Different learning styles
Jun. 1st, 2020 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcWhile I worked in Ohio State's AI lab I took a few master's-level courses and found them strange. I was being set homeworks as if I were in secondary school, somebody else was choosing how much I worked on what each week. Whereas, for my bachelor's, to a first approximation the system was: don't bother registering for courses, just turn up and listen to what you like, at the end the academic year there will be examination questions covering a spread of these computer science topics, you'd better be able to answer enough of them. In my subsequent professional life this style has suited me: if I needed to learn something then I sat down with textbooks and studied them at my own pace, focusing my work on where I felt weak. For example, when I found myself in a job requiring use of Perl 5, I sat down with the Camel Book and experimented a bit. My initial Erlang learning went similarly and I enjoyed it.
I try to notice trends and open my mind to them. An Erlang online course fell into my lap and I had wanted to brush the rust off, in preparation for trying Elixir, so I thought I might give the course a try, one of these with videos to watch and problems to do and such. Into the third week, I am not much finding that it suits me. It has been difficult to fit the extra work into my schedule. The abstract problems to solve occupy more of my attention than anything specific to Erlang. I patiently listen to things that seem easy then have to rewind parts after my attention drifts. Then I find myself having assignments commented on by fellow students and doing likewise for them; it's a nice idea but to me it feels more like the blind leading the blind. There might be some value but my time is more valuable. At least at work with peer review, the cross-check is preferably by the best available critic; indeed, in my previous job, often the product lead for the codebase on which I'd worked. For returning to Erlang, I conclude that I am better off cutting my losses and going back to the textbooks, with which I can focus my time exactly where it is best spent.
I try to notice trends and open my mind to them. An Erlang online course fell into my lap and I had wanted to brush the rust off, in preparation for trying Elixir, so I thought I might give the course a try, one of these with videos to watch and problems to do and such. Into the third week, I am not much finding that it suits me. It has been difficult to fit the extra work into my schedule. The abstract problems to solve occupy more of my attention than anything specific to Erlang. I patiently listen to things that seem easy then have to rewind parts after my attention drifts. Then I find myself having assignments commented on by fellow students and doing likewise for them; it's a nice idea but to me it feels more like the blind leading the blind. There might be some value but my time is more valuable. At least at work with peer review, the cross-check is preferably by the best available critic; indeed, in my previous job, often the product lead for the codebase on which I'd worked. For returning to Erlang, I conclude that I am better off cutting my losses and going back to the textbooks, with which I can focus my time exactly where it is best spent.
