[Exuma]

I learn the hardest things first, not the easiest thing (ie I flip right to the Black-Scholes formula when learning options, gradient descent in neural networks, etc etc).

I find that by going after the hardest things first, you learn the most information in the quickest way as all supporting things must be researched on the way.

If you only go after easy basic things and try to work your way up, the pressure (and rate of growth) will never compare.

[toiletaccount]

This depends on what's being learned and the scope of it. We don't start teaching kindergardeners math by diving into linear algebra.

The main thing to me is to practice constantly, and to practice doing it properly. There's also the psych factor, making a little bit of progress every day encourages you to make more progress. Keep the ball rolling, etc.

[Exuma]

The post specifically asks about learning things quickly. This is directly proportional to how uncomfortable one can be without quitting.

If someone is dissuaded from learning something because they need to be encouraged, then that is contrary to learning things quickly, at that point its just regular learning.