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Why Am I Bad At Learning?

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Ever since last semester, I’ve taken time out of class to improve my programming skills. With the help of Free Code Camp, Stack Overflow, Google and YouTube Videos, I got better at programming. As an example, compare my old website:

A minimalist website with a random silhouette, Links to Github, Twitter, Linkedin, Quora, and a Resume and the words ‘Hi, I’m Farai Gandiya, Student at Wartburg College and Aspiring Programmer.’

Here’s the old website.

To my new website

A more modern looking website with a picture of Farai on top followed by the words ‘student and aspiring programmer, links to resume, blog and social media, a short description of Farai and some of the projects he’s worked on.

Here’s the new one. That’s better no?

Not bad eh?

Anyways, while I’m proud of how my skills have developed, I still have much to learn. Let’s look at how I’m doing.

What I’m Doing Well

  1. I’m learning out of class,
  2. I learn every single day,
  3. I’m good at getting help

What I’m Not Doing Well

  1. I give up too easily
  2. I’m trying to learn too much
  3. I shy away from hard things
  4. I end up using Google as a crutch rather than a helper.

What I’m Going To Change

  1. Work on one thing at a time- Since I’m bad at multitasking, I’ll be better off focusing on one tool at a time. Right now, I’m working on Meteor.js meaning that I’ll learn everything else later1.
  2. Dedicate one hour each day for learning.
  3. If I get stuck, slow down and figure out what I don’t know.
  4. Be willing to ask for help…humbly of course.

So there you go. A self-reflection on my learning methods and what I can do to improve them.

  1. I sucked at using Meteor.js and I’ve shifted to making a project and working figuring things out as I work on it. ↩︎