev…

Hmmm... I'm not sure where you work but I can talk about my experience

* I've learned a lot about architecture and scaling * Maintainability of systems is something typically that people learn with experience * there's a lot to learn from code reviews * we have DataArch reviews, SecArch reviews, and I've got to learn so much from each of those (Akamai)

Apart from that - talking about Akamai specifically where I work - * there's a program I'm currently enrolled in called "Intrapreneurship" where we are trained on all aspects of the business - marketing, finance, product management etc. in which I have learned so much * I recently became a people manager - so there's a lot of training associated to that

So, if you feel you are not learning - it might be specific to your experience or a set of companies - but there are definitely companies which invest in their people - so actively look out for such opportunities.

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

#63

Post by ulisesrmzroche » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 8:45 AM UTC

pranaygp wrote: post #56

meuk wrote: post #50

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 ev…

OP here I'm sorry you feel that way :( > idiosyncrasies of their code I've only had about 6 months of processional work experience, 3 months of which have been open source code, so even just learning _their_ code had a huge learning impact on me because I saw it as "wow, this is how code works in production". I think I learnt less about code itself though honestly, and instead learnt the systems and how those people…

You’re both really really green. That job on your resume is worth way more than any learning project, whether is a book or open source or whatever

Bad move

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

#64

Post by beautifulfreak » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 10:54 AM UTC

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…

That is how I felt about mastering Photoshop. "Muscle memory," exactly. And patience, yes, it took time and a lot of practice. I learned to accept intermediate stages as paths to mastery, knowing I'd get better if I just kept trying. Since then, that's how I approach all learning. I know that whatever else I try to master, I will get there, and what seems hard at first will become easier. I mean, that realization is like muscle memory too. It's ingrained in me now.

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

#65

Post by mettamage » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 11:36 AM UTC

This post could be expanded with what learning resources you found really awesome and why.

I use HN to find the best programming and math resources by using their search function, looking at the most upvoted learning resources or by scouring the comments and finding a consensus in a more qualitative manner.

On the top of my head: it led me to places such as Gilbert Strang for linear algebra or Eloquent JavaScript for a good introductory textbook and JavaScript The Good Parts for a more advanced textbook. 3Blue1Brown was a good channel for mathematics. And it is also thanks to HN that I discovered vimtutor. There are also a lot of references made her to Coursera course Learning how to Learn.

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

#66

Post by surelyyoujest » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 11:51 AM UTC

Basically, Pranay needed to boast his CV to the world and wrote a clickbaity article where half the paragraphs are mentions of his accomplishments and the rest is common sense which can be described as "learn enough to ask good questions and practice."

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

#67

Post by petra » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 12:11 PM UTC

proverbialbunny wrote: post #24

I made a hobby out of exploring how learning works. The author is spot on. However, there are some tweaks worth considering: 1) The author proposes learning _everything_ under the sun, so that one has enough dependencies to learn new topics. This is like downloading most of the packages in aptitude to speed up builds. However, I prefer to go about it in a different way. I focus on patience and normalizing myself to l…

Really Insightful comment.

You seem to know a lot about doing rapid learning well.

Any recommendations on what to read if I want to understand more about how learning works ?

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

#68

Post by thedevilslawyer » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 12:21 PM UTC

civicsquid wrote: post #61

Some of the examples listed when the author speaks about why they are such a good learner felt a bit forced to me. I understand that authority is being established here, but a good number of the early examples seem to be what I would expect from a successful college student who has done an internship or two (e.g. what is recursion, building reusable UI components for a large company). I also clicked through to some o…

I got the same vibe, and it did take away from perhaps an otherwise good point.

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

#69

Post by snak » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 12:47 PM UTC

usgroup wrote: post #53

meuk wrote: post #50

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 ev…

Unfortunately you probably are getting dumber, look to folks who had the same trajectory as you but are further ahead for confirmation. If your work doesn’t get more interesting you’ll adapt to fight the boredom by becoming dumber. You have to fight that somehow if you value your mind.

Fighting boredom by becoming dumber, couldn't have said it better myself.

If you feel like this is happening, it is time for a change.

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

#70

Post by koonsolo » Mon, Sep 02, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

meuk wrote: post #50

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 ev…

I feel exactly the opposite. I started my career in a small company, and probably learned more during the first year than all my years at university combined.

If you want to learn, try to start at an 8 person company where you basically have to do everything yourself. Let's see if you still learn nothing when you get thrown in the water in all kinds of different topics.