Personally I find that the strategy of “I’ll buy this expensive cool gadget first and then I’ll surely be motivated to learn how to use it”… just never works.

Personally I find that the strategy of “I’ll buy this expensive cool gadget first and then I’ll surely be motivated to learn how to use it”… just never works. It seems to turn into the opposite: as the expensive gadget sits unused, its physical presence creates a guilt association that makes it increasingly unlikely that I’d pick it up again because I don’t want to face the unappealing remorse. Learning works out much better for me when it’s a thing I can do in a corner of a hard drive or notebook or whatever, almost pretending it’s not there.