
Ask HN: How do you manage multiple learning projects? - jansho
Hey all and happy Sunday,<p>I have a lot of learning projects in the pipeline, and selected three for this season (3-6 months.) I don’t aim to master them; I just want to have a good (non-superficial) understanding of the overall picture, and to be moderately proficient in applying the principles&#x2F;tools.<p>For background, the projects are art (moderately skilled), data science (only interested in foundation&#x2F;background level) and reading (practise covering as much as possible, without sacrificing thoughtfulness.) There is also a new language but I’m keeping that very light (radio and penpal exchanges only.)<p>Even though they are meant to be recreational, and I have learning strategies for each of them, I sometimes struggle to juggle between them. I also have other commitments (I would say the ratio of commitment:recreational is 60:40). It’s a bit frustrating and I feel that it’s more of a personal flaw, as I know that many others have even less recreational time, yet successfully diligent with their learning projects. (I don’t beat myself too much though, haha)<p>So, I am interested to hear about your learning projects, how you manage them without losing your sanity, and how you maximise short time periods. Plus your own tips for learning. Thanks :)
======
sotojuan
Sorry for the non-answer but my advice is to not have many projects going on
at once. 3-6 months feels like a long time but they'll go by quickly.

Maybe it's just me but every time I try do more than a few things at once,
even if they are fun (programming, book or many books, language learning, deep
dive into a director's films, and even stuff like long story-heavy video
games) I end up making very slow progress, not retaining much, and feel
"stressed" about time management.

My solution was to do less and allot more time to relaxing. Nothing bad's
going to happen if I push some of my lower priority projects to a later date
when I am done with others. I do work full time and have a fairly active
social life so I may have less time than you. What I learned I personally a)
do not have time/energy for more than two projects at the same time b) cannot
last more than a few weeks being "productive" 24/7 - I need non-sleep relax
time.

\--

For a more concrete answer - make a schedule and realistic goals. Looks like
reading and data science and fit into a schedule of at least an hour a day
(never more than every other day) in which you can make progress. Try to make
a schedule and stick to it - once you have a routine it's easy. Not sure what
the art one is, but if it's more about creativity than raw practice you can
wait till you feel inspired to make something and clear out some time. Do give
yourself time to relax though.

~~~
jansho
This is the dilemma that I have, I have a burning desire to do everything.
Actually I had eight ( _eight!_ ) projects, and naturally found it
overwhelming. Finally got the list down to (about) three, but it’s still
mentally-taxing to switch between them and keep track of progress. Despite all
that, I love learning them... this up-and-down feeling is really tiresome

~~~
inuhj
Two projects is a lot. The only reason I attempt two is that I like some
variety. I'm not sure why you think people are doing more with less
time...they're probably not.

------
prezjordan
What's been helpful for me has been organizing projects into a hierarchy (you
can use something like Trello, or you could just wing it like I do)

    
    
      - Unproven ideas aka "disposable things I want to just play around with"  
      - Things to explore further aka "ooh maybe I could flesh this out into something cool!"  
      - Things to polish aka "okay let's do the grunt work to ship this"
    

Otherwise, I've just become okay with having a billion unfinished things. I
spent the last few months learning OCaml, and put code[1][2][3][4] on GitHub
without feeling like I need to "finish" or "ship" anything.

The code might prove useful to a passerby, or it may not. To me it doesn't
matter too much - no real downside to just "putting it out there"

My motto is basically: Feel free to rm -rf, git push, or even go as far as to
make a fancy landing page. Just have fun and don't forget to share whatever
you learn.

[1]: [https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-micro](https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-
micro)

[2]: [https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-data-
structures](https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-data-structures)

[3]: [https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-calculator-
game](https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-calculator-game)

[4]: [https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-web-
framework](https://github.com/jdan/ocaml-web-framework)

~~~
jansho
I like the way you prioritise! You say that you have a billion unfinished
things, do you have a way to keep track of them, so that in the future you can
pick one up right away?

~~~
prezjordan
I used to use Trello but it didn't prove to be too helpful - it led to me
thinking I was being productive just by shuffling cards around, when in
reality I was wasting my time.

So I pretty much just wing it, and when I get a wave of motivation for
something (compilers, frontend tech, blah blah blah) I just ride it. When I
don't, I try not to fret too much.

------
michaelchisari
A lot of people are suggesting that you limit the number of projects, but an
alternative approach is to limit the amount of time each day that you spend on
each subject, yet maintain a consistent schedule.

I always remind myself "15 minutes a day is better than an hour every three
days". But in order to prevent getting over-stressed about time and how
quickly you're learning, you have to put your ego aside and simply stick to a
schedule of learning a little bit of each subject every day.

That means limiting yourself when you want to go on a binge just as much as it
means making time to get your 15 minutes in. Three days of binging on a
subject can start to build pressure that you should maintain that level, and
that's not sustainable.

Small amounts of new knowledge, every day, until you've hit your goal.

No matter how old you are, you still have plenty of time to take things slow.

~~~
foopod
I agree about the schedule. I currently have 2 hours a day for learning. I
spend an hour at a cafe reading (currently Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari) every
morning before work. And an hour at home after work before anyone else gets
home to do software stuff (currently learrning/implementing Stripe payments).
Then on top of that if I have free time in the weekend I spend it on whatever
project excites me the most(learning to sketch atm).

I think that building up strong habits around what you are working on makes it
easy to maintain momentus.

I also agreee that even small increments of time can incredibly productive,
like listening to an audiobook during a 15 minute commute.

~~~
bwaxxlo
How do you find Sapiens? I started reading it (about pg. 50 now) but I find it
too full conclusions/statements that are not really founded on data.
Basically, it tends sets up two or more premises and then somehow draws a
conclusion that isn't in anyway related to the original premises (i.e: almost
pseudoscience).

~~~
foopod
I am nearly finished now and really enjoyed reading it. The book leaves me
with more questions than it answers, I appreciate this in a book though.

It provides just enough information to interest you in a subject, then offers
a few common theories with a reasoned most likely case (this is especially
prevelant in the beginning of the book due to the lack of information
available about humanity tens of thousands of years ago). Most of the
assumptions made though are not the author's and there are references in the
Notes section at the back if you do want to pursue these further.

------
indigochill
I used to go through one or two Coursera courses at a time. Just whatever
seemed useful and/or interesting at the time. I had my employer pay for their
certificate program on one course (the first part of the Nand to Tetris
course, which might be my favorite course on there).

Now I have them paying for an online MS and I have no time for any other
projects, as much as I'd like to.

Something I found when I did have time for side projects (and which I now
employ for some schoolwork), is that it was immensely helpful to have
milestones. I do this when I'm programming an intimidating program, too.

I start by taking a tiny piece that can technically run on its own. Then I
write and debug until that piece works and I can add on another piece. By
seeing the thing actually working as I go, it keeps me motivated and focused
on the next small step rather than getting overwhelmed by the overall project.

Debugging as I go also keeps the defects at any given time at a manageable
number, which probably has applications in other places as well (such as
regularly practicing a language to weed out bad pronunciation habits early or
what-have-you).

------
nikivi
I am a bit biased here, but I actually made a project to solve this issue for
myself.

I always found myself spending a lot of time trying to find the 'best'
resources to learn a thing or sometimes even researching what learning a thing
even means. So I decided to build a tool that helps visualise these learning
tracks for any topic you want to learn about.

Perhaps you've seen this popular repository for learning Web and Mobile
Development ([https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-
roadmap](https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap)). This is very
similar, but interactive and for every topic.

It's also Open Source and we often stream the development of it.

[Website] : [https://learn-anything.xyz/](https://learn-anything.xyz/)

[Code] : [https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-
anything](https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-anything)

[Stream] : [https://go.twitch.tv/nglgzz](https://go.twitch.tv/nglgzz)

~~~
jansho
Are you the owner of learn-anything? I like how the pathways are mapped out
like a tree. It’s great for guidance, but isn't taking the time to figure out
your own learning pathway also beneficial? Because you have your own needs and
way of learning after all

~~~
nikivi
Technically since Learn Anything is fully Open Source website published under
MIT licence, there is no owner. But I did start the project, yeah. :)

And I understand your concern with a learning path being a personal thing and
something that is quite helpful to make yourself. However this website will
very soon be completely open to the community and thus anyone will have a say
in what they they think the best path for learning some topic is.

~~~
jansho
This is really awesome, thank you for starting the project. When I research
for a learning plan, I often look at other people’s learning plans for
guidance. Then as I go through the plan, I adjust accordingly. I like that the
learning plans on the website can be community-edited, but because there can
be no best learning plan, it would be even more awesome if you can have
_multiple_ high quality (based on votes) learning plans for a single subject.
Hmm

------
Kinnard
Ever look into the pomodoro technique?[1]

I use it with the pomotodo app: [https://pomotodo.com/](https://pomotodo.com/)

Give it an earnest try for ~3days, I'll bet you're addicted by the end of it.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPC9zPnmXRk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPC9zPnmXRk)

~~~
jansho
What a coincidence, I’m waiting for my tomato timer to arrive! I am definitely
trying this, thanks

~~~
inetsee
Are you waiting on a hardware timer to use for Pomodoro? because there a lot
of software software Pomodoro timers available (e.g. "[https://tomato-
timer.com/"](https://tomato-timer.com/")). Since most of my study is on the
computer (Coursera, edX, etc.) a Pomodoro app fits perfectly into my study
workflow.

~~~
jansho
I actually prefer hardware because I find phone timers distracting (i.e. I
start procrastinating on the Internet!)

~~~
victorantos
I do agree with you. Actually, excuse my shameless plug, I am selling
"hardware" pomodoros
[https://PomodoroHourglass.com](https://PomodoroHourglass.com)

------
ajohnclark
I use Beeminder to keep myself accountable. Learning a language and taking 2
courses currently.

~~~
dreeves
Woo-hoo! Thanks for the Beeminder plug!

~~~
drhodes
I was about to sign up with my google account, but the app requested
permission to allow beeminder to .. view my email messages and settings. Is
that a mistake?

~~~
dreeves
It's because of our gmailzero.com integration where you can mind your Gmail
inbox. But, yes, it's super dumb that we don't separate out those permissions
and are freaking people out by asking for them just to sign up...

Thanks so much for pointing this out!

------
Arun2009
I have struggled, and continue to struggle, with a lack of focus in my
learning projects. My focus tends to cycle between some 6-7 subjects. In an
effort to tame this, I have come to believe in the power of (a) concrete
milestones and accomplishments, and (b) external accountability.

For example, I have wanted to learn Sanskrit for some time. Rather than pick
up a book and work through it yet again, I enrolled in two correspondence
courses that gives out certifications. I also have classes roughly once a week
with an online tutor.

Similarly for Mathematics and Physics, I am preparing for and plan to write a
nation-wide exam meant for MSc/BSc students in India as a minimum validation
of my knowledge. I am also doing a correspondence course in BSc Physics/Maths
from an accredited (in India) distance learning institution. Their assignments
and exams, while easy, provide a basic timeline for my progress.

For Machine Learning and AI, I have completed several courses on Coursera and
edX, but I found that even though I earned high grades in many of these
courses, my grasp of topics - especially the theoretical side - wasn't
satisfactory. I am re-doing some of those courses again, and intend to work
through a standard text or two for the ideas to truly take root, but we'll
see.

I am also interested in philosophy - both Indian and Western - and have read
some material on it over the years, but I don't know what milestones are
suited for it. I have considered writing up reviews of fields (such as ethics
or epistemology) as a summary of my own understanding, but right now I don't
have the bandwidth for this.

This was in addition to several other learning projects, such as Karnatic
music and functional programming. For Karnatic music, I had a weekly session
with a music tutor, and for functional programming, I forced myself for a
while to commit programming exercises to github. I later quit both these
projects to make room for the other learning projects.

~~~
jansho
Ooh this I can relate. My projects are nowhere as heavy as yours, and even
when I attempt to set milestones, I find that I rebel against them in very
creative ways. I’ve learnt to be ‘flexible’ instead. It’s a matter of slow-
training yourself I guess. Good luck with your projects

------
Grustaf
I can advise managing multiple projects because I haven't figured that out
myself, but I have a small tip: You can probably quite easily squeeze in an
hour or more of audiobook listening a day. I know I manage, and I have ten
minute bike commute. But I also wash dishes, clean up the house and do lots of
small chores. It has reached a point where I reach for my headphones even if
I'm just going around the corner for milk.

And when I say audiobook, that includes MOOCs and other recorded lectures, you
can access a wealth of free, university level material online if you want to
move past popular science audiobooks or Teaching Company lessons (not that
they aren't great).

~~~
MojoJolo
This is interesting and very applicable. But will this work with some online
lessons that includes visuals like presentations / minor viz?

~~~
gt_
Not op but I do these same things and the answer is a pretty solid “no”. I
have tried so much haha.

For thay reason, this approach is limited but highly valuable. I’ll explain
how I do it.

Most programming material acn’t be learned this way, but programming podcasts
are good for learning about _what to learn_ and for learning methodoloy! I
have been listening to the ‘Test & Code’ podcast lately and, especially for a
novice Python programmer, this podcast has a lot of this type of knowledge.

I try to avoid podcasts of news and gossip because I do enough of that and
more efficiently on HN.

Lectures interspersed with visuals are basically not doable. You’ll find
yourself interrupted and distracted from the central activity (commuting,
chores) and you lose flow.

Probably the best use I have found for this is for spending time in “hobby
topics”. This lets me sort of outsource the effort I spend with my hobby
topics to when i am doing other things, preventing the hobby topics from
intruding on productivity.

I love media theory, history and philosophy and these things can be discussed
with no visuals, and there are many great lectures and academic courses
available. This stuff often even informs the creative areas of my job.

My favorite hobby topic is art history but having to stop what I’m doing to
reference a visual work is too distracting :(.

------
mtreis86
I don't.

I think flow and planning are on opposite ends of an uncertainty principle.
The more in-flow you are the less you need a plan, and the more you plan the
harder it is to get into flow.

Sometimes I fall deeply into a subject I had no real interest in previously.
And I have many projects I would like to work on but never seem to have the
time for. So be it. A good life is lived beyond measure.

~~~
ISL
Flow works when it is possible to keep everything in one's head and when
prioritization is clear.

As I've gotten older and taken on more and more-complex work, planning has
taken increasing importance.

~~~
mtreis86
I find planning to be an essential communication tool and most of my work
involves planning. I think I miss-stated my point. My point is that I don't
know where to spend my time, when learning new things, until after I learn
them. That I can't predict where my struggle will be.

------
lhuser123
One thing that helps me is when the learning projects are somehow related.
From the book “Make it stick” , I learned to make connections. For example to
ask yourself, how does this relates to stuff I already know. So, using this
principle, if I’m able to make a connection between something in project A and
another in project B, it helps me remember both.

------
quickthrower2
I have been thinking about this as a busy parent.

I just have one tech side project. It'll take as long as it takes. I now try
to use similar tech as I do at work for expediency and to help with my job.

My non tech project is losing weight. I've made the process as lean as
possible. No cardio just weights and eating less for now.

So I guess my answer is focus on few things and ruthlessly optimise.

------
garysieling
I make notes for each project in a google doc, i.e. collecting material as if
I was going to do a write-up or talk on the project. That makes it easier to
set things aside for a while, and if you discover something by accident while
you're not working on the project, you can make notes in the document to
return to.

------
PeOe
Great question. I guess effective time management is the key here. I would
recommend blocking times during the day to focus solely on your learnings.
Avoid distractions and then push through until the time is over. It´s also
very important to plan in buffer times of 10-20 Minutes to get into the zone
again after taking a break. Yeah, it´s also really important to take breaks!
Don´t underestimate the power of breaks. Last but not least I´d recommend
using some kind of planning tool. Either a simple To-Do List or a daily
calendar or both. I can recommend [https://zenkit.com](https://zenkit.com).
Zenkit is an all-in-one project management solution that lets you view your
information in the right view at the right time. This way, you´ll be more
efficient and can get more done.

------
pryelluw
Time taught me to focus on one thing. It removes the feeling of not making
progress across multiple projects.

~~~
jansho
Can you expand a little bit more on this please? Did you gradually trained
yourself to focus more?

~~~
pryelluw
I developed a rather simple system called 0 to life. It focuses on achieving
goals in the short, medium, and long term. The main idea is that you focus on
breaking down goals (like code) in periods of six months. That way, you have
enough time to try something and not lose a lot of time. It also allows for
you to build on top of past success.

For example, one of my goals was to write a technical book. I did not achieve
it because I realized that the goal didn't fit me at that point in life. It
wasn't a total loss because I learned a lot from the experience.

Another goal was to release more open source code in a six month period. This
is something I did by releasing three different projects. That goal also
taught me a lot of valuable info that I can apply in the future.

The beauty of this approach is that you dont have to focus too hard. Having 6
months means you can still enjoy life. It also allows you to pick your goals
well (organize them).

Say you want to learn a natural language, learn ML, and go to Japan. Rather
than try and do everything as soon as possible, you'd proritize which you want
to do first knowing that the others will also get done. You can now organize
the goals using whatever metric you want. Which is liberating because there no
longer is any pressure related to missing out. If a given goal doesnt workout,
all you have to do is wait until the next 6 month period arrives to move
forward. This also provides the benefit of using the time between bigger goals
to try new things and not feel like you are wasting time.

------
lyricat
I used to enrol this course on Coursera. It called Learning How to Learn. It
would be helpful for you. [http://coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](http://coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

~~~
dominotw
Do you by chance have the summary of the course? Like your top 10 takeaways.

~~~
dqpb
I'll contribute one takeaway. When you read information and in the moment
understand what its saying, you feel like you've learned it, but you really
haven't.

To learn it you have to try writing it yourself, then checking it against the
source to make sure you didn't miss anything or make errors. Once you can
discuss an idea fully and correctly, then you've learned it.

~~~
rhizome
Why I still use paper and pen when taking notes.

------
nestorherre
I would advise the opposite than most: Focus on one thing at a time, if that
requires a lot of effort. Multitasking is not as good as it has been marketed
to us.

For instance, I was studying for an IT certification, while at the same time
reading books and working on a side project.. guess how much time went by
without me accomplishing it (although I advanced some on the other 2), but my
main focus was the cert. Anyways I ditched all the other disctracting things,
focused and put all my effor only on the cert and I got it in two weeks.

Also, focus on stuff that you will use and/or try to apply what you learn, and
make PRIORITIES of what you want at the moment, so you can choose the correct
thing to focus right now.

------
rufius
I don’t. In the excellent words of Ron Swanson (Parks and Rec):

“Never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing.”

------
35bge57dtjku
You could do the obvious thing and focus on a task or two at a time. I'm not
sure how much more obvious it could be here.

------
Sylarv
Since these projects are merely for recreation, why are you trying to juggle
them? Don't. Just focus on one at a time. Reach the point you want to reach
and then move onto the next. You will make more progress this way too. Context
switching has a lot of cognitive costs. Focus!

------
jansho
Thanks everyone for the high quality responses, really made my day. I’m going
to attempt to systemise all the suggestions made, and try out those that suit
me best.

And good luck with your learning projects! So humbling to see that many of you
make learning literally lifelong :)

------
des429
I built an app for this exact reason. I like working on a couple things at a
time including usually at least one online course.

[https://getbalanceapp.com](https://getbalanceapp.com)

------
mikebenfield
Here are my thoughts. I've managed to independently learn a decent amount of
stuff and do some decent side projects, but I don't claim to have any great
insight. In fact maybe everything I have to say is obvious, so take this for
what it's worth.

Consider doing less. If you are working a full time job, then depending on
exactly how serious you are, 3 learning projects is likely overkill. (But I
tend to do the same thing myself.)

Pick the resources you'll use in advance. I've generally had a negative
opinion about video lectures, preferring books, but I've somewhat changed my
thoughts lately. In particular it's nice to be able to follow a course as it
was taught at a serious university, with a syllabus and schedule all laid out
for you.

Set a weekly schedule in advance. Something like, M/F I'll watch a data
science lecture and Tu/Th I'll do art. Whatever. Include a planned endpoint:
by this date I will be finished with the 9 chapters of this book I plan to
cover.

Each evening, write a brief journal entry about what you accomplished that
day. Also write out a schedule for the next day. I like to put at the top of
my daily schedule a list of the major tasks I want to accomplish that day, and
then also a couple "extras", which are things I can work on if I turn out to
have extra time. The extras can be large or small, but it's nice if you have a
small one because you can cram it in wherever you have free time. Even
something like "Problem 12.3 from this textbook, which I couldn't figure out
last week". If you randomly turn out to have 10 minutes free, well pull out
your notebook and think about that problem for 10 minutes.

(By the way, I know an eminent mathematician, one of the few who has done
serious work in multiple fields, who says one of the attributes that has
helped him the most is his ability to efficiently context switch and get
serious work done throughout the day. If he has a random 18 minutes free, he
is going to make 18 minutes' worth of progress on a research project.)

Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't break the chain" idea is nice.

As far as tips for learning: engage and fight with the material, do projects
incorporating what you're learning, make connections to other things you know.
Incorporate reviews of earlier chapters/lectures, rather than just continually
charging ahead. There's a bunch of resources for how to learn (see for
instance those mentioned in this HN thread [1]), which I think are good ideas,
although honestly I have only haphazardly incorporated these techniques.

A major thing I haven't really figured out is maintaining / reviewing. I can
personally attest to the fact that it is literally possible to be an expert in
a subject one day, and less than a year later struggle to remember elementary
knowledge that every beginning student learns. Maybe there is no perfect
solution to this problem, but maybe it's possible to come up with some review
schedule that helps more than "every now and then I randomly go back and look
at a book I once read."

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13297250](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13297250)

~~~
ivanhoe
As for maintaining/reviewing, forgetting things is actually an excellent
filter to see what pieces of knowledge are useful to you, and perhaps
concentrate more on that in future. The stuff that you've forgot are the
things that you just didn't ever needed. IMHO just let it go, let you brain do
the garbage collection. You never really forget everything about the subject,
all the basic concepts are remembered (even if you can't easily recall them)
and if the need arises you'll just re-learn it.

~~~
projektir
I think this only works if your memory is sufficiently long term. My memory is
very poor and I forget things quickly so I constantly find myself having to
relearn things (for instance, relearning data structures and algorithms for
interviews).

~~~
ivanhoe
That's because you never actually use them, other than for interviews (sad but
true). Happens to me too, I used to know many back at school, and now I can
recall just those that I use for work at least once in a 6 months or so. For
everything else I usually remember some basics, but just barely enough to be
able to quickly google what I need. And then you just refresh the memory when
needed. It's like back in the days when hdd were expensive, so we all were
zipping our files when not used to save space - and then you unpack them when
you need them :)

------
arieskg
I like your clearly stated purpose that you are learning to expand the breadth
of your knowledge. I had the same mindset when I began my self-learning path
about a year ago, and the path gets longer as your pursue it, so I would
advise changing the 3-6 months to 3-6 years, if your plans is to learn. We can
both agree that we are not looking to become experts, so we can relax and go
with the flow—in 30 years, who knows what will happen.

CHUNKING

My self-learning approach is chunking subject into 1-2 week blocks. Rarely
less than 1-week, never more than 1-month. It’s a cyclical process that I use
to give my brain time to consolidate new knowledge.

UNDERSTAND THE BIG PICTURE

When learning a new subject, I always spend my first 2 chunk sessions to
understand the big picture, and in later sessions I learn the details through
deliberate practice. What I mean by big picture is when you commit time to
read a book, or watch a video (@1.5x), you don’t need to read in a linear
order, or watch every single minute of the video. Don’t read/watch any content
with “learn ABC in less than X time” in the title. The goal is to learn best
practices from experts. Only challenge the status quo once you have gained the
discipline.

DATA SCIENCE (2weeks)

So in your case, spend 2 weeks learning Data Science: pickup a Wes Mickiney
book on Python Data Science, or find a GitHub repository with great
contributors sharing their work to help you. If you get stuck on transforming
your DataFrame into Matplotlib or Seaborne, stop. Go work on your art project,
or in this case, let’s read.

LITERATURE (1week)

For reading - read Strunk and White or William Zinsser if you want to improve
your writing. Read Walden, Gatsby, or 1984, if you want to see thoughtfulness
in writing. I rarely finish an entire book because I’m more interested in the
themes and proses than every details because I have limited memory and I want
to ready many books. (1 week)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE (1week)

Now spend the last week writing to your foreign pen pal. Let’s say if it’s in
Japanese, learn the hiragana, which is quite easy since all the sounds are
romanized, and afterwards you can use the Japanese dictionary, instead of
Google translate, to write your letters.

MOST IMPORTANT STEP

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (Method: Deliberate Practice)

You'll most certainly meet some asshole who tells his nonchalant story about
mastering Machine Learning in a month, right after you just told your 3-year
Data Science journey. Give the guy a cookie, and call Alexa--who responds “I
was born knowing Machine Learning”. The point is filter out the noises,
because a few will really make you doubt, but I recommend reading what you
wrote and understand that you are curious to learn and don't let other
discourage you.

~~~
jansho
Thank you for this. I have a _lifetime_ plan (goodness knows how many years
that will be) but I know for sure that I want to leave while knowing that I
tried to understand. This may be why I want to learn everything, but this may
also be just gluttony because I’m not a very good student. I may also not be
that idealistic after all, I want to do a startup but lack the confidence, and
I think it’s because I don’t have enough confidence in my knowledge and not
enough discipline. By training myself to be a better learner, I hope to be
more ready (some of my projects are related to the startup idea.)

I am going to try chunking by week and see how that goes. Maybe the switching
costs felt too high because I was doing small chunks of everything in
timeframes that are too small.

> _Big Picture first, then the details through practice_

> _Only challenge the status quo when gained sufficient knowledge of domain_

> _Strunk and White etc, and don’t have to finish books_

> _Repeat everything, consistently_

> _Don’t let others discourage_

Gotcha.

About data science, I’m starting from rock bottom i.e. basic stats to overcome
an old prejudice, and psychology to start thinking in statistics (thanks
Kahneman.) And thank you again!

~~~
arieskg
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is
where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." \- Thoreau

Best of luck!

------
myaso
Pick a single thing to focus on and maintain sustained effort on it. Pump
brown noise/ambient noise into your head at 3 to 6 hour intervals while you
study. Tell other people to go hell if they bother you. Disconnect from the
internet, use offline materials, and keep your phone in airplane mode. Repeat
until goal is satisfied and move on to the next thing. If you focus on one
thing you don't need a schedule since you just do that one thing every second
you are free. Having less time forces you to manage your time better.
Minimizing the bullshit in your life is also helpful and may actually be a
prerequisite before you can get anything meaningful done.

------
nnfy
Serious suggestion: consider amphetamines. Dangerous in excess, but not unlike
any other double edged tool, relatively safe when used responsibly.

Edit: faceless downvotes? How about some actual discussion?

~~~
jansho
Since I can be compulsive, drugs are banned from my mind. Some double-edged
swords are just too sharp.

(I didn’t downvote you)

