srele96
commented
1 year ago What
I spent time learning new topics such as algorithmic techniques, recursion, dynamic programming, graphs, backtracking, and more. I spent time learning Vulkan and realized that it takes a lot of components to become somewhat skilled.
One who is completely clueless might take at least 2 years of daily continuous effort to become somewhat skilled.
One who has a relevant background, such as a programmer switching from web to graphics like me, would approximate that with my learning methodologies and habits accumulated so far, it would take between 6 and 12 months to become somewhat proficient at using the tool. That tool is completely irrelevant to what I know so far. For example, I don't know the theory of Vulkan, it's concepts, ideas, usages, common patterns, etc... It requires a huge amount of effort to grasp even the fundamentals; i approximate that it would take me at least a month of reading, writing code, debugging, understanding the problematic, to render one triangle. Without using any libraries to set up Vulkan, I do it by myself. I assume it would take a complete programming beginner at least 3 months to get a triangle on the screen. Less than that if he knows C++.
Why
After observing my own learning behavior, habits, thoughts, and through introspection, I started to see how complex learning is. Some people would follow tutorials without structured approach, not knowing how to learn. However through self an alysis, thinking of Deliberate Practice explained by Anders Ericson in Peak, I realize how complex it is.
What
The path to the mastery of fundamentals in a field is somewhat clear to me, therefore...
By measuring time through my self-experiment and research, I could approximate roughly how long it takes to become fluent in using some new tools.
For example, how long does it take to become fluent in:
I would guess that roughly it takes half a year to become capable of doing some fundamental tasks and another year to perform them with some degree of performance measurement. Another year to become very decent at it.
My core belief is that habit is fundamental to getting good at whatever it is. It requires practice to become good, which is only possible if the behavior is exercised daily. Furthermore, to perform something on a habitual basis, it has to be a fun, somewhat engaging, thrilling, and joyful experience, even though it may be difficult.
Reflect on learning Vim and all other tools. It took me from 1st January until 16th April to be capable of creating a triangle using OpenGL and some mathematical concepts. It took roughly 20 hours of reading and probably that much more thinking about those while being on the topic of programming, math, and computer graphics.
Why
If I have the measurable time required to become decent at something and the time it takes to become reasonably skilled, I could integrate it into my behavioral collection and use it to my advantage to learn new things.