Yesterday was Sunday so I felt it was natural to take a break. I didn’t have much time available anyways, and waiting another day in between sessions will increase the effectiveness of pulling things out of long term memory, so a day break is definitely no problem. Today I spent around 2.5 hours learning and going over new concepts and topics like advanced selectors, pseudo-classes and elements, and more. I did around half learning and half practice. However, tomorrow and maybe the next day, I’d like to spend time practicing instead of learning new things. I sometimes find myself struggling to recall some info (not most), and this is definitely because I have not spent adequate time practicing and converting theory to tangible work. Don’t get me wrong, I am making good progress at my speed, but an extra day or two of practice honing in concepts will certainly help in the long run.
Having your prerequisites in place is the difference between something seeming confusing and inaccessible versus “wait... that’s all it is?”. It’s easy to think you lack learning ability when really you just lack prerequisite knowledge. Differences in learning ability do exist, but they're often conflated with presence or absence of prerequisite knowledge. (Beware: it’s also easy to think you're wicked fast when really you've just mastered more prerequisites than your peers.) More generally, the way to “unlock” things that feel inaccessible to you is to shore up your prerequisite abilities. This applies not just to learning tasks, but also to opportunities. Everybody knows that luck is where preparation meets opportunity, but fewer people understand that if you don't have the prerequisite abilities in place that prepare you to capitalize on an opportunity, you probably won’t see it in the first place. Imagine how many opportunities you're blind to because you don’t have the prerequisite knowledge to even see them whiz by.
-Justin Skycak
At this point, I’m really starting to sense the knowledge building on top of itself and it feels gratifying. Climbing skill trees can be pretty fun, especially when you know how to do it effectively. I find myself satisfied learning more and more, like I’m progressing in a video game or something. I’ve been using social media less during the day like Twitter or Youtube and instead opting in to progress my design engineering skills, and it just feels good. Building something great over time is just more fulfilling than wasting attention on things that will disappear a short amount of time later. Progressing skill trees makes your time spent feel tangible, like you can point to something that’s so clearly a product of your love for the journey. This is the opposite of scrolling social media and endless feeds; scrolling is a product of your craving for some dopamine hit that you think will leave you fulfilled, but alas, the human condition knows no satisfaction.