On Learning

There is a lot about the world that I want to understand better, and learning effectively is a vital skill in achieving that. At the beggining of learning something new, I often feel a rush of excitement. However, as the material becomes more challenging, I often encounter friction, which can be frustrating. I forget that learning happens at the edge of my abilities and that gaining understanding requires effortful engagement.

This note is a collection of thoughts from others on the texture of learning. It’s a place I can revisit when I need a reminder of what it feels like to learn effectively.

In the AI community, Andrej Karpathy has earned a well-deserved reputation for distilling complex material and presenting it clearly. His passion for teaching is well-documented, and he has consistently shared the following advice about learning:

• Iteratively take on concrete projects and accomplish them, learning depth-wise on demand (i.e., avoid learning bottom-up breadth-wise).
• Teach or summarize everything you learn in your own words.
• Compare yourself only to your younger self, never to others.

Scott H. Young’s essay, Do the Real Thing, has really stuck with me since I first read it because I can relate to it so closely. I often spend countless hours curating the perfect curriculum on a topic instead of actually studying. I might redesign my blog for the nth time when the real work should be writing. Or I could be writing a note about learning when I should be coding instead. When I ask myself, “What should I be doing right now?”, the answer is always some variation of “do the real thing”, no matter what I’m learning.

I recommend reading the full essay. Here are some rough guidelines he shares for doing the real thing:

• Avoid fake work; sometimes, doing nothing can be restorative.
• Real work requires effort, and there’s no way around it. It’s best to give it your all if you truly care about your goals
• When unsure about what the real work is, ask. Often it’s what requires an effortful engagement from you.

Related:

The most dangerous forms of procrastination are those that feel productive but actually distract you from your real goals

– @devonzuegel

yak shaving:

Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you’re working on.

Haruki Murakami in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running:

When it comes to other people, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can’t fool yourself. In this sense, writing novels and running full marathons are very much alike. Basically a writer has a quiet, inner motivation, and doesn’t seek validation in the outwardly visible.

Reinforcing the idea that learning requires deliberate effort is Andy Matuschak in Understanding requires effortful engagement:

If you want to really understand an idea, you have to grapple with it.

You can’t just read something, listen to a lecture, or hear a notion in a conversation. You’ve got to wonder: where does this apply and where does it not? What are the implications? What are the assumptions? Whose view is represented here? What does this refute? etc.

The Recurse Center (RC) is a retreat where curious programmers can recharge and grow. It’s a place that takes learning seriously in a way I deeply admire; their motto is “never graduate”. Many of the smart, kind, and thoughtful people I follow online and aspire to be like are RC alums. RC’s learning philosophy is captured in a set of principles called self-directives:

• Work at the edge of your abilities - “being ambitious about what you can achieve and also honest about your capacity, choosing work that challenges you but isn’t so far beyond your current abilities that it’s discouraging. This is where the most learning and growth happens. Working on something that’s easy for you won’t help you grow, because it won’t teach you anything new. Working on something too hard is also not helpful, because you won’t even be able to get started.”
• Build your volitional muscles - “growing your ability to make decisions about your work and learning based on your own curiosity and joy, rather than external pressures and fears. Your volition, or ability to make decisions and act on them, is something you can grow by exercising it, just like a muscle. This requires reflecting on what you really want, being honest with yourself, and acting accordingly.”
• Learn generously - “sharing your curiosities, interests, and struggles with others; being open to collaboration; and listening well and asking good questions when others share their work with you. If you’re very social and enjoy variety, it might mean hosting events or pairing on other people’s projects. If you’re focused on one project and work best alone, it might mean presenting your work and sharing updates as you go.”

In a way, learning is about bridging the gap between what I know and what I don’t know. In the video below, Ira Glass talks about a different gap: the one between a creator’s taste and their current ability. His advice is that the only way to close this gap is to put in the work and to remember that it’s normal for it to take a while. I find his words of wisdom to be a helpful reminder on my learning journey.

And most importantly: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.