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Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

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Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#1

Post by _diyu »

I have one client right now who pays me out of pocket, but the work he's asking is beyond my understanding. It's dealing with a new system that has a lot of parts. It's well documented, but when I read the documentation, it's just not sinking in, I'm not "getting it". My eyes just gloss over and I re-read the same sentence over and over for 3 minutes without any progress. This is the same thing that happened when I tried to learn Rails about 8 years ago.

Is it possible to push past this and force my mind to learn new things? Is being 32 years old and in very poor health a show-stopper for learning new complex concepts?

My first thought is to just get another job, one that I already know how to do. But that's outside of my control, this is my only client and will be for a few months.

Any advice is appreciated.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#2

Post by DoreenMichele »

in very poor health

Do some care-taking first, then try to sit down and work.

Daily hot baths in the evening can help.

Upping the cleanliness of your abode can help.

Getting pickier about your diet with an eye towards good nutrition can help.

A daily walk can help.

Sometimes, coffee or another source of caffeine can help you concentrate.

Bonus: If you regularly work on your health, it can get better.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#3

Post by _diyu »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #2

in very poor health Do some care-taking first, then try to sit down and work. Daily hot baths in the evening can help. Upping the cleanliness of your abode can help. Getting pickier about your diet with an eye towards good nutrition can help. A daily walk can help. Sometimes, coffee or another source of caffeine can help you concentrate. Bonus: If you regularly work on your health, it can get better.

I'm not in a position for any of that. We're living literally week to week, and every single hour that I'm awake I need to work. Our bills are past due and we're overdrawn $50 in the bank right now. I'm making $25/hour with this one client, and it's barely enough for the life we have. I would downsize our lifestyle if I knew how but we can't even afford to move to a cheaper city. As it is right now, the only choice I have right now is to just work on this client project every hour that I'm awake, and sleep no more than 7-8 hours per night.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#4

Post by DoreenMichele »

_diyu wrote: post #3
DoreenMichele wrote: post #2

in very poor health Do some care-taking first, then try to sit down and work. Daily hot baths in the evening can help. Upping the cleanliness of your abode can help. Getting pickier about your diet with an eye towards good nutrition can help. A daily walk can help. Sometimes, coffee or another source of caffeine can help you concentrate. Bonus: If you regularly work on your health, it can get better.

I'm not in a position for any of that. We're living literally week to week, and every single hour that I'm awake I need to work. Our bills are past due and we're overdrawn $50 in the bank right now. I'm making $25/hour with this one client, and it's barely enough for the life we have. I would downsize our lifestyle if I knew how but we can't even afford to move to a cheaper city. As it is right now, the only choice I…

I'm sure you will take this as argumentative, which isn't really my intent, but, other than the hot bath part, I did all that while homeless. If you get access to any food at all, you can work on eating better by educating yourself about nutrition.

I'm author of the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide and Pocket Puter:

https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/

https://www.pocketputer.com/

Best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#5

Post by _sdegutis »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #4
_diyu wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in a position for any of that. We're living literally week to week, and every single hour that I'm awake I need to work. Our bills are past due and we're overdrawn $50 in the bank right now. I'm making $25/hour with this one client, and it's barely enough for the life we have. I would downsize our lifestyle if I knew how but we can't even afford to move to a cheaper city. As it is right now, the only choice I…

I'm sure you will take this as argumentative, which isn't really my intent, but, other than the hot bath part, I did all that while homeless. If you get access to any food at all, you can work on eating better by educating yourself about nutrition. I'm author of the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide and Pocket Puter: https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/ https://www.pocketputer.com/ Best of luck.

The thing about being homeless is that you have a lot of time. I had a lot of time while in jail too. I exercised 2 hours a day and ate healthy and felt great physically. If I spend any time exercising or taking a walk or spend my time doing anything other than working every waking minute, my wife and kids will be homeless.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#6

Post by DoreenMichele »

_sdegutis wrote: post #5
DoreenMichele wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you will take this as argumentative, which isn't really my intent, but, other than the hot bath part, I did all that while homeless. If you get access to any food at all, you can work on eating better by educating yourself about nutrition. I'm author of the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide and Pocket Puter: https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/ https://www.pocketputer.com/ Best of luck.

The thing about being homeless is that you have a lot of time. I had a lot of time while in jail too. I exercised 2 hours a day and ate healthy and felt great physically. If I spend any time exercising or taking a walk or spend my time doing anything other than working every waking minute, my wife and kids will be homeless.

In jail, you had a guaranteed roof over your head and a meal coming to you. Homeless people have been known to commit crimes to get that deal.

Please don't talk trash to me about what it means to be homeless. In addition to having spent time on the street, I have also had a college class on homelessness and public policy and also interned at a homeless shelter (years before I ended up homeless).

You say you don't have time to do anything but work, yet here you are on HN a) asking for assistance and b) wasting time arguing with me about things you know nothing about.

Some things for you to think about (privately -- I am not looking for answers from you here):

Why isn't your wife working? (Assuming you are in the US) Have you called 211 to find out what local resources there are to help your family out? If you have called 211 and they have nothing to offer you, have you called all your local churches to find out what meal and other food resources they have to offer?

I'm getting rather angry about how you reply to me, so I think I need to just stop here, let this go and let someone else help you.

Best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#7

Post by tbabb »

_diyu wrote: post #3
DoreenMichele wrote: post #2

in very poor health Do some care-taking first, then try to sit down and work. Daily hot baths in the evening can help. Upping the cleanliness of your abode can help. Getting pickier about your diet with an eye towards good nutrition can help. A daily walk can help. Sometimes, coffee or another source of caffeine can help you concentrate. Bonus: If you regularly work on your health, it can get better.

I'm not in a position for any of that. We're living literally week to week, and every single hour that I'm awake I need to work. Our bills are past due and we're overdrawn $50 in the bank right now. I'm making $25/hour with this one client, and it's barely enough for the life we have. I would downsize our lifestyle if I knew how but we can't even afford to move to a cheaper city. As it is right now, the only choice I…

Something doesn't add up. Assuming "working every hour you're awake" means something like 12 hours/day 6 days a week, that'd be a $90k/yr salary at your stated rate of $25/hr. A more realistic (but still severe) schedule of 10hrs/day 6 days a week would be $75k/yr-- even in an expensive city, far from the brink of homelessness.

Am I overestimating how much you're working? Or is the income being consumed by something?

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#8

Post by notburnt »

Try to write out difficult sections (pen & paper) to get started.

I've found that gives my brain the time it needs to get a handle on overly complex or boring texts.

Assume it's going to take you time so don't aim for completing too much the first few times. Don't worry about how much time it's taking, just worry about getting a couple of conceptual wedges in place. Follow pomodoro method.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#9

Post by hnarayanan »

First off, do not give up. This is a struggle for even the most experienced people when dealing with a sufficiently complex new system.

Try to focus on small, noticeable wins. Focus on a narrow part of the system that seems relevant, and try to start fiddling with and see what happens. If the system has tests, try going through them as it is often easier to understand how a system ought to behave than the details.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get past difficulty learning what's needed for a new job?

#10

Post by noir_lord »

_diyu wrote: post #3
DoreenMichele wrote: post #2

in very poor health Do some care-taking first, then try to sit down and work. Daily hot baths in the evening can help. Upping the cleanliness of your abode can help. Getting pickier about your diet with an eye towards good nutrition can help. A daily walk can help. Sometimes, coffee or another source of caffeine can help you concentrate. Bonus: If you regularly work on your health, it can get better.

I'm not in a position for any of that. We're living literally week to week, and every single hour that I'm awake I need to work. Our bills are past due and we're overdrawn $50 in the bank right now. I'm making $25/hour with this one client, and it's barely enough for the life we have. I would downsize our lifestyle if I knew how but we can't even afford to move to a cheaper city. As it is right now, the only choice I…

Not that you can do anything about it right now (understandably) but when you can you might want to look hard at diversifying your customer base - Having a single client who you absolutely need to stay a float puts you in a very risky position (take it from someone who did exactly that a couple of years ago and it nearly finished me off - I hit insane hours of work per week and my health went to shit at the same time, while the amount of work didn't cause most of that (not much you can do about a spinal issue I'd had since birth)).

In the end I just said fuck it and looked for a full time job, I took a pay cut in terms of hourly rate but when you average everything out across lean and fat times I'm only about 20% down over a year for working 37.5hrs instead of 60+ every week, week in week out.

I'm a year into that now and mentally I'm in a much better situation than a year ago but it's taken nearly the entire year to get even close to feeling 'normal' again.

In terms of learning stuff quickly, change you scenery - Go read the documentation on a laptop in a coffee shop instead of at home (or a local library if money is really that tight) :- When I really need to grok something I get out the house and do it, two cats and the boy makes it hard at home.

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