Adding more about learning and rabbit trails

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@@ -55,4 +55,24 @@ This is part of why the focus container that we mentioned before is so important
 
 ## Mapping out longer-term goals
 
-(Discuss how to learn over longer periods, the power of small projects, and how to keep learning)
+As you progress with learning you'll start to see that a lot of what we call programming is interconnected. Languages borrow heavily from each other and ideas that seem new and innovative have their roots in concepts dating back to the genesis of computing. But rather than dissuade us it should encourage us. We can open the doors of programming by learning simple, transferable concepts. The question is, which ones?
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+The simplest answer is "all of them", but that's hardly satisfactory (or possible). A less cheeky answer would be "enough of them to start seeing the patterns emerge" but that sounds more like a truism than something we can take to start making our longer term goals for learning.
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+Rather than give specific advice on which concepts will serve you best in your pursuit of programming I'm going to suggest a technique that might help you map out what could help you.
+
+Programming languages usually are quick to mention the concepts they borrow from. Whenever you're learning and you see mention of one of these other concepts make a note of it and keep focusing on what you're learning now. When you've completed your learning for the day take a look at that list and do some searching to see what shows up. See if there are other things that show up and write them on your list. These concepts might not make sense at the moment but having that list available and referring to it might help you make connections about programming that you might otherwise not make.
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+When I was learning JavaScript I noticed someone mentioned that JavaScript borrowed from languages like Scheme. Scheme is a functional language that was based on Lisp and was created as a teaching language for functional programming and recursion. So I took a brief detour into learning Scheme (partly because it was more interesting to me than JavaScript. Call it creative procrastination, if you're being charitable). What I learned while learning scheme piqued my interest in other  functional languages and functional programming. This in turn helped me understand some of the functional programming paradigms that were becoming popular in Python (list comprehensions, lambdas, etc.). By taking a brief detour in my learning of JavaScript I learned a whole family of languages and now I feel like I understand JavaScript with more clarity than when I started.
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+I'm not suggesting that everyone take such creative procrastination steps like I have (I'm still learning JavaScript as of this writing), but it does help to make notes of the concepts you encounter and dig further.
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+This is one way to map out learning goals (see what shows up and be curious about how they fit together), but some folks may need a different approach. Perhaps they're under pressure to learn something to remain marketable or require some skill for their job that needs to be learned quickly. How do you map out those goals?
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+Part of the approach I'm outlining is to help you learn how to learn. Being able to pick up something quickly is due in part to understanding how other concepts fit in with whatever you're learning. This is great if you have a lot of experience with different languages and concepts, but for those who haven't had much experiences yet it will seem like you're trying to shove an elephant through a small funnel. This is where practicing learning every day will help you. It will help you break apart larger learning goals into smaller chunks and will help you see the fear and discomfort for what they truly are: acknowledgment  that you're expanding your skills into new territory.
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+Longer-term goals are just goals that have been broken down into shorter-term goals. Focus on the short-term goals and allow yourself to course-correct as needed and follow a few connections as you desire.
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+## Dead ends
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+There are some times when we've picked something that we thought was exciting but turns out to not be exciting at all. There are languages that I've encountered that I don't find engaging at all.