JavaScript: From Fundamentals to Functional JS, v2 Success Tips for Learning

Transcript from the "Success Tips for Learning" Lesson

[00:00:00]
>> Bianca: Usually in my workshop I spend a lot of time talking about how to learn, how to succeed. I kind of cut it short this time. I have my old videos if you wanna learn all about my opinions about learning to code, how to succeed as a learner, how to succeed as an engineer, stuff like that.

[00:00:19] You can reference my other ones, but some main tips but I still wanna say are, if it feels uncomfortable as the difficulty ramps up, that's good. That's where you wanna be. Some people, when it starts to get difficult, they think I am not ready for this. My advice is just to stick with it and see what happens.

[00:00:41] You might be surprised that eventually there'll be an aha moment or you will figure out what your question really is. I think that's a big part of being lost is you don't really know what your question is. If you did, then you could ask it, and then you would be fine.

[00:00:54] But digging in to really where your mental model is differing from how it actually works, how your code executes or whatever it might be. It might be uncomfortable, maybe not. Stick with it, see what happens. You're here to learn, you're here to be challenged, so expect those things to happen.

[00:01:12] Take responsibility for your learning, this is huge I think, because a lot of people make excuses for things, right? I don't understand that because I'm not good at math, whatever it may be. So, I would like to challenge you to put excuses to the side, whatever stories you have about your skill set, or your experience, or whatever, and just like really focus and try to let it soak in.

[00:01:46] And try to figure out what your barriers are though, they're like really what your questions are again. And don't make excuses, figure out what's missing for you and figure out how to measure you're learning, right? How do you know that you're learning? It is different for everyone, so I would just think about that and yeah.

[00:02:14] And consider the questions that I'm asking you throughout the course because they're intentional. So they're meant to lead you on through a thought process to help you mold your understanding, right. So when I ask you a question and you answer it. If you answer it wrong that's great because then that's an opportunity to re-mold your understanding of a concept.

[00:02:39] Yeah, otherwise if you're just kind of listening along passively like a lot of people would if this was like college course, or something like that, you miss those opportunities to do that. And especially in a live course, a lot of people watch this online later. They don't have as much opportunities to do stuff like that.

[00:02:59] So I would take advantage of it. Anyone here feel like they're a really good learner, they know how to learn? What makes you a really good learner?
>> Speaker 2: Doing.
>> Bianca: Doing practicing?
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, not just reading or watching or writing. It's actually doing it and trying to get it to work.

[00:03:18]
>> Bianca: Yeah, absolutely I agree. I agree. Yeah, that's one of my tips that I usually say is don't read too much. It seems like its productive, but if you're trying to learn a skill that requires you to solve problems, it's not always as productive as it may feel.

[00:03:37] Also reading in bed feels like a good thing but half time, I don't know if anything like me I'm like half falling asleep. I read a paragraph, especially if it's a technical book, it doesn't really work for me.
>> Speaker 2: There's a really good book online so they say, it's called The Obstacle is the Way.

[00:03:59] I don't know if anybody's heard of that, but it's by Ryan Holiday and it's a really good book, it talks about,
>> Speaker 2: That space where things become challenging is actually the space you wanna be in, kinda like what you were talking about.
>> Bianca: Yeah.
>> Speaker 2: And it says that that's where you grow if you're in that space.

[00:04:15] It's pretty good.
>> Bianca: Cool.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah.
>> Bianca: Thank you, sure, I like that. Anyone else?
>> Speaker 2: What helps me learn is teaching other people, explaining how you learned it and what it is.
>> Bianca: Yeah, absolutely, cool.