Thoughts on Learning

The concept of learning gives rise to many questions. What should be learned? How should it be learned? Why learn at all? The answers to these questions depend on too many factors

Why?

For some, learning is a self evident good, for others it is only a means to an end, and for far too many it is a chore to be avoided at all costs. I think of learning as an expansion of my mental model of the world. Learning something new is like discovering a color or smell I never new existed.

Utilitarian reasons are also important. Learning a skill to solve an immediate problem (e.g. my sink is leaking, how do I fix it?) or to earn money are also significant motivators. One reason I learned to be an EMT was because I wanted to know how to help my aging parents in case of an emergency.

How?

Although this is clearly dependent on what is being learned, I think there some general principles that can be applied to most learning situations:

• Motivation: It's very hard to learn something you just don't care about. Money is a primary reason people learn things they otherwise wouldn't care to know. When the utilitarian reason isn't strong enough, motivation can fade fast. For example, if someone picks a language to learn based solely on the number of speakers it has instead of based on an intrinsic interest will have a harder time becoming fluent, absent other motivators.
• Repetition: There is a Russian saying повторение — мать учения (povtorEniye — mat' uchEniya) which translates to "repetition is the mother of learning". There's no getting around the fact that one has to encounter scenarios where knowledge is applied in order for that knowledge to become ingrained. Repetition itself has many axes that can be adjusted: frequency, spacing, intensity, duration, etc.
• Application: You can do all the skill drills you want, but learning must be confronted with the unpredictability of a real scenario in order to achieve mastery. It is necessary but insufficient to be able to tie a knot from muscle memory; when you're on a boat and it's rocking all over the place and you're being sprayed in the face, you're performance will suffer and you won't know how to correct for these factors until you've experienced them.

What?

We can have a few buckets with many items in them or many buckets with few items in them. I prefer the latter: one language, one instrument, one programming language at a time leads to greater long term mastery in my experience. For example, I learned Russian to a decent degree by not getting distracted by dreams of polyglottery. Some people love languages and want to spend all of their time in the language learning bucket, and that's fine, but this requires sacrificing time spent learning in other areas. My preference for breadth over depth across categories comes from the unpredictability of life. You'll be grateful you learned that one knot in a life or death situation, and someone else will be grateful you learned CPR if they go down.