- when you start learning something - motivation is low (at least intrinsic motivation) - difficulty is high - The more you learn the less difficult it gets to learn more, and the more intrinsic motivation you have to learn more - There's not only knowing your field but also relative difficulty. When I tried learning Chinese after studying spanish it was quite hard. Spanish is very easy relative to Chinese. When I tried learning Thai after studying Chinese it was quite easy. I don't speak thai, I didn't make that much progress but I made a significant amount relative to the time I put it. The thai alphabet specifically felt easy because relative to Chinese 100 or so distinct characters feels like nothing. Doubly true when I tried learning Korean. The alplhabet has fewer characters than Thai and of course chinese, but is also phonetic and not latin, so having studied Chinese gave me perspective and having studied thai gave me practice with a phonetic non-latin character set. - I'm imaging there's an intersection point where the rising motivation curve intersects the downward sloping difficulty curve - What are the first principles and/or foundational material? - How can I avoid learning a tool and instead learn the fundamentals of the field, the knowledge that will lower that difficulty bar across the whole field - It's hard to learn, or get started learning, where there's no path to predictable progress. Basically you don't know how to turn time into progress - If you're studying a langauge you can work through a workbook closest to your level. If you sit down with a textbook you can just _do_. The progress is predictable. - Sitting down with a programming book is similar. you can work through problems, or just read, and you will make progress. YOu can sit down with your own pet project or a client project and you will make progress. The progress is predictable. - If you are learning baking, you can find recipes online and bake them. Each recipe produced is progress. Progress is predictable.