Learning Methodology

Been doing lots of different new things lately and I just sort of figured out a way to learn. Well, it may seem obvious but anyways. I have been trying to make pizza for the past week, learning C++ as usual, writing, drawing etc. Really I feel I would go on a canter and just do whatever I think is right. But always things would not turn out so well. SO the best way now I feel would be to learn there is to learn on the subject and do what the master's of the crafts do and emulate best I can. There is a quote that says, one must learn the rules before one can learn to break them, or something to that effect. And I feel that good advice, if you do not know the limits how do you know if you have exceeded those limits.

So with regards to cooking, I do follow the instructions whenever I can and only improvise when I've learnt the basics. So too, drawing, I just realize my methods are quite monotonous and I have now borrowed a book from the library to learn different sketching techniques and the evolution of styles through the centuries. I also just learned that people actually sketched before they painted. Somehow I always had the idea, people just painted straight. Just goes to show how much I know on the subject. Ah, but I would love to learn more and that's exactly what I am doing.

With research, I get into the these spasms of crazy heroic effort martyrdom mentality, where I would say I would finish this whole book within a month. But just found this techniques is useless. Even if I do finish the whole book, at the ends of it I am so burned out I never actually open that book again for months and months, and what I learned I eventually forget. So what I do now, is read the book slowly and try to understand everything. Though I still have goals to finish the book, I try to go over the point over and over till it is ingrained in my mind. And now I feel the need to just keep always referring to it, until more stuff stick. Don't know what gave me the idea that I could read the once through and understand everything. I do not have photographic memory (how awesome would it be if I did!). So I need to take things slow and love all the knowledge that is in front of me. And with learning all this C++ I need to also critically relate and incorporate my new knowledge and find out how to understand and work my code. So the learning thing, is life long. Hopefully with this new technique I can be more effective and keep my motivation to work up for more times. No more gung ho kamikaze studying!