How to self study technical things

i am going to learn

i hope you're not as bad as me but i bet it resonated with you at least a little bit you decide you want to learn something right and you sign up for a course but then sure enough two weeks a month were a few months later all that passion and motivation just didn't last because hey learning technical things is hard and self-learning is even harder not to mention i often get people messaging me saying that they finished like two courses on python or like data science or something and then they asked okay like now what should i do because the reality is that just because you learn a skill through a couple of courses doesn't mean you know how to use it in a meaningful way which is when you have actually learned the skill i previously made a video called how to learn data science in 2021 in which i introduced a framework for learning that sets you up for success in learning data science from scratch in that video i focus on the implementation of this framework and

data science but really this is a general framework for learning technical things and this is different one learn just enough and then do a project then iterate iterate and the most important component accountability as much of it and whenever wherever possible so in this video i'm going to go more in depth about each step of this framework and introduce an optional upgrade that is even better at making sure you actually follow through with truly learning the skills and answer the very common question of how do i know when i've learned enough also stay until the very end of this video because i'm also going to expand more on how to learn technical skills more effectively and efficiently okay now let me explain this framework and why it works step number one is to learn just enough

the huge emphasis is on just enough you see the problem with learning technical things isn't that there aren't enough resources inside there's too many there's so many introductory courses books and videos for whatever technical thing you want to learn as a beginner there's so many resources available and it's super easy to fall into the trap of the paradox of choice and then you end up just feeling super overwhelmed and you oftentimes might just go like forget the whole thing right and if you actually managed to pick a course or two and go through with it you probably haven't really learned the skill because you still don't know how to use it in real life so first off i'm here to tell you that it doesn't actually matter that much which course you pick the market of introductory courses is so oversaturated and you can get amazing courses either for free or an incredibly discounted price choose any of the best sellers and i guarantee you'll have high quality educational material that teaches you the basics of the field

but you see the problem is that consuming a bunch of information from a bunch of courses won't get you far there's a challenge between beginner and intermediate that cannot be crossed with doing courses we learn technical things so that we can actually use them there are some fields like biology for example where the focus of learning is getting a knowledge into your head but with technical things like programming or software development with data science or machine learning for example the focus is on application it doesn't matter what information you have ahead if you don't know how to implement and decatch is that knowing a lot of theoretical concepts or doing like perfectly scoped out little analyses with projects from courses is like 20 of actually being able to independently implement the best way to learn how to implement is by directly practicing real life implementation and that is why i'm a huge advocate of project-based learning doing a project is where the real learning begins and the theoretical knowledge comes alive and starts serving its purpose and helping you become a better programmer better data scientist better software engineer etc besides it's boring just learning a bunch of information and a surefire way of losing interest because what's exciting about learning technical things is actually using the skills to do projects right so remember learn the minimum and then do the project in practical terms choose an online intro course where if you prefer books choose an intro book to learn the basic concepts and terminologies of the skills you want to learn and don't spend a lot of time trying to remember what you're learning or understanding every single little thing i'll be going into more detail later in the video on the strategies i recommend for the learning process for now i'll just like you to be to internalize that covering all the basics is just the very beginning of the learning process the real learning starts with the project because doing projects is the absolute best way to learn well all right hopefully i convince you of the merits of project-based learning and to learn a minimum amount so you can get started on a project

next step is iterate iterate now that you've got a project under your belt congratulations you've just opened up your path towards really mastering the skill choose another project to do and you'll find that there's a lot of holes in your knowledge but that's okay because you have the right frame of mind and you realize that's the whole point you iterate on what you learned by filling the holes in your knowledge and diving deeper into the areas that will allow you to complete your project and you keep doing this as you become more and more skilled you also have a better grasp of what projects interest you and how to choose the best projects to fill in skills that you want to learn so you can do more awesome projects that's what most people get wrong about learning by the way it's a cyclical process now the last and most

most important part of this framework accountability matters the most a few weeks two months after you start out and your enthusiasm and motivation starts wearing off and your gold starts looking terribly far and your bed starts looking more and more comfortable it's when you feel overwhelmed by all the jargon and concepts when you've spent five hours trying to debug your code and sometimes you just hit a brick wall and all you want to do is just give up because is the goal really even worth it maybe i'm just too dumb to even do it anyway these times when you're at your weakest and the most prone to give up which believe me will happen is when the accountability matters the most it truly is your key to pushing through so what exactly is accountability and how do you get more of it the dictionary definition of accountability is means obligation to explain justify and take responsibility for one's actions and to answer to someone such as the person with more authority the word accountable is often used in the context of individuals taking responsibility for their actions in this case the person have more authority the one that you're accountable for is yourself in a more practical sense it's creating consequences for yourself such that when you want to give up more than anything you don't because the consequences of giving up is more painful than pushing through it now the first step for getting more accountability might be a little surprising to some of you it's introspective figure out what actually matters to you for some people that's money others prestige and for some others it's their family and friends for me what matters to me is keeping my promises to other people and being authentic to myself yes maybe it's kind of sad that i care so much about not letting other people down but it's the truth probably the worst possible thing i can think of happening to me is going back on a promise i made to other people especially huge public promises that would negatively impact other people i also have this thing about honesty the idea of even possibly giving a false impression makes me literally so uncomfortable as my friend and fellow youtuber kenji points it i would be really awful at sales because i'll probably spend most of the time telling you about all the reasons why the thing i'm trying to sell you might not live up to your expectation and that you should always do your own research anyways so yes these are the things that push my buttons so i maximize accountability by putting myself in situations where if i don't do the thing i'll be going back on a promise and disappointing people for example i made a vlog saying that i'll be doing a project in nlp and that i would release it next week people said they were really excited to see it and some even wanted to use it as a starting point also learning nlp and let me tell you it was hard i stayed up nice to get it done but the idea of going back on what i said and having to make an announcement in fact i wouldn't be releasing it next week was more painful so i persevered another example that is actually still going on right now is when i announced i'll be live streaming myself studying for two hours a day on monday tuesday and friday every week i put it on a public google calendar and schedule live stream sessions on youtube i literally hate past tina sometimes when i have to pull myself out of bed to go to these live streaming sessions but i remember how much i love the community and our chats about data science or finance and packing cats but really what gets me is the idea of potentially disappointing all the people that join my live streams and use it to boost their own productivity and that has never failed to get me out of that 1. 5 months and counting this livestreaming example is also a great example to illustrate another concept fact accountability is compounded by consistency and habit i consistently stream on monday tuesday and fridays from 7 30 to 9 30 cst and over time it's become a habit and i still hate past tina sometimes if i'm really tired from the previous day but the more i continue doing this it's become much easier to get myself out of bed and many days i actually really look forward to starting my day learning and chatting with you awesome people that come to my live stream shout out to luke richrod kalista lloyd 2310 sammy michael c from georgetown ontario scott miller sammy farhan and many other people that show up consistently to study with seriously thank you guys because i would not have been able to do it without you i also wanted to talk on another bonus monday that works for a lot of people it's having money at stake like having to pay for a program or course this one doesn't work really well for me personally because unless it's an exorbitant amount of money like my master's degree i'm not motivated enough to do it i have heard that this is how many people stay motivated though in any case i encourage you to introspect about what really matters to you and think about how you can inject some more accountability and habits into your own learning journey to maximize your chances of successfully learning the technical skill of your jobs now let me also tell you about the optional

upgrade to this framework that's even better so it's something i've done a lot in the past to supercharge my own learning process it also provides a clear solution to the question i often get from people which is how do you exactly know when you've learned enough to start doing your project well it's to find a project first some examples of this is to get a job in that field or set yourself up for a project with consequences that matter to you when i really wanted to learn to code and to do data science i failed miserably trying to self-study so after a hundred cold emails were so i managed to convince a professor to hire me he was taking a chance on me but i think he figured it was worth it since he wanted to get hiring over with and i would only be part-time starting off and it was minimum wage well i'm incredibly grateful to him because this really kick-started my learning since i now had a project it really grounded me this time when i started an online course and went through documentation for r the programming language at the lab uses i now had a purpose confined which is to finish this project i also had a natural answer now to when i learned enough it's when i can complete my assigned project every day i would look at what i'm supposed to be doing not know how to do it and then work towards figuring out slowly i learned just enough r to be able to complete my task then i was given another project so that's where the whole iteration step comes in i looked at what i'm supposed to do not know how to do it and so went through the whole process of figuring it out slowly but surely i learned our not just in principle where learned a bunch of district functions or how to manipulate some perfectly clean data to reach an arbitrary conclusion as part of the course no i really learned it i could now use it in whatever project i needed it and if there's something i don't know i have the correct mindset and process to figure it out and all of this came from focusing on implementation and practicing this yes it was hard and stressful but guess what i did it it's actually a brilliant setup because i was so freaking accountable i couldn't just give up because the professor is paying me and i signed a contract plus i was getting paid to learn which is a really nice bonus another thing i have done in the past is to sign myself up for projects that have real consequences some examples of this i've done are pro bono consulting gigs and hackathons remember how i said that what i care about a lot is not disappointing other people well these projects are done in teams so if i didn't pull my weight i'll be disappointing my teammates and negatively impacting them since they would have to go and pick up my sock so that motivates me enough to get it done i also wanted to make a tiny future announcement where more like foreshadowing i'm working with some really awesome technical people to help develop a program that helps folks do end-to-end real-life projects as part of a team of cross-functional partners like data science ml back-end front-end and ux more needs to come in the next few months so do stay tuned and make sure to subscribe to the channel if you're interested in finding out more

and finally as promised a whole section dedicated to how to learn technical things effectively and efficiently this is the method that i've developed over the years by no means is it perfect and i'm still continuously tweaking and perfecting over time it also won't suit everybody but these methods have helped me a lot and i hope they might also help you for most technical things if you're going to go through a course a book or lectures the best way to learn is to take notes of the higher level concepts and focus on understanding what's happening do not take copious amounts of notes and try to get all the details because as i've explained before knowing it won't help you much in doing it you'll pick up the practical details anyway when you're implementing the project i also don't recommend not taking any notes at all though because studies do show that taking notes helps you stay focused retain information better and not get distracted by your cat so yes take notes but don't take copious amounts of notes focus on understanding the higher level concepts and definitely don't worry about trying to memorize things or understanding every single little detail i prefer learning through video lectures and i typically watch at 2 to 2. 5 times speed this helps me get through the lectures faster and forces me to take notes of all of the important things because i literally can't write fast enough to write down everything another good way of thinking about your notes is that it's a framework for how information fits together so at least you know what you don't know and you can google to fill in the gaps when the information becomes relevant i hope that makes sense the next tip is that if you have a practical exercises part of the course you're taking do not skip them remember doing is the best way of learning and by implementing things yourself you have a much stronger grasp of the material and will make doing the project easier and my final tip is especially relevant for those of you that are using the supercharged method of finding a project first it is to not be married to a single course book video series or resource in general i used to have this mindset if i started something i didn't finish it then i was a failure and it took me a really long time to realize that is not the case at all resources are just tools what matters is accomplishing your goal i now know that learning is not a linear process and yes there are fantastic introductory resources out there but realistically no resource is able to give you exactly what you need so if you feel like a course is going into details or subjects that are not really relevant to the project or maybe you just don't like the instructor or something then skip it or find another resource maybe the details and subjects that you skipped will become relevant later when you're going through the iterate phase sometime in the future then just come back to it then do not feel obligated to finish a course if you don't think it's relevant remember your ability to complete your project is your guiding light so do what you have to do to learn just enough so you can start working on your project

alright so as a submarine in this video we've covered this framework in detail the supercharged method of finding a project first to boost your learning and strategies to learn more efficiently and effectively that was an intense video i'm gonna go watch some anime i hope the video was helpful and i'll see you guys in the next video where live stream