That doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge our feelings. We should certainly feel the feelings of boredom, anxiety, disillusionment, and so on. But we should also be mindful of where those feelings come from. Are we truly bored or is this our mind trying to tell us to stop so we can do something more fun? Are we not engaged with this material because we don't find it relevant or are we looking to run to our distractions? Is this really a dead-end in our learning or are we just feeling stuck right now? Notice when the feeling comes up and be curious about what prompted the feeling. Note when you get the feeling and where you feel it most in your body. Stay with the feeling for a few seconds and keep noticing it. Then, continue your work. While you work keep noticing all of the feelings you're having and repeat the process of staying and noticing your feelings. When you're done you can reflect more on those feelings and make an honest determination of what those feelings are indicating. Through this process you can clarify what is causing those feelings and if they are just resistance to learning new material or a desire to run to distractions or something more familiar.
-### FIXME
+If, however, you realize that you're really not enjoying learning this topic; if you feel you're spending more time convincing yourself to learn rather than actually learning, then you'll need to have an honest discussion with yourself about why you're learning this topic at all. Is this topic still relevant to you or has the topic become irrelevant? Are you learning this out of an obligation to yourself or others, and is that obligation still present? Are you trying to learn whatever it is because you're worried you'll be left behind, whether that's personally or professionally? Think about what brought you to start learning this and see if the situation has changed. If someone came up to you and asked you if you would like to use this topic in the next few days would you consider it?
-If, however, you realize that you're really not enjoying the learning; if you feel like you're constantly having to muster the courage to sit and learn, then you may want to have an honest discussion with yourself about why you're learning this in the first place. Is this still relevant to you or has the moment passed? Are you learning this out of an obligation to yourself or others, and is that obligation still present? Are you trying to learn whatever it is because you're worried you'll be left behind, whether that's personally or professionally? Think about what brought you to start learning this and see if the situation has changed. If someone came up to your computer and asked you if you wanted to learn this would you still jump at the chance?
+You'll need to reconsider your true motivations for learning this topic and see if they still match what you want to do with your programming profession. But you'll also need to be honest with yourself about why you're learning this topic and why it is important to you. There are plenty of things to learn that are great career paths but if you have no interest in the topic, or are just learning it "to get hired" you're going to have a more difficult time learning the topic than if you had a genuine interest in it. But you'll also need to see if this is just resistance to learning. Your challenge will be to sort out your true feelings about this topic and tease out whether you've genuinely lost interest or are just struggling.
-There have been many things in my career that I have tried to learn, but there have been many more that I haven't learned. Part of those is because the computing landscape changed. At school I learned the Pascal language. I got reasonably good at it but over time those skills faded. Right now there's very little need for being a proficient Pascal programmer so continuing to develop my Pascal skills would be purely for my own enjoyment. I find other things enjoyable so those skills lay dormant. Should Pascal arise from its moribund state I can revisit the decision. But for now I'm content that I've made the right call. Later in my career the Java language came to prominence. I spent many sessions learning Java until I realized that I didn't enjoy the language. It felt too cumbersome to me and the directions it was taking weren't ones that I cared to pursue. So after some reflection I stopped learning Java. Was this all wasted time? Hardly. During my sessions I learned more about Object Oriented Programming and how objects fit together. I learned more about recursion while trying to solve a problem for one of my projects. These skills transcend Java, so when I started learning Python I was more up to speed on how objects worked so I could better understand what Python was doing and how it was different from Java. And should the need arise I can revisit my decision to learn Java and see if it's something that interests me again.
+There have been many things in my career that I have tried to learn, but there have been many more that I haven't learned. Part of those is because the computing landscape changed. At school I learned the Pascal language. I got reasonably good at it but over time those skills faded. Right now there's very little need for being a proficient Pascal programmer so continuing to develop my Pascal skills would be purely for my own enjoyment. I find other computing topics more enjoyable so my Pascal skills lay dormant. Should Pascal arise from its moribund state I can revisit the decision to reinvigorate my Pascal knowledge, but for now I'm content that I've made the right call. Later in my career the Java language came to prominence. I spent many sessions learning Java until I realized that I didn't enjoy the language. It felt too cumbersome to me and the directions it took weren't ones that I cared to pursue. So after some reflection I stopped learning Java. Was this all wasted time? Hardly. During my sessions I learned more about Object Oriented Programming and how objects fit together. I learned more about recursion while trying to solve a problem for one of my projects. These skills transcend Java, so when I started learning Python I was able to transfer my knowledge on how objects worked from Java to Python. I used that knowledge to understand what Python was doing and how it was different from Java. And should the need arise I can revisit my decision to learn Java and see if it interests me again.
-It's OK to give up on learning something for a while. We are complex beings and our interests change. We also exist in a complex industry of changing technologies and whims. What was interesting and necessary at the beginning of the year might be uninteresting and unnecessary at the end of the year. It's up to us as programmers to understand our learning process and adapt as our needs and desires change.
+It's OK to give up on learning something. It's up to you to determine what you want to learn and for how long. We are complex beings and our interests morph and change. We also exist in a complex industry of changing technologies and whims. What was interesting and necessary at the beginning of the year might become uninteresting or unnecessary at the end of the year. We shouldn't feel beholden to learning something just because others are learning it or because the job market requires it. Give yourself permission to listen to your own desires. If they match up with what a fickle industry wants then great! Go learn with abandon. But if they don't match up and you find yourself spending weeks trying to drive up the motivation to learn then you're doing yourself and your craft a disservice. Let this topic sit dormant for a bit and give yourself something else to learn.
+
+If you feel the urge to pick this topic back up at a later point then let yourself come back to it. But also come back to this topic without the baggage and expectations of your previous attempts. Saying "I already tried this once, so we'll see if this works this time" sets your mind to expect that you will give up again. Give yourself permission to approach this topic as though you have never seen this before. Be gentle with yourself and see this topic through your current perspective.
## Approach with curiosity
-As beginners we engaged the computer with curiosity and enthusiasm. We don't know what to expect or how long it will take so we take everything at face value. As we learn we trade our curiosity with certainty, and our enthusiasm with expectations. The excitement we got from learning becomes the drudgery of having to continue to learn. But we can re-capture that beginner's spirit by looking at each opportunity to learn as a new experience. We can let go of our expectations of how our learning will progress and instead approach each learning session with curiosity for what we will learn during the session. We can re-kindle the spark that we had when we were beginners with infinite possibilities, and that spark will sustain us through the periods of uncertainty and drudgery.
+As beginners we engaged the computer with curiosity and enthusiasm. We didn't know what to expect and had no idea how long it would take. We just learned as much as we could and took everything at face-value. As we continued to learn we traded our curiosity for certainty, and our enthusiasm for expectations. The excitement we got from learning became the drudgery of feeling that we must always be learning. But we can re-capture that beginner's spirit by looking at each opportunity to learn as a new experience. We can let go of our expectations of how our learning will progress and instead approach each learning session with curiosity for what we will learn during the session. We can re-kindle the spark that we had when we were beginners with infinite possibilities. That spark will sustain us through the periods of uncertainty.
-With each focus container we can begin again, with no preconceived notions of how it will end.
+We can learn to love learning again. With each focus container we can approach our learning fresh, with no preconceived notions of how it will end, and be curious for what we'll find when we dig deeper into what we're learning. Each session of learning brings us one step closer on our journey to close up the gaps. There so much to explore in our field and I hope you always find something new and exciting to help you on your journey.
projects / themediocreprogrammer.git / blobdiff