[mjp94]

This really hit home with me. For a while now, whenever I've been coding, I've been more focused on learning new things instead of creating things. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I had project for a CS course that I didn't end up doing so well on, and I attribute that partly to me not having built something in a long time.

I'd like to change that this year. When he posed the question "What was the last thing you built that gave you that Builder's High?", I sure as hell couldn't remember much that I've built recently that gave me that feeling.

[AYBABTME]

I like to separate my time in 3 parts: loop: 1/3 : Reading/researching/learning new concepts. 1/3 : Hands-on experiment with what I learned. 1/3 : Actual work, were I might apply what I've learnt in the last 2 phases.

The new knowledge gathered improves my throughput in the 3rd phase, making up for the 'lost time' doing research. That's of course a rough estimate and I don't have any numbers to back that up, aside from my own biased experience living it.

I find it's a good balance and having it formally listed out reminds me to actively switch from a phase to another every few weeks. I end up always applying newly learnt stuff, which is rewarding and motivating.