{"id":8643,"date":"2015-11-25T12:15:36","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T10:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/?p=8643"},"modified":"2015-11-18T20:10:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T18:10:47","slug":"dont-suck-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/dont-suck-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"You don\u2019t suck at learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

I suck at learning, I won\u2019t be able to do this.<\/em> I heard this as people were filling in for a introduction to fingerweaving class I was teaching last weekend. The students had varying levels of crafting skills, but all of them were total beginners as far as fingerweaving was concerned. Even then, everybody<\/strong> learned the basic pattern I was teaching during the first hour and could work by themselves by the time the class was over. A few people needed more help to get started, but they managed just fine and will be able to practice at home.<\/p>\n

That first sentence sounds familiar? You may be trying to learn new programming languages and not weaving, but the fear you feel and the process you go through is the same one. Not everybody says it out loud, but this fear is always in the back of your head when you\u2019re trying to learn something new. This feeling will never go away completely, but you can learn to manage it and understand the process so you get over it faster.<\/p>\n

\"FingerweavingStashs-300x219\"I coach people often at work, and even there I\u2019ve never meet people that were totally unable to learn new concepts, be in coding skills or problem domain knowledge. People learn in different ways, but everybody gets there in the end and nobody just sucks at learn. If you got this far in your career and your life, you can learn decently that\u2019s for sure. You didn\u2019t lose your learning ability magically during the night at some point. You just need to be aware that you\u2019ll be going through this process and learn how to learn better.<\/p>\n

Here is how it usually goes: at first, everything is new and makes you feel dumb. But as you get more familiar with the basic knowledge and skills involved, you\u2019re able to make links between those concepts and your existing knowledge. You feel more confident and in control. Once you\u2019re past this point, you only need more practice to build on the base you already have. Your new skill grows faster since you have better understanding of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

But when there is no teacher with you, you need to be mindful and understand how you learn. You can then use this to go over the fear faster and build confidence instead of just giving up. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself the next time you\u2019re learning something new :<\/p>\n