[_exec]

Does anybody have any (other and more thorough) resources for 'learning how to learn'? Perhaps book suggestions? One of my goals is to become an autodictact / polymath and I'm seeking way to make the process of acquiring new data / skills / learning more time-efficient and more organized (and systematic).

Are there any kind of 'learning theories/strategies' out there? I'm not seeking resources per se (I know about Khan academy, MIT OCW, 'bookportals' on Tor etc), but rather some sort of systematic method similar to the one described in the link but perhaps more detailed and (maybe) anecdote-/experience-based.

[kriro]

The Pragmatic Programmers have a book on learning called "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning". I own it and would highly recommend it, one of the more underrated books. It covers the Dreyfus learning model which was mentioned in the article.

The examples and language tend to be programming related (for example one chapter is titled "Debugging your Brain" iirc) because that's the intended audience but I'd also recomend it for non-programmers.

Very good blend of theory (Dreyfus model, r-/l-mode) and practical advice on how to improve your learning and generally use your brain better.

http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learni...

[_exec]

I actually do own a copy, thank you for reminding me to read it again. Very useful strategies and the type of 'metaphors' used in the book (CS/IT-related) made it easy to understand.

[xenophanes]

Learn epistemology (the philosophy of learning).

Most stuff in the field is bad (worse than useless). Start with this book:

http://beginningofinfinity.com/

Karl Popper's books are good too.

Epistemology is the long term route. No instant results, but useful for everything and very efficient in the long run. That's the best way if you plan to learn about many things to be a polymath.

And for discussion of autodidact stuff, ask your questions on this email list:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/taking-ch...

I've already done this stuff. Feel free to email me [e-mail]

[stewbrew]

Epistemology is rather about what "knowing" means. It's not a set of rules that tell you how to learn a language etc.

[xenophanes]

Epistemology explains how learning (aka creating knowledge) happens and what sorts of methods are capable of learning or not, and what sort are more or less effective at learning (aka at getting knowledge). This is useful to actually learning (anything) effectively.

Note again that most work in the field is terrible, so it doesn't actually do this. But the stuff I recommended does.

[stewbrew]

Epistemology is a field of philosophy not psychology.

[jonsen]

To increase what you get from books you read, maybe this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book

[_exec]

Interesting. I like the list of classics at the end, though I'm not sure if it's outdated (then again, it's a list of _classics_).

[jpwagner]

Josh Waitzkin (of chess movie fame) wrote this one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/d...

[cpayne]

That's a fantastic book!

[alid]

Great question! Self-directed learning is the way of the future. I'm a big fan of Trello for breaking learning goals down into manageable blocks - create a board of your overall goal, then create a list of specific learning outcomes you can tick off as you go (kind of a mash-up of Steven Covey's 'begin with the end in mind' and SMART goals - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timed). In my experience the foible of learning is distraction, so staying accountable to Trello keeps you on track. Perhaps it would also help to commit to teach someone else, to cement what you've learnt and to stay accountable to your goals; does anyone know of peer-to-peer learning networks like this?

[kriro]

I use Trello for my learning as well. I have a board called "Self Investment" that roughly corresponds to a mixture of SMART goals and other concepts. It's one of my two long term boards, the other being "Ideas".

Whatever tool you use it's a pretty good idea to keep your long term learning goals stored somewhere and get them out of your head (fairly standard idea in time-/selfmanagement)

Edit: I actually have a third "long term" board called "Books etc." where I store the titles of books that look interesting, interesting youtube videos, elearning courses etc. I'd kind of like to integrate that with the "Self Investment" board but haven't found a good way yet...open to suggestions.

[samvelst]

I've had some pretty good results with Scott Young's ebook and blog in general: http://www.scotthyoung.com (ebook is on the side of the page, can't find a direct link to it).

[_exec]

My goal is to achieve the same goal, except with n-number of subjects (math, science, humanities, the arts, etc) over x-number of years. Thanks for the suggestion!

[jmitcheson]

Have you watched many of Rich Hickey's talks? There are videos of them around.. I think you would like them.

[_exec]

Any particular video(s)? All I found was 'Simple Made Easy' and some other Clojure / Datomic related videos. Am I missing anything?

[spacemanaki]

All of Rich Hickey's talks great, but they're not really about learning how to learn. "Hammock Driven Development" is probably the closest, and is about approaching problem solving generally.

Both "Simple made easy" and "Are we there yet" are pretty general, not necessarily Clojure-specific talks, although they do point to Clojure and more broadly FP as a possible solution to the problems presented.

http://blip.tv/clojure/hammock-driven-development-4475586

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hic...