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This resonated a lot: > Enormous subjects are best approached in thin, deep slices. I discovered this when first learning how to program. The textbooks never w
by rrr_oh_man 3y ago
This resonated a lot:
> Enormous subjects are best approached in thin, deep slices. I discovered this when first learning how to program. The textbooks never worked; it all only started to click when I started to do little projects for myself. The project wasn’t just motivation but an organizing principle, a magnet to arrange the random iron filings I picked up along the way. I’d care to learn about some abstract concept, like “memoization,” because I needed it to solve my problem; and these concepts would lose their abstractness in the light of my example.
- willturman 3y agoIt’s a wonderful experience when hazy abstractions of complexity click into clarity. I’m not sure I’ve ever found that without tangible motivation and immersion in a problem space, although excellent writings can bring one to the doorstep.
- Terr_ 3y agoThis also applies to less-cerebral tasks. For example, I didn't learn to touch-type due to a school class with edutainment software, but because after one summer of arguing with people over dial-up, I had learned it just to get the words out faster.
- agileAlligator 3y agoExactly how I learned to touch type; only it was Discord not IRC. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
- namaria 3y agoSame here. I learned touch typing to furiously debate online as well =) MSN messenger in my case haha
- Izkata 3y agoI guess a less usual one, compared to the other comments: For me it was StarCraft multiplayer, had to type fast so I could get back to controlling my units. Because I was rapidly going back and forth between the keyboard and mouse, it resulted in an unusual style where I use the outline of the keyboard for hand placement, and attempting to use the home row slows me down significantly.
- Esus 3y agoSurprised no one has mentioned Runescape. Touch typing felt like the only option for GE spamming lol.
- Terr_ 3y agoStarseige: Tribes and Counter-Strike: Sometimes a short thing while the character is coasting through the air. Tribes in particular also had a voice-tree, and while it was shorter than prose it still encouraged a certain degree of touch-typing. For example, typing VSAF (mnemonically [start][self][attack][flag]) led to text and prerecorded audio for "I will attack the enemy flag." Little of it survives now beyond references like VGZ for "Shazbot!"
- xcdzvyn 3y agoNecessity is the mother of invention :)
- Esus 3y agoDoes anyone know if there's a mental model or term to describe this? Would like to broadly read about more examples of this.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoMaybe "just in time learning"? Learn the next thing you need in order to be able do whatever you're trying to do. The danger is that you won't know enough of the landscape in order to know what piece you need to learn to unblock what you're trying to do...
- deanishe 3y agoIt's just focussing on the useful practical applications rather than the abstract theory. Anchor your explanation in something with actual practical use. It's why so many mathematicians are so shit at explaining maths to laypeople. They don't understand that regular people don't give a shit about numbers. They're just a means to an end. Explaining how to turn numbers into more numbers doesn't land with people who dgaf about numbers. You need to show how something is useful.