Xian Yu answered the reader's question: How to study in a more planned way and improve more steadily and faster?

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Here is the original question:

It has been five years since I was a front-end, and I just turned 30 this year. I feel that I have been busy completing business, learning new frameworks and tools in order to remain competitive and not outdated. In retrospect, it was a waste of time when I was young and frivolous. Less time, less and less time to study after having a wife and children; poor knowledge base, repeated reading but the improvement is not obvious, probably because of insufficient practice; staying in a company that can still support the family, To be honest, if I can work at this company until I retire and write code for the rest of my life, it's acceptable to me, but I can't foresee the future. I usually see some very high-end technologies such as low-code, D2C, or other things that are widely used by big manufacturers. There is always a chance to become a very good programmer in my life. What I want to ask is: how to learn more planned, improve more steadily and faster, and how to deal with the impatience and anxiety that comes with the faster and faster technological iteration.

This should be a problem for many people. In this article, we will talk about learning.

Our three biggest confusions about learning are: What is learning for? What should I study? How should I study? Corresponding to the 6W analysis method, why? what? How? Let's chat one by one.

Why should we study? This question sounds simple, but if you look deeper, it's not that simple.

Is it in response to parental expectations? Is it to get an offer and get a high-paying job? In order to defeat others, do you enjoy the feeling of being superior?

Or is it for the rise of China and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation? Is it to leave the current environment and see a higher landscape? Is it to realize your own ideals and realize your personal values? Or is it to help others achieve happiness?

For a long time when we were in school, we didn’t need to give our own answers. Parents, teachers, classmates, even society and the country gave us the answers. We didn’t even need to approve these answers. Just do it.

But it is precisely because of such an environment that I think many people have lost their thinking on this issue, so that, unconsciously, they regard learning itself as an end. If I encounter difficulties, I just go to study, and when I finish learning, these difficulties will be solved, right? My parents are not satisfied with my grades, I just go to study, I spend all my time studying, can't they be sad now? There is no progress in learning, and there is no way I can do it. I can only be more self-disciplined and use every minute and every second to learn.

And the end of learning is the exam, the offer, the..., so when the end is reached, many people stop studying, which is why after the college entrance examination, so many students will tear up their books to "celebrate".

You might think that I have already graduated, so I wouldn't make such a mistake. But when you look back on your past learning experience, do you often throw everything away and spend time on learning, but the actual learning efficiency is very low, and you don’t get anything done all day long? Maybe one or two days of study efficiency is very high, but most of the time is spent in distraction, daze, rest, and mental laxity?

If so, maybe you are "pretending to learn". This is very similar to us when we were young. Our parents are strict, and we will be preached and forbidden to do things other than study, so we have formed the subconscious of "no matter what we study or how well we study, I only use the surface to read a book." , and when we face low learning outcomes, we are also easy to comfort ourselves, "I don't spend my time elsewhere, I can always study hard, at least I'm better than those who go to play... …”

So you see, we are not pursuing what we really learn. What we are pursuing is the act of learning itself, the attitude of learning by ourselves, and the psychological satisfaction and infatuation we feel for this attitude.

So you may ask me, what do you think the purpose of learning is? To be honest, so many of the purposes mentioned above can actually be established, and it varies from person to person. But what I want to say is that you don’t need to think so far. Isn’t the purpose of learning supposed to be to solve problems?

You might say, are you talking nonsense? Isn't my current study to solve problems?

That's not necessarily true.

I think that in traditional Chinese education, there is a special emphasis on input, so that everyone can memorize by rote, hoping that by superimposing the amount of reading, the quantitative change will achieve qualitative change, and the so-called knowledge practice is reflected in the various variant questions in the exam. It doesn't really matter what actual problem we solve with what we've learned.

This educational tendency of emphasizing input and ignoring practice also makes us who learn to place too much emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge rather than the application of knowledge.

But the problem is that if a person just sits, even if his thoughts are already turbulent, but for the world, he is just sitting there, and the impact is zero. Because your influence on the world is made by action, not just thinking. Even if you solve Goldbach's conjecture in your mind, you have to write a paper and publish it in a journal. This is considered to have an impact on the world. Affect isn't it? So if you do nothing, or just think, and write a bunch of notes and diaries, it is only beneficial to yourself. You still have no influence on the world and others, and you will not produce any value.

But that’s how we are, learning a knowledge and learning 50 points, I feel that it is not enough, and improving it by 100 points through hard study, but here is only to satisfy the personal spiritual cleanliness, no matter how many points you learn, you are just there. Sitting, the impact on the world is still 0, and it still does not produce any value. Only when you output something, it may generate value, but many people despise outputting this thing so much that even if you learn 100 points, In the end, the impact on the world still remains at 50 points, so what is the significance of this hard study being raised to 100 points?

We often see such comments - "collecting is learning", I know this is a joke, and everyone knows it is fake, but learning is learning, and everyone really recognizes it is true, and it is true Do.

In fact, the ancients said, "Apply what you have learned." We are no longer students, and we don't need to take the exam on paper, but more practical application. But too many people are still stuck in the study habits they used to study in school. They know that they force themselves to study, but they neglect to let themselves practice and output. In the end, time goes by and hard work has not changed anything.

So there is a paragraph called: "You watch Yale's open classes every day, go to 3W coffee to listen to entrepreneurship lectures, know that there are countless attentions on nutshells, 36 krypton must read every day, you know Jack Ma's entrepreneurial history like the back of your hand, and Zhang Xiaolong's greed, hatred and delusion are familiar. I like Luo Zhenyu better than Jobs, and everyone talks about Internet thinking...but you are still crowding the subway every day."

Wisdom allows us to excel at certain things, but knowledge by itself does not create value.

Next, let's talk about what to learn. For most students, to learn front-end knowledge, they choose the so-called "system learning", so they look for various materials, and there are a lot of so-called "front-end learning routes" on the Internet. Front-end knowledge map", I also wrote a long time ago about the knowledge of the front-end system learning answer: How to systematically learn the front-end by yourself? , so far there are still classmates praise.

From my point of view now, I have some doubts about this question itself, why should we pursue systematic learning?

In fact, if you are a student who is just starting to learn the front-end, I think there is no problem in following a seemingly systematic course. You have never learned anything, and you can avoid some detours by following the systematic tutorial. But if you have been working on the front end for a while, you can get started with the work, and then follow the so-called system tutorial.

The reason why we want to learn systematically, I think it has something to do with our educational habits. Whether it is elementary school, junior high school, high school, or even university, we all study and issue questions within a fixed range of knowledge, so that everyone thinks that the content of our study is bounded. As long as we systematically complete the study of the content, we can Get a high score and get a good grade.

But front-end learning is not like this. It involves a very wide range of knowledge and can be extended indefinitely. Even if you learn all the content completely, subject to the current company and environment, the range of knowledge that can be used is limited. Most of the knowledge is just learned and forgotten. In this way, the so-called "systematic and complete learning" is essentially a process of finding self-confidence, thinking that after "systematic learning", you will be able to resist all the problems encountered in the project. problem.

If the goal of our learning is to solve the problems we encounter in practice, the so-called "system learning" is more like letting us learn all of them, and then use the knowledge we have learned according to the actual problems encountered, just like When we were in school, we learned all the knowledge and then took the test, but this is inefficient, because the problems we actually encountered have already been encountered, which is equivalent to the fact that we have already got the test paper, why not answer the questions seriously, but Do you have to study it completely before answering the questions?

When I first started working, although I was able to cope with my work, the more I came into contact with things, the more I felt that I had just learned a bunch of APIs, and I wanted to understand the so-called basic, low-level, and source-level things. But learning comes and goes, just can't find the doorway. Finally one day, under the torment, I seriously thought about the knowledge points I want to master at present. Not a specific direction, such as React, but specific knowledge points, such as prototypes, chains of action, diff algorithms, etc.

I wrote hundreds of knowledge points that I think need to be mastered, filled a piece of paper, and then classified them, removed some content that I felt was not of relative value, and finally divided them into four categories, the bottom layer of JavaScript, JavaScript Features (anti-shake, throttling), ES6, React.

Later, I will follow these knowledge points, check the information one by one to learn, and cross out these knowledge points one by one. In fact, there will be new points when learning, so it's good to add them. Maybe you want to say, aren't you still "knowledge graph" and "system learning route"? Indeed, we must have a route plan in our study. This is normal. The biggest problem with the maps you can find is that they always seek big and comprehensive, and you can’t follow at all. Of course, you don’t have either. It is necessary to follow up. What you have to do is to determine your own learning direction based on your own goals and actual work. In addition to laying a solid foundation, you can learn knowledge points that may be applied to your work.

Maybe you will object, but the interview requires me to be omniscient. This is obviously a misunderstanding of the interview. If you search for interview questions, you have really asked all kinds of questions. Why is this happening? I think it should be because the background of the interviewer is completely different, so I asked the question based on the resume. various problems.

If you go to interview Taobao, although Taobao's main technology stack is React-like, this does not mean that students who only know Vue can't do it. In fact, if you can understand the bottom layer of Vue very well, it still reflects your ability. . The more the interview of a big factory, the more emphasis will be placed on the requirements for general skills, such as learning, practice, thinking, communication and other skills. If you can do a good job in the project, you will get more points than if you cater to the other party's technology stack.

As for the specific learning skills, the Feynman learning method is a very good method. In fact, looking back, I wrote an article for each knowledge point at that time, and I also practiced the Feynman learning method virtually.

As a very well-known and well-respected study method, it is very necessary to understand and study it. Even if you don't use it, many concepts may have changed your way of learning invisibly.

As a physicist, Feynman is widely known and admired for his unique approach to teaching. He can always explain complex professional theories in a simple and easy-to-understand way, and is deeply loved by students. Later, more and more people use his method to study, and finally formed the well-known "Feynman learning method". ". So Feynman himself did not theorize the content, the principles were codified by countless followers and thinkers.

So unlike the "Pomodoro Technique", you can read the instructions written by the author of the Pomodoro Technique. Although there are many articles about Feynman's study method, we still recommend more systematic and comprehensive books, such as "Feiman" on WeChat Reading. "Man Learning Method", although many people complain about expanding the content of several thousand words into a book, and still don't know how to practice, but I still read it twice.

Many of the books we read have only a few hundred words at their core, but if you only read these few hundred words, you won’t have any major cognitive change. You can only expand these ideas continuously. Repeatedly mentioning, demonstrating, and expanding, you may really understand or understand these points, so I think this book is still worth reading. Although many articles are well written, they are still flimsy in comparison.

The so-called Feynman learning method is actually very simple. Its core is that when you are ready to learn a new knowledge, you must stand in the position of the imparter, assuming that you want to explain this knowledge to others. Then you must express it in the most concise, clear and easy-to-understand language so that people outside the line can understand it. Feynman said, "It's better if a kid of a few years old can understand what you're talking about."

To put it simply, Feynman learning method emphasizes output. When you have finished learning once, try to explain what you have learned to others. To put it bluntly, teaching is learning. Although you are teaching others on the surface, you are actually forcing yourself to check and fill in the gaps by teaching.

We all know that there is such a learning efficiency pyramid: if you just listen to others, the content retention rate is only 5%, if you read by yourself, it is 10%, if you read it by yourself, it is 20%, and if you discuss it with others, it is 50% , 75% when teaching knowledge for practice, and 90% when teaching knowledge to others.

It doesn't matter whether this data is accurate or not, what matters is that it shows that if you can teach others to learn, it shows that you have really learned. So Feynman learning method pays special attention to the role of "output", and the output is to repeat what you have learned and understood and let the listener understand.

The output may be implemented in a variety of forms, such as explaining to yourself, explaining to others, writing blogs, making videos, etc. Many people use the form of blogging, which is very good, and it is also the method I take .

But I found that although many of my classmates also wrote it, they just wrote it in the note-taking software and were unwilling to share it. The reason was very simple. I felt that the writing was simple, and a lot of pearls and jades were in front of me. come out.

Usually fear is divided into three levels, one is fear of things, the second is fear of the consequences of things, and the third is fear of being unable to bear the consequences of things. Taking writing and publishing as an example, one is the fear of posting, the other is the fear of being ridiculed for posting, and the third is the fear that one cannot afford to be ridiculed for the articles that he publishes. Or, one is afraid of posting, two is afraid that no one cares after posting, and three is afraid that he cannot accept the fact that he has failed like this.

In fact, the cynicism is not bad. In fact, the first series I wrote was the one that was ridiculed the most, but time will wash it away for you. The worst may be that no one cares, but I think that if you encounter When you come to a problem or blocking difficulty, you write it out and share it, and one day it will help other students who encounter the same problem, although it may not be right now.

When it comes to writing, don’t have a tendency to perfectionism. Good writing is learned, and good writing is modified . It might be a bit bad right now, but as you keep writing and getting feedback from people, you'll get better and better. If you just put it in your draft box, you won't make much progress. "When I'm good, I'm ready" is just a reason to avoid doing it.

At the beginning of writing, you don’t need to write too much. You can start by clarifying a knowledge point and clarifying a point of view.

Some classmates also told me that some articles were so well written that they felt that they could not be surpassed. In fact, you write articles first to help you sort out your knowledge, and secondly, this is also a perfectionist tendency. Isn't your subconscious "if you can't write well and can't surpass others, then it's better not to write", it's completely unnecessary, Furthermore, I feel that I can't surpass it, mostly because my understanding of this issue has been taken away by this article. You can read some other related articles. After accumulating more, maybe you will have your own entry point. .

That's what I think, the first point about learning -- teaching is learning, and the second point about learning, I think -- the hard part is where you overtake the corner.

Kazuo Inamori said, "Don't hide what you don't know, and what you find difficult. If you understand it first, then you will be excellent, and you will be better than others. Because most people are reluctant to study hard, they will be eliminated automatically. , so your persistent efforts will take a lot of advantage.” So when you are studying, when you encounter difficult places, don't try to escape or skip instinctively, but try to stop at difficult places, and repeatedly jump in simple places. In the end, only your time is wasted.

When you encounter a difficult point, you should feel excited, as if you have found a corner that you can quickly pass, and make up your mind to conquer it at all costs. This kind of learning attitude is the most efficient learning method. Many things are difficult, such as reading the source code. There is no simple and efficient way. If you can chew it, you will look good. If you can't chew it, you can only look up to others.

If there is any trick in this process, it is to find your own stretch zone and keep training. Many people always think that they can achieve it overnight, and they choose the things in the difficult area directly, but they don’t understand it, and finally return. If there are too many concepts involved, and you can't understand and learn, it means that it is a difficult area, then change to a simpler way. If you want to learn the principles of compilation, and then go to the Dragon Book and Tiger Book, it is better to start with a simple compiler by reading simple articles. If you can't read the book or the document, then go to the video tutorial. If you can't do a lot of things, then think about a simpler and more acceptable way to start. Taking a step back is not a confession, but a manifestation of wisdom. Don't always force yourself to do it. The worst thing is that time is wasted, enthusiasm is also worn down, and finally a rebellious mentality arises.

The third point of learning - slow to fast. We often pursue efficient learning, but efficient learning should not mean reading a book in a few hours, or being able to finish a video at 2x speed. Learning is a process in which learners accept new knowledge on the basis of existing cognition, consolidate or change original cognition, and form new cognition. It takes time to digest and understand a lot of knowledge. Too fast speed will only destroy the process. Without in-depth study and thinking about concepts, it is just memorizing some concepts. Therefore, for the so-called "fast learning" students, also Don't be envious, we never compare how quickly we can finish a course, but how well everyone understands the course.

In the learning process, the learning must be slow at the beginning, in other words, it must be solid, because if there are many loopholes and blind spots in the previous learning, all the knowledge based on these foundations will be shaky. If the previous loopholes and blind spots are not completely solved, they will be affected by this forever, and there will be more and more new problems and loopholes in learning. In the end, people can only choose to give up in anxiety, disappointment, and depression.

The above three points are what I think should be understood in the learning process. In other words, I think this is the way of learning. But in the specific study, there are still some ideas that can be discussed. I would like to make 4 more points:

The first point is the so-called "firm belief". I have been thinking about the meaning of life, the purpose of life for a long time (of course I also think about it now), and the reason why I think this is because I subconsciously feel that if I can find the purpose of life, I will You can see the direction clearly, have unlimited enthusiasm, work hard, strict self-discipline, focus and efficiency, learn more than enough, and even have a sense of mission.

Although my intellect could easily refute the idea, I couldn't help thinking it subconsciously. Are you saying this idea is correct? For me personally, I can't falsify it at all, because I haven't even done the first step, finding the goal. How can I prove that I have the goal?

But I am still willing to think this way, and feel that a "firm belief" should be established, so I read and think about it, study the wisdom of predecessors, think about the past and present, deeply analyze myself, and discover natural interests. Do you think these are helpful? I can't deny that it does help, but when it comes to specific learning, I still procrastinate, slack off, get distracted, can't help temptation, and get frustrated, lost, depressed, and panicked.

I hope that "firm belief" will allow me to follow the trend and solve all problems with impeccable momentum, and I always want to push all the problems I encounter to "firm belief". However, learning is learning, and belief goals can solve the problem of internal drive to a certain extent, but learning means paying attention to methods, skills, environment, abilities, etc. The "willpower" brought by belief is not inexhaustible. It is a system, "belief" is only a part, and "willpower" alone cannot do it. What we really need to do is to establish a learning system that guides your interest, enthusiasm and sense of accomplishment in doing things, so that you will work harder and harder, and finally keep running.

The second point is the "anti-human" problem of learning. Do you think learning is "anti-human"? Many people think that self-discipline and learning are "anti-humanity", so "the more you go against human nature, the better you will be". Such a view is undeniable, but I personally do not hold it, because human nature is complex in my opinion, and in Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence": "The mean and the noble, the evil and the good, the hatred and the Love can coexist in the same mind." Maslow also has a hierarchy of needs theory, from physiological safety to self-actualization, all are human nature.

Therefore, people have the side of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, short-sighted and lazy, but they also have the side of being curious, seeking knowledge, knowing shame and honor, so they can't learn, it is your human nature to be greedy for enjoyment, but it is your human nature to be curious and seek knowledge, and it is also your human nature to brush up on your ideals. Douyin for a day is your human nature, and the emptiness and regret after brushing is also your human nature. What we need to do is not to press ourselves again when we are in pain, this will only cause a complete psychological disgust. What we need to do is to play and guide the positive side of human nature, walk towards the sun, and the shadow will naturally stay. behind.

The third point is instant feedback. Why is it so cool to play short videos while playing games, but you can't stop once you play it? Because the game has instant feedback, every operation you make will let you know that you are getting stronger or weaker, so you can adjust it immediately and see the results. Short videos are short in length, one every ten seconds, and they are easy to operate, as long as your fingers keep moving Swipe, the content of interest will be continuously pushed to the front, instant feedback, timely satisfaction, and the algorithm behind the short video will also infer your preferences based on your every behavior, and ultimately know yourself better than you. Video The satisfaction will be stronger.

But learning is not like this. Its feedback cycle is long, and from the perspective of the degree of feedback, it will be much weaker. For example, if you want to study hard and then do a small project, because the time period is too long, you can't see any feedback in the process, you can easily give up, and in the process you achieve a small project. Although the target feels that he is "excellent", this kind of feedback is relatively mild. It takes a long time for a thing to see great results. Due to the nature of people seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, people will naturally avoid them. give up.

In turn, knowing how instant feedback works, we can also adjust the way we learn. On the one hand, it is to shorten the learning cycle. Just like starting a product from an MVP, you should clearly establish small goals when learning, and take small steps to get feedback in time. Taking writing a book as an example, if the sense of achievement only comes from the final publication, because the cycle is too long, there is no interest in doing it, so you can start from the usual writing and feel the completion of every small goal, every article. External feedback from articles. On the other hand, it is to increase the sense of feedback. When each goal or small goal is completed, it is not only to feel the satisfaction of completion, but also to bring more rewards to yourself, or to post a circle of friends, or to send One thing you want, no matter what it is, is to make your brain increase dopamine at goal completion, which increases the chances of your brain becoming addicted.

When personal growth, the most likely thing is that there is no clear ending time point, and then run forward with one mind. We often think of life as a marathon, as if it is only over the finish line, but in fact we can also imagine life as a sprint, each sprint has a clear end point and a clear end Ritual, there is a definite reward, there is a definite rest, so that you can complete the journey with more energy. If you just keep the achievement node that will always be in the future in your heart, you will only be exhausted and give up halfway on the road of realization.

The fourth is about the right environment and atmosphere. Let’s talk about the environment first. Just as the library is more suitable for concentration than the bedroom, a clean and tidy place is easier to focus than a cluttered place, and a place with a single function is easier to focus than a place with multiple functions. This last, for example, if you insist that the bed is a place to sleep and sleep, then your brain won't make an association with the bed and playing with your phone, and you're more likely to go to bed earlier.

As for the atmosphere, there is a very classic saying, "One person walks fast, but a group of people walks farther" . Under the influence of the group, because they have a common language and mutual affirmation, it is easy for people to stick to a habit. When we see the efforts of others, we will also be infected and strengthen our confidence, so it is a good choice to find some like-minded friends and join some good communities. I often cite some of the activities of my community as examples, too many to mention.

Finally, to sum up, we study for ourselves, in order to truly solve problems, and we should not "pretend to study". Although systematic learning looks very good, starting from your own interests and work is a better learning direction. In specific learning, emphasis should be placed on output, and teaching is the basis for learning. Every difficult place is an opportunity to overtake. Slowness is fast, and basic knowledge points are steadfastly laid down.

Learning is a system, we can't always rely on willpower, we must pay attention to methods, skills, environment, etc., to guide our interest, enthusiasm and sense of achievement in doing things, so that you will be more and more energetic, and finally continue to operate.

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