How do you approach learning?
Online Education is set to grow over 58% by 2025. I personally think this will be higher in light of recent events and more people learning remotely.
There are many different approaches one can take towards learning. I'm interested to hear how people approach it?
Which do you do most?
A - Video Courses
B - Audio Learning
C - Live Workshops
D - Reading Books
E - Learning By Doing
I think learning by doing probably one of the most effective, especially when trying to build a project or business.
What are your thoughts and have I missed any others?
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I learn by doing 💡
Always the best way @nscode!
Learning by doing is what has worked best for me! Courses and workshops rarely have a pace that works well for me.
I enjoy learning about concepts by reading books, but if it's coding related I prefer to just start building something, and going through a lot of blog posts, articles, and Stack Overflow questions along the way.
This is a great approach @giall. I don't code myself, but it seems to be the consensus amongst developers that the best thing to do is to just build and learn as you go.
When I started learning web development I went to Freecodecamp and Treehouse, but the only course it has actually teached me something was a course from Jonas Schmedtnam ( or something like that ) in Udemy.
After that all I learned has been with this steps.
1 research
2 understand
3 test-apply
4 understand
5 apply again
Sometimes 3 n' 4 is not needed because is too basic...
But yeah, the best way in my opinion is by learning while building. It works wonders.
Have a good one Gordon
Thanks for sharing @Michael_Andreuzza. Lots of people who write code share similar sentiments. Learning by building and taking action seems to work really well with coding. Cheers!
C, D, E and text-based courses. But this is a personal preference, I just know that I struggle with video/audio information :)
I think you can add learning by doing in small groups - it gives some sense of community and promotes experience exchange which is helpful :)
That is interesting @AnaShch. I like your suggestion about small groups too. It is always nice to have people to bounce ideas off. Thanks for sharing.
Doing > watching; reading > listening
I have gotten used to watching and listening because that is how my university teaches (+ some exercises and assignments, obviously). I've also done several Udemy courses for things outside my uni's curriculum. I don't think this is effective and has a very low learning yield per unit of time ("learning density").
I'm now transitioning my learning approach over to one that is more adaptive with a higher learning density, and thus more suitable for work environments. This advice comes from Naval Ravikant of Angel List: “you should be able to pick up any book in the library and read it.” And the last tweet in this category was, “reading is faster than listening, doing is faster than watching.” You can check out the full post/podcast excerpt here, "Read what you love until you love to read": https://nav.al/love-read
I'm finding this far more appropriate for a work environment where I have to learn a new technology or system whilst implementing it (ie I'm reading a lot of documentation while building). I feel like my reading speed is increasing and that I'm learning relatively more for a given amount of time.
Thanks for sharing this @levimk. I really like the sentiment of "doing is faster than watching". Certainly something I am trying to improve myself. Getting hands on with things and taking action and learning as you go seems to be one of the best approaches.
I am mostly A and E...
I would say learning by doing is probably most effective.
Thanks for sharing @jelanisince94. I totally agree!
For me to really take off and thrive with a concept, I think I need to go through the full "UBAD" cycle...Understand it -> Believe it -> Advocate for it -> make Decisions based on it.
Video and audio help me understand things.
Good books by reputable authors help me believe things.
Live workshops get me in a position to start advocating for the thing, cuz I've seen it work.
Learning by doing is the final stage of the UBAD cycle...I actually try to apply the stuff and all the puzzle pieces snap into place.
Thanks for sharing this approach @andrewgassen. What do you think is the main benefit of this approach over taking action and learning as you move. I only ask as I think many startups and entrepreneurs often have to take on risk by never fully knowing all parameters before starting a new project or business.
In my experience, most people don't do a great job of learning as they move unless they're explicitly in learning mode. I see this with a lot of the folks I coach...they keep banging their heads against the wall with their product problem not realizing that they've been handed a gold mine of valuable learning opportunities.
There's a little bit of, "You don't know what you don't know" that can sneak up and bite us if we're not careful. The flipside, of course, is that people spend years reading and watching content instead of doing anything with the content.
I've found watching a video then trying things out to work best for me. The video tells you to how to do it and trying it out is the easiest way to get it going
I like this approach @ju_moseby. I often do the same. Video helps me to understand something and then I usually go and try to implement it myself.
I like to get some sense of context through reading or video first, rather than jump straight into doing. I find it helps me avoid bad habits by learning from others' mistakes first.
Thanks for sharing @stefanwithaneff. I like the fact you like to get some context before jumping in. However, I also think that many startups and entrepreneurs often have to take a risk by never fully knowing all parameters before starting a new project or business. There comes a natural point where you have to jump in before you can get all the context.
This is a great question! I probably learn the most by doing, but the video courses and reading books are inputs in the learning process. I generally consume information best through reading first and video second; then, I like to be able to apply those concepts.
I also like @rosiesherry's response, though. I've been gravitating toward community spaces specifically because I'd like to hear what worked and what didn't from others, and I want to be able to try different approaches in my work.
Love this @radiomorillo. I think learning by doing is always best, but often times we need to consume information before we can take action. Thanks for sharing your insights.
I learn through community 🥰
Great answer @rosiesherry. Can you touch on what you mean in particular? Is it the constant interaction and engagement with a community that you learn most from? Or perhaps it is the "pooling effect", where multiple minds are greater than one?
People coming together. Sharing what they know. Me discovering what I didn't and should know. Going down rabbit holes. Reading what people write. Watching videos people make. Listening to podcasts they speak on. Talking to people over video/audio chats. Reading books that have been recommended. And in a previous life actually meeting them irl.
At the center of it, are people and the community.
I have zero qualifications, and very rarely actually finish any online courses.
That is great @rosiesherry. Thanks for sharing your insights. At the end of the day, people learn from people!