[upstill]

I can't read anything and have it stick unless I use it. But the hazard of doing a project is that you'll just recycle skills and strategies from earlier languages, which inhibits your openness to what's distinctive about the new environment.

The only approach that works for me is dialectic: go back and forth between absorbing raw information, then using it hands-on on a genuine problem. Learning moves you forward, and using it locks you in and makes you a dry sponge for absorbing further material. The trick is to notice when you're trying to fit your old ways into the new box, and stay alert for opportunities to change your way of thinking.

...or maybe I'm just saying this because I'm working on learning Clojure after decades of procedural programming.