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Ask HN: How do you decide to learn something new?

3 points by 31reasons ↗ HN
Do you learn something because your project/job requires it ?

Do you learn out of curiosity ?

Do you learn because you planned to acquire the skill/knowledge ?

Recently I have become bit lazy in learning new things. My logic is I will learn it when I need it.

Because there is so much to learn, how do you decide what to learn and what is the best approach ?

3 comments

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Nadya
Has to interest me or spark curiosity. If you're not interested in learning: you won't learn. Or at least, you won't learn well or efficiently.
dunstad
Usually there's some specific thing I want to build, or some skill I'm excited about gaining, and I learn mostly as a necessary consequence on the way to those goals.
pulkitpulkit
I've found that I've often wanted to learn something new, but after the "honeymoon" phase, the novelty wears off and I don't sustain the discipline required. So now I tend to treat any casual interest in something new as just that. Things that I've learnt as new have often been driven by a real need, driven by some other burning desire. For example I learnt about CSS because I needed to make changes to my website, and I was deeply driven about making my product successful. Or I learned SQL because I was interested in getting a better job as a data analyst (and was frustrated by what I was doing day-to-day).

There are some people who learn for the sake of pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone, but they are committed to improving themselves in that way. If you've become lazy then it's a combination of no push away from the status quo and no pull towards something you yearn for.