
Ask HN: How do I learn faster? - AlexAMEEE
I&#x27;m afraid that this sounds like a stupid Quora question but ...<p>How do I learn faster ?<p>Things I already do:<p>- I do sports to stay fit.<p>- I repeat the things I&#x27;ve learned the next day.<p>- I do breaks.<p>- I do things that I enjoy.<p>- I sleep enough<p>- I try to connect the thing I&#x27;m learning right now with things that I&#x27;ve already learned<p>- I don&#x27;t learn too many things<p>- I batch things, for example: one day: math, physics, CS, the other day something else.<p>I&#x27;m aware of the fact that we are all humans, I&#x27;m not trying to accomplish anything impossible, I don&#x27;t have any weird expectations, I just feel like that I&#x27;m not getting my 100%.<p>What are your tricks ?
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sharmi
Coursera's learning hoe to learn will mostly cover what you have said here
already.

This is something I found recently in another thread and would like to work on
this now. "how to learn without a mentor"

[https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/04/17/learning-without-
a-m...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/04/17/learning-without-a-mentor/)

~~~
sharmi
Hi responding to my own comment, it has been some time since I took that
course, and reading multiple articles about Learning has muddled my thoughts
on what I had learnt and where.

So I went back to refresh my memory about the course 'Learning How to Learn'
and realized there is more value to it than what other articles normally
outline. I am linking to a few course notes to give anyone who reads this a
better understanding of what you will gain from it.

[https://github.com/Espores/Learning-how-to-learn-Coursera-
No...](https://github.com/Espores/Learning-how-to-learn-Coursera-Notes)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/5950tm/text_i...](https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/5950tm/text_i_just_finished_the_online_coursera_course/)

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tchaffee
I thought the Learning to Learn course on Coursera was excellent. It covers
some of the things you mentioned but a lot more and also explains why in terms
of how your brain works. It only took me a few hours to complete the course.

~~~
AlexAMEEE
Thanks I'll check that out.

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kleer001
> \- I try to connect the thing I'm learning right now with things that I've
> already learned

That's a big one. You're right on target.

Personally, I try to focus on cross domain topics and heuristics.

Like Sturgeon's law, The 80:20 rule, exponential growth, KISS, etc...

If you're asking about raw memorization I'm sure there's a physical limit to
the ratio of usefulness to depth of data.

And don't forget about The Dunning–Kruger effect and the fact that lots of
people get stuff done without knowing how to do it at the outset. But that's
only if you're learning to do rather than learning to learn.

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itamarst
Reflecting one one's mistakes. "The Power of Intuition" by Gary Klein has some
good bits on this, but basically look for the cues and patterns you missed, so
you know what to look for next time. been doing that with programming
([https://softwareclown.com](https://softwareclown.com)) and the effort of
seeing _why_ I made mistake usually gives me much better understanding of what
to do better next time.

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MurdocTannen
Best approach for me is to make sure I apply what I'm trying to learn to a
specific project. If I'm going to learn a new programming language, I cannot
just learn it from a book, it does not stick. I always find some project
(which may or may not be relevant to what I'm learning) and build the learning
up around the project. For me this also works with other things than a
programming language.

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sgillen
Something I didn't see mentioned yet is putting what you learned into
practice. Building even a small program (from scratch) to demonstrate some new
tool you learned. Doing this I feel I learn The subject faster and in more
depth.

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bjourne
My one trick would be to practice a lot. For example, if you are learning math
or programming, you won't learn very much by watching ted talks, youtube
videos or reading blog posts. Instead you need to spend all your hours typing
code and working on progressively more difficult problems. Like if you want to
learn graphics programming, start by drawing pixels, then lines, then 3d
rotating shit and shading stuff. Active learning is much more important than
passive learning.

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destruktive
Vocal repetition works for me. I find that everything I try to teach someone
else sticks right away. My poor wife has heard a lot of PowerShell cmdlets but
she's aware that I learn better like this.

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LifeQuestioner
By learning more slowly. And not rushing, being mindful and asking questions

that way the info you learn will actually stick

