In my first post, I talked about my first inspiration that kick started my journey to productivity. As I become more productive, you become time efficient with your day. The availability of time has lead me to explore new interests. I have since become obsessed in technology, and as a result of the daily consumption of TechCrunch, my free time turned into brainstorming sessions. But having no idea where to find a developer, I decided that I will try to learn how to code myself. Through the quick research I ended up in Codecademy and I start taking their free online course. Their interactive learning made it extremely enjoyable, and I felt that I was progressing fast. I thought in 6 months, I will be creating my own app! Then as soon as I tried to build something from scratch, I was thrown into cluelessness. I thought I was just not born with the brains to code. So as a typical procrastinator, I gave up.
Then similar to my first inspiration, while lost in the algorithm of youtube, I came across Mike Boyd’s channel. The basic format of his youtube video is that he chooses a relatively niche skill he wants to learn (solving a rubik’s cube, learning how to pull a wheelie) and he records the entire process of learning the skill. I recommend you go watch his videos asap. He usually does not watch any tutorials and basically wings it. The videos chronicles his struggles and how he slowly determines what works and what doesn’t. It is weirdly personal experience watching him and once he is able to achieve a goal he set, you can’t help but celebrate with him.
Consistency Wins the Race
From watching his video i came to a sudden realisation. Maybe because the struggles are visualised it easier to understand a seemingly obvious concept. To be good at any any thing, you got to put in the work. What was interesting was that he usually only practices around 30 minute to 40 minutes a day. He breaks down the skill into small chunks, when he was learning how to stack dice, he started with one dice until he got used to the movement.
This concept of building consistency through using short sessions and setting trackable goals is surprisingly effective for procrastinators. I have applied this concept for my modified pomodoro method. As explained in my previous posts, it had great positive impact in my journey to productivity. Mike Boyd has influence on how I structure learning in general, and I am grateful that he continues to create videos which motivates myself to learn.
The Dip
However even after implementing this to my second go at learning programming, I found myself in stagnation. I was able to reach a early intermediate level, then the learning process became harder and frustrating. This experience is what Seth Godin describe as “The Dip”. In any progression of learning there is a initial stage where learning is fun as you start to improve rapidly and be able to apply these skills in practice. But then you hit this zero rate of progress. You can’t seem grasp the higher level concepts and this dip period is where most leaners get derailed.
Mike Boyd shows a how in the initial stages of learning you can achieve great satisfaction in a relatively short time. But skills that has a steeper learning curve like programming requires prolonged periods of dissatisfaction. I’m am exactly in that period now. I can now build very simple website with html and css, but it is demotivating when you can draw up great UIs in your head, only to be smacked with reality and I fail to built anything close to the vision. The only reason I am still staying with it is because I know that after the dip, enjoyment will return when your skills and higher level practicality aligns. Understanding this process has help me maintain the motivation to learn how to code.
If your in the middle of the dip, or you are like me and has a history of giving up, try to visualise this graph and know that the frustration is building momentum to reach the peaks of mastery. Be patient, you will reach the velocity to exit the dip soon.
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