I feel like I struggle to learn new topics. I either see a new shiny thing, or the current thing I am trying to learn suddenly becomes harder than I would like.
Over the years I have tried to learn:
- Physics
- Mathematics
- Theoretical Computer Science
- IoT
- Operating Systems
- And many more topics that sit in the dustbin of failures
Even today when I think about Physics I feel a fire in my heart and want to rush over and pull out a book and start reading. If I am foolish enough to actually do that I find that in an hour I am already frustrated that I have to go through the basics yet again.
With all this in mind we come to the topic of this entry: How does one learn? I think that I have a few problems,
Organization
When I start to learn a new topic there is no organization to what I am doing; I just jump in and start reading chapter 1 and doing as many problems as I can. Finding a video on the topic and watching it over and over again. Reading articles, wikipedia, and alternative books. What I get from this is that I am just really good at solving chapter 1 problems that are usually not even very important to the topic I am interested in.
Organization means that I have a set of resources that are related to what I want to learn, the tools that are required to make progress, and the time set aside so that I can actually do it. That does not sound anything like what I am doing.
Goals
I find that I have no goals beyond I want to learn subject X! ; which obviously is not a reasonable or even achievable goal. What I should really be saying is I want to be good enough to solve problems like X and then setting small goals that lead me to that overarching goal. An example would be: I want to understand basic mechanics with small goals such as
- Be able to understand and solve the kinematic equations and solve 10-20 problems from that section
- Understand Newton's Laws and use them to solve problems ...
- Be able to ...
My goals tend to be I want to understand all of the physics in the University Physics Textbook . While this is a nice goal, the problem is that you will end up getting overwhelmed and starting to feel like you are not able to complete it. You can have that as an overarching goal but do not focus on it and focus on the reasonable goals.
Pacing
When I want to learn something I am all in or all out. I do 50 problems a day out of the text book for a week straight; read 5 chapters a week; watch 3 videos a night. This is not sustainable and I end up burning myself out.
Instead I should set reasonable time limits which will force me to re-evaluate my goals and extract the parts that are relevant to succeed. On issue with my extreme pacing is that I never spend enough time thinking about what I am learning. I have become a calculator, a machine, and I know how to solve problems but don't understand why.
Focus
In the past I would jump from one shiny thing to the next. Physics one week, machine learning the next, somehow in the middle work on writing a proof of concept game, then start looking at how the linux scheduler works. Anyone who read the previous sentences are probably smacking their heads and thinking no wonder you get nothing done .
Instead of jumping around I need to focus on a single set of topics and stick with them. By doing so I can make progress and keep my morale up. Additionally, I can keep track of things I learn and not end up overwriting what I just learned last week with a new thing next week.
What should I do
With what I said before I think that I have a decent idea on the concrete steps I need to do next.
Create a blog
That is where this comes in. By creating a blog I can learn more as I have to write out my thoughts on what I am trying to learn. In addition, this also slows me down which should help reduce the burnout I feel as I am moving too fast.
Limit the Topics of Interest
No matter what I do, limit the topics I am learning to at most three. This does not mean I am not learning other things, just that I am not digging in really deep with those other topics and overloading myself.
Limited Time
Do not sit down and spend 3 hours on a specific topic. If I limit myself to 1-2 hours a evening to a topic then I can make some progress without burning myself out.
Make weekly goals
Each week I need to make a goal and stick to it. I should have a clear and easily achievable goal. Some examples could be
- Read chapter 1 of University Physics and do 20 problems.
- Read a new novel or at least 500 pages of a novel.
- Write a small program that can download, list, and delete container images locally.
Each of the examples are small enough to complete in a week and have very clear end goals.
Keep track
I will keep track of my progress so that I can look back and see the gains I have made and realize that I am actually making progress.
Conclusion
While I don't believe that everything I said here is a the solution to all my problems; I do feel it is the first step down a journey reaching my goals. I hope that in the next month or two I can look back and see the progress I made and feel good about it and it keeps me moving forward.