Learn

My strategy on learning things

My grades were always average. I assumed that my lack of good grades was due to the lack of working hard.

It was only when I got into university, I realized that maybe its more than working hard. I was working really hard, the hardest I ever did in my life. But I was not learning as much as I wanted to. The result as not showing. It was then that I realized that it is not just working hard. People that do well in school, are doing things differently than I am. I am sure I worked harder than anyone, so there must be something more.

I do not believe in intelligent, or rather I do not want to limit myself by giving excuses that I am not as smart as others. I started researching about ways to study or learn more effectively.

Over the years, I have learn various ways of learning, and I want to document it down and applying it to my life consistently. I am not done with learning how to learn. It is still a skill that I am currently work at.

Learning philosophy

Be open about knowing as many things as possible

The more you know, the more learning gets easier. Many times, when we have context about a topic, it is easier to find connection to the new things that we want to learn.

Be deliberate about learning

Learning has to be deliberate. You need to have a plan. A list of things that you want to learn. A way to guide you to learn. Many things that we learn are build upon other knowledge. It is difficult to learn things without have a understanding of the background knowledge. For example, it is almost impossible to learn calculus without knowing first how to do basic multiplication. A plan to break down what you want to learn, and the background knowledge that you will also need to learn is important.

Part of learning is also to find out what you need to learn

There are way too many things to learn. Part of learning something new is to find out what is important. What you need to learn. You need to list down a list of things that you want to know. Let say you want to learn how to program in C++, when you start learning, you will realize that there are many parts in C++. Instead of trying to learn everything, find out what is the most important parts. List it down. By the end of learning, ask yourself if you truly know what you have listed down. In this way, you have an objective. Instead of just going by the flow, you give structure to your knowledge. This will make retrieving of knowledge in future easier.

Spacing

Spacing is very important for learning. The brain works like a muscle. To build muscle, you cannot expect immediate results. It is important to space out your work out section. To build muscle, it is more important to work on it consistently moderately than a short duration of high intensity.

Recall

Recall or testing yourself is a good way to see if your brain neurons are well connected and store in the long term memory. When we are learning, we are trying to move information from the prefrontal context to the long term memory. Sometimes, the move doesn't happen. so we want to make sure that we go back to the what we don't remember or understand. It is important to not leave any gap in our knowledge so that in future when we try to get back to the topic, the brain will be able to retrieve this information easily.

Learning strategy

There are a few stages of learning.

Zero

The first stage of learning. You know nothing. You do not have any context to what you are learning. At this stage, focus on gathering as many recipes as possible. Recipes from blogs, online tutorial, books, online videos. After gathering, try to organize them in ways that make the most sense. Try to sort them from most useful to least. List down the key points to learn. Use this as a check list to see how far you advance.

Novice

At this stage, you are simply following instructions. Clear and precise instruction telling you how to get from A to C. There will be a high chance you will be stuck. Therefore it is important to get recipes that give clear and simple instruction. During the novice stage, it is important to do as many recipes as possible.

Semi Expert

By now you should have some context and experience with what you are doing. But to be an expert, you have to play around with recipes and come out with your own mantras and rules. Lastly, design your own recipes.

Practice

Start early. I realized that after 8 pm, I am not able to focus. So it is important to schedule learning before 8 pm. I can relax and do things that I like after 8 pm, instead of going through the motion.

Links

• https://daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-the-expert-beginner

• https://daedtech.com/how-software-groups-rot-legacy-of-the-expert-beginner/

• https://daedtech.com/how-stagnation-is-justified-language-of-the-expert-beginner/

• https://daedtech.com/up-or-not-ambition-of-the-expert-beginner

• https://www.nateliason.com/blog/become-expert-dreyfus

• https://cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/howtostudy.html

Skills

Skills that I want to master

Personal

1. C++

2. Computer Science

   • Algorithm

     • Breath first search

   • Design Pattern

3. Computer Graphics

   • OpenGL

   • Vulkan

   • Rendering Algorithm

   • WebGL

4. Full Stack Development

5. Cloud Services

   • AWS

6. Writing

   • Grammar

   • Vocabulary/Spelling

7. Guitar

Work

1. How resource dependency mapping works

2. How ROCH works

3. HL3D Memory

4. Display Calculation