Fustrations of learning a new skill

Discussion in 'Training & Development' started by Adzmobile, Jun 13, 2014.

  1. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    Hello!

    Recently i have decided to learn programming and go beyond just Powershell.

    To be honest its been quite a learning curve and not easy. Many times i've wanted to just stop and go back to using the GUI or even Powershell seems like a walk in the park to be honest, being able to pipe things and move around.

    I think overall it comes with time and determination.

    Below my blog and thoughts about it abit more :)

    IT Engineering Jobs | Frustrations of Learning Something New


    How do you feel when it comes to learning a new skill? Do you find the initial learning curve very difficult? Is there any particular techniques you use to try and push past that.

    Thanks!
     
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  2. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    It think its mainly about putting the time in, people say to be an expert in something you need to have spent 10,000 hours doing it.

    You need to do lots of practice, little exercises, big exercises, reading, watching, doing.

    I'm not a good guitar player, golfer, surfer, electronics engineer, because I've not put the study and practice in that's required to get to a high level.

    You also need to train at the right level, I cant train like an Olympic athlete or a concert pianist. Just attempting to train at their level would probably cause my body severe damage, and mentally I'd probably learn nothing also. (Professional music players can practice for 8 hours a day)

    So you need to start with baby steps and build at the right progression to avoid getting too frustrated.

    In your case your previous exposure to IT and programming is probably getting to the point where the barriers seem smaller. (Although its sounds you have some negative associations with 'programming'.)

    Even so you will hit roadblocks, and like many things in life its how you deal with them that counts.

    * Do you go back and study around the subject to get broader understanding?
    * Do you go back and do more exercises to build up confidence / muscle memory ?
    * Do you look to a support network ?
    etc

    Ultimately there will be times when you just have to dig deep and keep going until the jobs done, doesn't matter if you're in the Wimbledon final or you've been debugging the code for device driver 3 days straight and its 2 in the morning.

    Yes not everyone can put in 10,000 hours, and not everyone needs to be an expert. Many skills can be learnt in a lot less time if you are prepared to make some tradeoffs.

    I can become a better cook, I wont be Jamie Oliver, but my family will still appreciate it and everyone gets the health benefit of a better diet.

    The uphill battle is a mental interpretation you give yourself, like some people love maths, some hate, some people love reading, some not, you need to push out of your comfort zone and try not to have negative emotions about a subject or activity.

    Everyone suffers from procrastination. Ultimately you need to "Just Do It", only then will you find out. If its sucks after a few weeks and is not an essential skill for you, you can stop, if you like it then your world has just expanded a little bit.

    I've spent over 20 hours on 100's of activities/subjects, some I've already mentioned, Its not enough to attain competence for most subjects, you wont be an electronics engineer, musician, chef, programmer, swimmer in 20 hours study/practice starting from a low level. Can you learn something useful in 20 hours about all these subjects ? Of course you can!
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2014
  3. Juelz

    Juelz Gigabyte Poster

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    I get where you're coming from, I am an IT novice tbh. I'm struggling with a darn MTA! but as stated previously its all about putting the time in, my problem is lack of time and it looks like I may have to push my exam back. Just depends how much of a rush you are in.. I think Im going to take my time and get it right rather than go in hoping for the best. By the end of this year I want to have MTA 98-349, MCSA win 7 and Comptia A+ but I want to actually learn it not just know enough to get me through and even though I may know the right answer to a question I want to know why the answer is right.
     

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