[u385639]

While the advice is good advice overall, it stumbles on its own hindsight.

> Break whatever you’re trying to learn down into use cases. Start with bite sized chunks that take a few minutes and build on them incrementally. “Learning python” is too broad. Installing python, printing hello world, installing and using a dependency, reading from a file, etc. are more well-defined, and it’s easier to know when you’re done, therefore helping to reinforce progress.

Yes "learning python" is too broad, but the subtlety here is that it's usually actually "learn my first programming language", in which case it's unlikely you would understand how to break anything up into any steps. If "learning python" is not your first language then the advice is just obvious.

The truth is that the only advice that matters is "don't give up" and "have the courage to learn however you want" because there is no such thing as "teaching".

[tsejerome97]

I totally agree with this. This approach can work only if you have the big picture. It is a lot easier for a web development background person to learn app development as the person knows it is still a "frontend". However, it would be really really hard for me to learn Astrophysics and Quantum Physics. (would appreciate a lot if anyone can offer any advice:D)

[DickingAround]

Not that I'm good at this yet, but I've found one solid way to do it: Read a textbook on it cover to cover. Don't do any of the problems, that'll like 10x the time. But the textbook will have an overview of the entire space and then as you have questions you'll know how to dive into them. It's helped me get into technologies that are wholly and totally different from what I work in and studied.

[billti]

Totally agree with this. A lot of details don’t make sense until you understand the big picture. Skim as much as you can, then (re)read that which helps get the next level of understanding, ... and repeat.

It’s time consuming, and can feel frustrating when you’re reading stuff you don’t understand, but you learn more in the long run (and understand how it fits into the bigger picture better).

[tsejerome97]

I am quite curious if you will study textbook when studying a programming language or a development framework :D

[pessimizer]

> it's unlikely you would understand how to break anything up into any steps.

Sounds like a job for a teacher.

[PeterisP]

Or a textbook writer.

Seriously, if you need a decent breakdown of "Learning X" into steps, then it's useful to look at the table of contents of a related textbook even if you'd be learning from other sources (experimentation, documentation, whatever) because the split and order of topics will be at least somewhat reasonable.