Relearning to Learn | Hacker News Reader

Relearning to Learn

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Having a goal, and creating an environment where you can frictionlessly work towards it for a little bit of time most days, is such an unreasonably effective tool. You'll never become a true, deep expert in something with 10 or 15 minutes a day, but in my experience that's all it takes to become perfectly capable at a lot of things.

A few years ago I started having an hour most days that I devote to learning and trying new hobbies / habits / whatever, and when I find something interesting I start giving it a 20 minutes slot in that hour until I stop liking it or I feel I've gotten what I want to out of it. I'm nowhere near a professional at any of this stuff but I have a fulfilling level of competence in a ton of interesting things now, and it's brought me a lot of pleasure.

And even then, the "expert" goal may be foolish, these days I'm much more about feeling new things, new ideas, at my level. And then let the "little bit" process take me to where I can go. I may never end up an expert but everyday will have been fun and happy.

Absolutely. When I was younger I was pretty competitive and tried to be good at everything. These days I'm an expert engineer, and I try to let myself do the rest of the stuff I do just for enjoyment.

While this may work for some things, I find that this strategy doesn't work for my particular interests. I've been trying to get into game development and character modeling in Blender for a while now. 20 minutes a day isn't even enough to warm up and remember where you left off. And at the same time, I can't justify giving this hobby a couple of hours a day to give it a real shot.

What works for you in making it frictionless and sticking to the schedule?

Learning and reading is something I've been struggling with. One, getting older, even at a relatively young age is definitely taking its toll. It's mainly my memory. I've always had great recall, but it has gotten slower. Secondly, I believe computers and in particular phones and tablets have partially destroyed my attention span and ability to be comfortable inside a book for a long period of time. I read all the time, but not in a deep, concentrated way. Despite knowing these things are problems, even though I typically read or learn on them and do not play any games on mobile devices, it has taken me to admit to myself that I absolutely must distance myself from mobile devices, and even my computer, if I want to get back to long-form, deep learning. Both are going to take some practice and discipline.

One thing that has helped is signing up for actual university classes as opposed to online courses. Online courses are of course awesome, but taking a few graduate level mathematics courses at a local university really got me back into deep reading, of at least technical material.

Another thing is trying to reduce my anxiety. Instead of worrying about all the books I have that are unread, of which there are hundreds and maybe even over a thousand (yes, I have a problem collecting books), I'm trying to just concentrate on one or two and actually finish before switching or moving on. This is one of the hardest things when your interests change fast, but I am really trying to bolt myself down on this one. I'm not quite there yet.

> computers and in particular phones and tablets have partially destroyed my attention span

Right on. That and the constant, never ending polling for information that comes with it leaves you with no downtime and a very worn out feeling. We need downtime throughout the day - pick up a task, do it, put it down and do nothing for a while before switching to another. Without that you can't focus and that leads to irritation which makes things worse.

Understanding the zeigarnik effect and assigning a the literal next action to everything made a dramatic difference for me in this respect its alike to shutting down a ton of background processes with pop-ups. The subconscious keeps bubbling up stuff. On the positive side its also a useful to use as a memory tool for pinging up stuff you need to remember.

Would you mind expanding on this? I couldn't understand what practice it was you actually implemented

> I read all the time, but not in a deep, concentrated way. Despite knowing these things are problems, even though I typically read or learn on them and do not play any games on mobile devices, it has taken me to admit to myself that I absolutely must distance myself from mobile devices, and even my computer, if I want to get back to long-form, deep learning.

Somewhat related:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29739940

Once I started printing things and not reading them with a screen, my reading of real books went up as well. When you're reading on a screen, you don't realize you're competing with physical books. But when you're reading something physical, you do become aware of it.

Some notes from an older person:

The best approach will vary based on topic, age, and constraints (e.g. professional with kids).

When I was a teenager, I learned Calc I, II, III and a first course of differential equations. I retained most of it. When I decided to take more advanced math courses later on (just a few years later), I was always saddened by my inability to retain much after the course was over. I kept wondering if I'm in my decline (at the old, old age of 25).

No - I was not. The nature of the material had changed. Whereas stuff you learn in Calc I and Calc II is material you can easily and often apply in engineering, some random theorem in group theory is not. When you study a theorem in Calc II, the frequency with which that theorem is invoked in the same book is high. When you get to higher math, it does become somewhat broader: Most theorems are invoked only a few times in the book.

There's also raw talent vs techniques. Younger me got by with raw talent, but at some point the material you're learning will supersede your talent. You then need to strategize (and different topics may require different strategies). Don't knock raw talent/skills - they can be honed and it may be worth honing them. But broadly: The person who has good systematic study skills will eventually overtake the raw talent person.

Most of the approaches that will work if you have all the time in the world will fail you when time becomes constrained. I started using spaced repetition a few years ago and it has been a game changer. I can study things for a bit, take a break for a few months, and mostly can pick up where I left off despite not practicing that material in those months.

Having said that, most of Becky's advice is good. The one thing I'd disagree with is:

> "Five minutes every day is better than an hour once per week"

This definitely depends on the material. You're not going to get far in math on just 5 minutes a day. Some topics will need a lower bound of minimum time per session.

Thanks for your comment - and agreed!

Last year I taught myself a good deal of category theory, and you're right, five minutes is not really enough to learn most things - but it is enough time to start an exercise - and those five minutes often turn into something longer!

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