3 ms·

Don't! Faithfulness to a single source is the biggest reason I see for failure In students. Be promiscuous. If a page, chapter, or even whole book bores you, s

Don't! Faithfulness to a single source is the biggest reason I see for failure In students. Be promiscuous. If a page, chapter, or even whole book bores you, scan ahead, put it on trial for a bit, and if it doesn't redeem itself quickly, replace it. The same goes (to the extent possible) for courses, teachers and even whole media. Only once you've tried the whole universe do you have reason to lower your standards and try something again from that universe that didn't meet your earlier ones. A book isn't a friend. There are no brownie points for completion. Also most subjects are like that too. If you really want to know a natural language and hate the verb rules, focus on the rest of the language. If you soak up the verbs more slowly you'll still be hnderstandable, and you'll have fun, and most importantly you won't give up. And programming languages are especially like this. Don't like class methods? Good! They suck anyway. Keep your functions pure. Don't like generics? Well that's a shame but it didn't stop the first many generations of Go programmers who couldn't use them if they wanted to. Etc.

fsckboy 2y ago
because the topic, textbooks, is pedagogic, when i read your "Don't like class methods?" I thought the follow on was going to be "find a new professor!"
6keZbCECT2uB 2y ago
In all seriousness, this seems to carry risk of never doing anything deep or hard. In particular, I've been programming for long enough, that I can be casual about many programming languages until I hit something which is actually new, such as in Rust or Prolog. Promiscuous doesn't have to mean having a low tolerance for difficulty, but everything else you wrote seems to support that. So, are you saying that enduring difficulty is unnecessary, or did you mean something different?
- mcdow 2y ago
  Not the person you responded to, but I actually take a similar approach as them so maybe I can explain. Firstly, difficulty and fun are not always directly correlated. Something can be difficult but fun, or difficult and unfun. Following on my first point, different activities or goals usually have aspects that are more or less fun. It’s better to start with the easy and fun stuff. You don’t have to swallow the ocean. Now this last part really is dependent on the type of person you are. For me, once I’ve gotten into a subject, I just become more curious about it. The aspects of the subject that were unfun at first are now interesting. I’m more invested and I’m more curious. And if I’m more curious, it’s more fun. To sum it up, it’s not that one can avoid enduring difficulty. It’s more about harnessing your own strengths and curiosity.

fsckboy 2y ago

because the topic, textbooks, is pedagogic, when i read your "Don't like class methods?" I thought the follow on was going to be "find a new professor!"

6keZbCECT2uB 2y ago

In all seriousness, this seems to carry risk of never doing anything deep or hard. In particular, I've been programming for long enough, that I can be casual about many programming languages until I hit something which is actually new, such as in Rust or Prolog. Promiscuous doesn't have to mean having a low tolerance for difficulty, but everything else you wrote seems to support that. So, are you saying that enduring difficulty is unnecessary, or did you mean something different?

mcdow 2y ago
Not the person you responded to, but I actually take a similar approach as them so maybe I can explain. Firstly, difficulty and fun are not always directly correlated. Something can be difficult but fun, or difficult and unfun. Following on my first point, different activities or goals usually have aspects that are more or less fun. It’s better to start with the easy and fun stuff. You don’t have to swallow the ocean. Now this last part really is dependent on the type of person you are. For me, once I’ve gotten into a subject, I just become more curious about it. The aspects of the subject that were unfun at first are now interesting. I’m more invested and I’m more curious. And if I’m more curious, it’s more fun. To sum it up, it’s not that one can avoid enduring difficulty. It’s more about harnessing your own strengths and curiosity.