from Hacker News

Don't Ask 'What to Learn,' Ask 'What to Build'

by spikey_sanju on 9/5/24, 5:33 AM with 3 comments

• by scrapheap on 9/5/24, 6:54 AM

  Learning and building are two complementary activities and saying you should concentrate on one more than the other doesn't feel like good advice. If you're not learning then you can't build well and if you're not building then you're missing a significant part of the learning experience.

  However the underlying message from the article is directly applicable to both building and learning - You need to be motivated when doing either. Which for me is where both the "What to learn" and "What to build" questions fall down, it's like we're hoping we can steal someone else's motivation just by trying to do something they've been interested in the past. In my experience motivation doesn't come on demand, instead it's something that hides when we're looking for it, but will ambush us when we're not looking (e.g. I wasn't looking to get philosophical today, but this article has motivated me to contemplate motivation itself).

• by spikey_sanju on 9/5/24, 5:33 AM

  Don't start by asking 'what to learn.' It's the wrong approach. If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?

• by spikey_sanju on 9/5/24, 7:20 AM

  thanks. you make good points about learning & building. they do go hand in hand.

  my main message is about finding your "why" first. why learn? why build? that's where motivation comes from.

  i've seen too many folks burn out learning tech they don't care about. or building things that don't excite them.

  start with what fires you up. the rest follows.

  you're right - motivation is tricky. it comes and goes. but having a clear goal helps a ton when it dips!!!