Learning how to Learn

Tonight I am continuing with my reading of the Apprenticeship Patterns with toady’s pattern being “The White Belt”.

This pattern helps to explain how to get over the obstacle of learning and implementing new information after mastering “your first language”.

This pattern feels applicable to me as I feel this is the stage I have reached with the first language I learned. I particularly connect with the problem area that describes a difficulty with learning new tools as this is something I feel I am beginning to run into (especially with Angular) while learning new tools for my work on the UpdateGuest project.

I do think that I try to take the approach mentioned in this pattern of forgetting what I know when learning new tools, but I think that now I am more consciously aware of the value of this I think it may further help with how I learn.

I also agree with the point this pattern makes about being afraid of looking bad when trying something new. I recognize that this has held me back in some of my work this semester as I did not want to commit code that I was unsure of. With the help of this pattern, I realize that I need to get over this fear and not let it hold me back.

One of my favorite parts of this pattern is the example code. I appreciate how the beginning of this is in Java, as this makes it easy for me to understand and it makes the comparison more meaningful. The real beauty of the example is how the multi-line Java snippet is condensed into one small line in the J implementation. This vastly condensed (and somewhat strange to me) implementation really helps me to appreciate and understand the point this pattern makes of needing different approaches when using new tools that are unfamiliar from what you already know. This example makes me want to take up this challenge of learning something that is new and completely the opposite from what I already know.

For me, I read this pattern at a great time, and I even wish I had read it earlier this semester as it could have helped me with my work developing for LibreFoodPantry. I am going to make a point of keeping this pattern (and the cleverly quoted advice from Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back) in mind as I continue to learn about new tools this semester.