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Ask HN: If you were paid to learn, 8 hours a day, what would be your routine?

45 points by TbobbyZ ↗ HN
What you are learning would have to be software development related and the end goal would be to become an expert. At the end of the week you would have to have something to show how you spent your time. This question isn't about what tech you would learn, but more so how you would maximize your time spent to become and expert as soon as possible.

30 comments

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new_hackers 

    6:00 am - wakeup
    6:10 am - jog
    6:30 am - nutritious breakfast including fruit, carbs, protein and water
    7:00 am - shower
    7:30 am - coffee (limited) and classical music
    8:00 am - review learning list and choose focus
    8:30 am - focus and learn
    10:00 am - stretching, situps, pushups followed by water
    10:15 am - focus and learn
    11:45 am - evaluate learning, update learning list
    noon - nutritious lunch (limited) with water
    12:30 pm - bike ride
    1:00 pm - review learning list and choose focus
    1:30 pm - focus and learn
    3:00 pm - weightlifting followed by water
    3:30 pm - focus and learn
    5:00 pm - evaluate learning, update learning list
    5:30 pm - dinner (limited)
    6:00 pm - your time
    9:00 pm - bedtime
When I was unemployed, this is the routine I followed. I was able to pick up quite a few technologies that helped me in my current job. Notice that quite a bit of the routine is focused on YOU. If you feel good, and confident about yourself, you can learn a lot.
tlb
This is really important. You can't actually absorb information at high effectiveness for more than 4 hours / day. So you spend the other time doing things that rest your brain.

I would add that 20 minute naps after absorbing material are proven to aid learning. Midafternoon is a good time. Set a timer and don't go over.

ns28
Wow, that's really cool. How consistent were you with this? Was it harder on some days, either because of lack of motivation or other things came in your way? How did you fit your job search into this? I'm unemployed at the moment so trying to figure out a routine.
new_hackers
Yeah it was harder at first, but once I got my rhythm it worked. Also I was unmarried, so that made it muuuuch easier. I would do job searches in the mornings, programming in the afternoon. Also note that after 6 on Friday I was "off" until Monday, so I used that time for dating/socializing etc.
ev_rolfe
This really reminds me of a certain film in which Steve Carell is the main character..
PerfectElement
Not that I regret having a family, but I miss the time when I could just focus on myself like that.
[dead] wroytuerutypqe
great routine, but you forgot:

10:05 - masturbate

10:55 - masturbate

usaphp
3:00 - weightlifting

3:30 - focus and learning

It takes for me 10 min to get to gym, dress up, 10 min to come back home and 10 min to have a shower after the gym. How did you manage fit any actual exercise in 30 min of time?

new_hackers
I had free weights at my house, they sat in the office near my computer. Actually I found that if I was on a tough problem, I could do a set, then come back and sometimes that would help me get back in the groove. It also added some light upper body workout to the jogging and biking I was also doing.
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saiprashanth93
The key here is if you feel good and confident about yourself. I wonder how well these kinds of schedules work for people who are not.
georgeam
A good exercise program is well-known to improve how good and confident you feel about yourself. Eating healthy, making personal care a priority all have a good effect. How good and confident you feel about yourself is not immutable -- even clinically depressed people benefit from exercise (note I didn't say cured, but I said benefit -- and that is scientifically proven). Having a schedule that includes and prioritizes the steps you can take to improve your sense of well-being is a very good strategy. These things don't work in one day, obviously, but over time the effects are huge.
opendomain
Here is my suggestion: Learn how to learn

Find what techniques work for you - keep on trying different methods. GTD by Pomodoro or Task Tracking Learn by reading, videos, doing, instructing others Vary intensity: some days are 10 hours of studying, while some are dreaming days

I would LOVE to be able to spend more time learning - I have a website about NoSQL that I want to train on BigData, but I am always too busy working

tmaly
I would first tackle the mindset needed for peak learning.

Josh Waitzkin has some good coverage in his book The Art of Learning.

How to Solve it by Polya has some good strategies on how to solve math problems that are applicable to broader problems and learning.

Thinking as a Science by Henry Hazlitt covers a broad approach to learning anything.

I would probably read these books and try to find a few others to really get my mind in a state where it needs to be to learn.

bbcbasic
First order of business would be to crack open the champagne
TbobbyZ
why?
bbcbasic
The bit about being "paid to learn" and also having the freedom to decide how to do it.
csallen
I'd follow the advice from this guy who finished four years of MIT CS classes in one year: http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/10/26/mastering-linear-algeb...
zerr
Don't do that. Retention rate is significantly lower during "fast learning", i.e. after some time you forget most of the things you've learned.
csallen
Where's the research on that? I would be tremendously surprised if that result held for learning a variety of interwoven topics that depend on (or are at least related to) each other, e.g. a bunch of CS classes. I'd be similarly surprised if that result held for learning something that you also use regularly as part of your hobby or job (e.g. programming).
zerr
Well, what you mention is basically a continuation of learning... That's not what I was talking about.
xkcd-sucks
It sounds like the users are being paid to produce proof of learning weekly, not learn.

So probably: Plagiarize a bunch of stuff, sign up with a bunch of names/get unemployed crusty friends to make class presentations, and milk it for money as long as possible.

convolvatron
- take on aggressive project. a distributed operating system, a novel static optimization technique, some kind of concurrency model, a lower bound for an unsolved problem

- find good resources to work with, or at least to give regular input so I don't end up wandering off into the weeds

- try to take it as far as I can, until its obviously going to fail

- start with another

GoToRO
Like most situations, you will get the wrong answer until you find the right way to ask the question. If the goal is to maximize time spent, then what you have to do is learn how your body works. And your body works in a certain way, you just have to comply. If you fight it, you will get worse results. I'm saying all this because from the question one might believe that you can -choose- your routine. What I've found is that you have to discover it, you have to discover how your body works.

Wake up with the Sun.

Eat.

Internet 1 hour, or other activity that will warm up your brain. (~8:30 am in the summer)

Learn, 2-3 hours for real, maximum 4 hours for the whole activity.

Gym 1 hour.

Shower.

Eat.

Go outside.

Eat, before 18:00 ideally, before 19:00 in practice. Food will keep you awake during the night and you won't be able to wake up with the Sun!

Sleep (~23:00, ~8 hours). You have to choose your bed time depending on when the Sun rises.

Source: 5 years of searching for this + 2 years of doing this, without being paid :|

matthewvincent
Totally agree. I spent most of my twenties thinking I worked best at night and couldn't handle waking up early. Fast forward and now I'm up at 6:30 and in bed by 10:00, substantially more productive than before.
me_not_brucelee
I would divide my moments into

1. meta learning

2. learning from multi perspectives

3. retention

Meta Learning

Ask yourself, "why are you learning this?", "what pre-knowledge I need to learn this material?", "Is there anyway to learn this faster?", "Why am I getting stuck on this?", "Do i need to update a previous assumption?". Metacognition, or the awareness of own thinking, is a very powerful method to improve thinking skill on any domain.

Learning

Use The Feynman Technique. The idea is any jargon used in particular domain can expressed with more common day to day words. This not the same as using analogy, avoid analogies. In feynman technique you are thinking below the word, using more simpler word to describe things. Once you have understood an idea, then subscribe to the jargon for that idea. Another way is to build a semantic tree of the things you learn, essentially build a huge graph where ideas are connected. Dont make disconnected clusters of ideas.

Retention

You can learn as much as you want but there is no point if you remember nothing. Use a mind map, reorganize according to your work. Just because a book has its own index, doesnt mean you can't reorganize the information according to your thoughts. Bookmark high quality links and resource, ditch meager resouces/links. Write code, practice what you have learned! Teach others! Teaching is the most effective retention method, because it challenges your own understanding.

Edit: Your prove of learning can be shown using everything you use to retain the knowledge.

JSeymourATL
> how you would maximize your time spent...

I would try to have 1:1 (paid) consulting sessions with established experts in the field. Huge insights and breakthroughs come from individual conversations.

DrNuke
In learning mode as an adult you should really spend 12-14 hours a day thinking and tinkering, 2-3 months max. It has to be both a challenge and a boost.
[dead] mtimjones
Every day:

1) Spend an hour in planning (what to learn, based upon what you've learned so far). 2) Spend an hour learning about a single random topic. 3) Spend 6 hours digging deeply into a long-term topic.

pedrodelfino
Cool question and some great answers.

I would try the following:

- 8-9 hours of sleep per day;

- 1 hour of some physical activity everyday;

- 7/8 meals through out the day (3-to-3 hours interval);

- 8 pomodoro sprints per day.Each pomodoro sprint as a 45 minutes focus session. While studying focus on the process not the result. This reduces anxiety;

- at the end of every day: make a brief self-assessment session, writing a paragraph about what you have accomplished. Now the focus is on the result.

- use Rescue Time to track what you do, be aware of the distractions and try to limit them;

- do not work on Sundays. Work on Saturdays as a regular day.