
Ask HN: How to learn fast? - eble
Learning by reading or
learning through school or
learning by doing
======
moxious
Learning is a skill that can be practiced, like any other skill. You get
better at piano too, if you do it for years.

The difference is that most people don't think about learning or try to get
better at it, because it's a "meta-skill". If you learn the piano, you think
about piano. If you learn React, you think about that. Most people don't think
about the process of learning itself that went into both of those, so they
don't particularly get better at that learning process.

If you do, you'll get better at it as you practice. You'll ask yourself
questions like, "What sorts of materials made it really easy for me to grasp
the last topic?" If you know the answer, you'll search those materials out.

You'll ask questions like, "What's the best order to introduce concepts in,
when picking up a new topic?" If you know the answer, you'll learn the next
topic in that conceptual order.

You'll also make the process of learning a habit, just like you would piano
practice. The goal isn't to just be awesome at it, the goal is to do it all
the time. Being good at it is in the practicing.

Above all, if you inspect your own knowledge you'll find that human knowledge
is somewhat tree like. You get a base in primary school. You grow major
branches off of that (chemistry, physics). You then grow tiny twigs off of
that. And some of us have richly developed and finely wrought tiny branches
off of other branches. But the point of "knowledge as a tree" is that to learn
something you have to have something to hang it off of. There is no branch
without a trunk, so don't try to learn calculus before you can add. There is
no tiny branch without a big fat heavy one holding it (so don't try to learn
organic chemistry before you know what a covalent reaction is).

If you know the structure of the tree, then you have a map of how to proceed.

To the final question: by reading or by doing? Depends on what you're
learning, and depends on who you are, so you need to know a little bit about
yourself. Some topics can only be learned by doing (playing the piano).
Strangely, some cannot be done without extensive reading! (How to craft
poetry, or do research).

School vs. learning by yourself is just a personal choice, dealing with your
motivations, having nothing to do with "what's best". It's like rice vs. pasta
-- which should you eat for lunch? Bogus question.

~~~
eble
I am learning coding python. What is the fastest way to learn it?

~~~
moxious
This question is not "how to learn fast" it's "how to learn python fast".
Those are different issues. In my post, if you consider it then you'll know
that the answer depends on you, and depends on what programming languages you
already know.

I could give you something simple like, "learn python fast by equating it to
other things you know" but I can't say anything specific since I don't know
you or what you know.

------
stray
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

