Maybe you should learn something

(marginalia.nu)

21 points | by tylerdane 2 hours ago

5 comments

  • CalRobert 26 minutes ago
    "have infants ricocheting around your home like screaming DVD logos, then you may want to put this ambition aside for now and deal with that instead"

    Even older kids... my 6 year old is jumping on the couch as I type this..

    I like remote work but when I had to commute it was really nice to have that downtime built in to the day. I learned a lot of Dutch vocabulary on the train.

  • zerobees 28 minutes ago
    I'll get my agent on it right away.
  • dominex 1 hour ago
    Do you have any interest in trying a new language? If you have, there is a language.
  • tylerdane 2 hours ago
    "Learning anything is a long term project, and long term projects are necessary for building a sense of control over your circumstances. Almost nothing can be deliberately and meaningfully changed within the scope of a day, but in months, certainly years, a lot of things can be made to happen."
    • atoav 1 hour ago
      Nothing is as sad as seeing some young motivated student losing patience if the task doesn't turn out to be a quick, easy win. The saddest however are students so eager for the quick, easy win that throughout their academic career they repeat the pattern and never really dive deep into any topic.

      I had a student come to me with essentially the same problem over two years and each time I helped her she was in refusal to listen as she stressed herself to just make it work now. Her problem was that she never took the time to do the basics and rejected any learning opportunity as it stared her in the face.

      You get results over time if you dedicate yourself to just doing the thing. For many subjects there is no shortcut, no way to walk the path without actually walking it. Every time you encounter an issue there is a learning opportunity. Use it.

      • bluefirebrand 21 minutes ago
        Something I find myself struggling with is the "tutorial trap"

        You follow a tutorial to do something, feel happy about it. Then you start a new project to put your new skills to good use and... Blank. No idea where to start, no idea how to proceed.

        It's so important to build stuff, using references is fine, but following tutorials is not the way forward! You have to work on your own without the training wheels.

  • casey2 21 minutes ago
    Maybe, but unless you are unusually talented I'd advise against it. For every consumer there is a producer and vice versa. Most people are better off as consumers and this give more eyeballs and resources to the few talented producers.