
Tell HN: Don't learn more than you need to know - ne01
The most important resource for anyone is time and no one disagrees with not wasting it!<p>But most people waste it, and waste it in ways they think is not wasting.<p>For example, most people don&#x27;t consider learning more than you need to know a bad thing! Because learning is good, we don&#x27;t consider over-learning bad!<p>I think over-learning is as bad as not knowing anything. Both is wasting time!<p>Information in this world is infinite and our time is finite so it makes most sense to only learn the most important things that we need to know right now -- not in the future but right now!<p>Now, someone might argue that learning more than we need to know gives us perspective to see what we need to know next, or gives us big picture or our next idea or some other crap to usually justify a 400 page textbook on world economy for someone with no interest.<p>Well, if you have no perspective or you think you need to know more in order to make a better decision you still don&#x27;t know enough. In that case you need to learn more but not more than that because soon you have no time to learn anything!<p>Don&#x27;t over-learn!
======
stephenr
Sounds like the sort of thinking that leads to apps that depend on a slew of
"cloud" vendor services and 5 different saas api's (plus their collective
cloud requirements) because the developer doesn't know how to hash a password
or resize an image.

~~~
meric
You can read about hashing passwords and resizing images in a textbook but the
reading maybe less efficient compared to actually learning it while doing it.
Knowledge and experience. E.g. Someone who's reading wikipedia about worms is
wasting his time compared to someone who's joined a worm lab.

~~~
stephenr
Oh that's fine then. This textbook says I can use md5 for my passwords so
that's what I'll do.

------
mbrock
I think the "follow your bliss" meme is a decent heuristic.

So much of the weird useless stuff I spent lonely hours learning about have
actually turned out to be crucial to my career opportunities and generally
made me a better engineer.

I think taking some hours to just do cool weird crazy stuff will probably
always pay off in one way or another, maybe ten years down the line even.

------
bsvalley
If I value knowledge in life, your question is not relevant. I use my time in
order get as much knowledge as I can. Over learning something means acquiring
more knowledge.

What you should say instead is - I make use of my time by trying as many
things as I can without understanding them. Pretty much like a newborn.

------
hugja
If I enjoyed my time "over learnig" is it really wasting my time? I understand
that not all learing is enjoyed, but if it's subject I enjoy learning more
about it's not wasting my time.

------
taprun
There's a famous section in the Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet in
which Homes talks about how he not only did not know that the Earth revolved
around the sun, but that he'd do his best to forget that fact, as it had no
bearing upon his life.

~~~
digestives
"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and
you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose."

------
iamsane
Well, the counter-argument is that you won't know what you need to know until
you realize you don't know it.

How do you even know what you need to know?

~~~
ne01
Interesting!

To me one of the most fascinating things is the way babies learn!

How does a brand new brain (that knows nothing) start learning?

Of course, I don't know! I just know that babies are cute and this topic is
interesting.

But, I think as soon as you can ask a question, you know enough to ask the
next one which will ultimately result in learning everything if you had
infinite time.

We are all familiar with the age babies start asking questions that our answer
only leads them to a new question, and then another, and another, until we say
enough with the questions let's go eat an ice cream! :)

~~~
pizza
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate–distortion_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate–distortion_theory)

------
NumberCruncher
We can discuss your thoughts only because there where people who learned to
much. Without them we would not have internet, computers, could not read/write
and high probably would have been killed by an epidemic years ago.

~~~
ne01
Learning a lot is not over-learning.

~~~
LifeQuestioner
Ok - so how do you know if you're "over-learning" \- what are the signals for
you?

~~~
ne01
Learning by problem solving.

I just try to solve problems one at a time. And usually break a hard problem
into smaller easier ones.

When I can't solve a problem it's usually time to learn more until it's
solved. And when it's solved I go to the next one.

I have created a programming language with this method without even knowing
where to start.

I guess, the internet (accessibility of information) is the main reason that
eliminates the need to learn stuff beforehand.

Maybe I should change the title to something like:

Learn as you go! :)

~~~
LifeQuestioner
Aah that better explains what you mean!

------
LifeQuestioner
I enjoy learning for the sake of learning. I dont watch tv or netflix. All
subjective.

~~~
ne01
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

~~~
pizza
the paradox: do busybodies waste time telling others to stop wasting their
time?

------
bbcbasic
There is some truth in this, but determining what you need to know is the hard
part. Learning something enjoyable (learning to surf, for example) is another
category where I don't think it can be called a waste of time.

------
sotojuan
This happens often with coworkers who spend a lot of work time reading books
that go way beyond the material needed for their task (which is usually
covered by official documentation).

------
geekodour
not true

