=============================================================================== notryan.com/blog/012.txt Fri, 08 May 2020 Ryan Jacobs 09:40:12 -0700 Revel in Its Difficulty . . . . . . . . . . . . =============================================================================== Here is a guide on how to learn the hard things. You sit down to read a textbook. It's going well. The first couple of chapters are all right. But then it gets hard. It gets *really, really* hard. How the hell did it get so incredibly confusing all of the sudden?! You were _just_ on chapter 2 and _that_ wasn't bad. This is only the next chapter! But alas, chapter 3 appears insurmountable. And... here's why: You went too fast. I know it didn't seem like it. But you did. And you didn't test your knowledge. You didn't _really know_ chapters 1 and 2. Go back. Start with page 1. Read it. Question it. Keep stumbling until it clicks. Then move on to page 2. Ask yourself questions. If you need to, go reference page 1. When you are done with page 2, go to page 3 and do the same. And then to page 4. And so on and so on. Oh what's that? You're still stuck? Then break it down into paragraphs. Pinpoint *specifically* what you do not know. Really, I mean it. You need to _know what you do not know_. Do some research on those topics. Get yourself unstuck! Do *as many exercises as you can*. These will convince you that, again, you do not in fact understand chapters 1 and 2. But that's great! This is the goal. The goal is to put yourself in a state of semi-confused stupor as *often* as you can tolerate. Go long stretches in it. Learn to relax in it. *Revel in its difficulty!* Difficulty means that you are doing it right. It means that you are making progress, and not only that, but that you are going to continue to make progress because you are operating with good habits! You won't fizz out at chapter 3 anymore. When I ran cross country, my coach used to train us in a mode that he called "comfortably hard". That's where you should be 80% of the time. And the rest... well that's up to you. Maybe go out and discover some hard things to add to your bucket list. Do some exploratory work. Textbook learning is inductive. You need to have already mastered page N before you even _think about reading_ page N+1. And, on top of that, page N might not be enough if the book was poorly written! You might need to reference books X and Y while reading Z! You might need to Google some ideas. You might need to ask questions. But as long as you are making progress towards N+1 every day, _your_ N will be increasing. It will be "strictly increasing", as the mathematicians say. Learning takes time. Learn to accept this fact. Learn to break your task into sizeable bits. And I really do mean sizable. A page at a time is all you need. Best of luck, Ryan P.S. KVM goodness is coming soon!