How do I learn?

The question in the title may be a little bit odd given that it may be related to something extremely personal and therefore not objective. In the past year (actually, less than that), when I found myself a little bit lost after I decided to quit my academic career in Astrophysics and point towards a completely new direction, I discovered that there may be a sort of “universal method” for studying and learning things that can be used by anybody, anywhere, and for anything. But let’s make a step back before going on.

I was a Ph.D. student in Astrophysics, studying supermassive black holes and their effect on the surrounding environment made of gas and dust. I used the past tense because, after a relatively long and insightful period of deep thinking about my future career, I decided to change everything and start something new (for some details about that decision → Why I left my academic career). Given my academic background, I decided to point towards the direction of the Data Science world, i.e. the application of statistical and mathematical tools to extract information from data and use it to make predictions and classifications (actually, it is a little bit wider than that but it is just to give an idea).

What to do? The simple idea of starting a new project was not enough, and I needed something to begin with. So, I rolled up my sleeves and started surfing the Internet looking for anything that could have been useful for my new goal, and compiled a list of all the things I needed to achieve that goal. In particular, I needed some skills in programming, statistical and machine learning models, and data visualization. Looking at the list, I realized that I had only a discrete knowledge about programming with Python (and some visualization skills) and some statistical tools for data analysis. In other words, I had something but not enough. So, I made another list with the possible places to learn those skills, and right after that, I started climbing the stairs I created myself to the world of Data Science.

I started studying SQL, R, Octave (which is very similar to Matlab), and the different concepts and tools used for Machine Learning from different platforms (for what concerns Machine Learning and Octave, I followed the online course by Andrew Ng on Coursera). The process is still ongoing but I am aware that learning is a “skill” that must be always fed with something new.

Just to give a little push to the learning process, I started using those tools from simple to more challenging (at least for me :D) tasks. In other words, I put theory and practice side by side to maximize the understanding of the concepts I was studying. Sometimes, that was a little bit hard but I did not give up easily and I also spent extra hours at my notebook to solve just one single problem. But in the end, I must say, it was something quite satisfying :D

Today, I can say that, in less than a year and at my own pace, I was able to learn different things that I have never thought to use or even learn. What I did was diving deep into those topics and “attacking” them with almost everything I had (I say “almost” because, at the beginning of the project, I was writing also my thesis, you know :D).

So, this is a summary of my story about how I learned something new in a relatively short amount of time. Now I can come back to the question contained in the title of this post: how do I learn? First of all, I must say I do not consider myself a “natural learner”, and with this expression, I refer to those people who seem to have a natural predisposition towards something, for science, for sport, or for anything else. Moreover, I do not consider myself a “fast learner”, and with this expression, I refer to those people who seem to grasp the meaning of things at the first sight. But, despite that, I was still able to accomplish something by starting from scratches and with only a small bag of skills.

So, how was that possible? Well, looking back at what I did from the beginning, it is possible to make a little list of the main processes:

• Compile a map of the things you want to learn and the things you need for learning. Well, it is quite obvious that having a broad idea of the whole process is very helpful and it may give some hints on how to proceed.
• Go deep into the topics you want to learn spending also extra time to understand one single concept. Here, something must be clarified: “go deep” does not mean to exhaust yourself to the limit and this is based on one simple and (I think) very important point: it is you who set the learning schedule and this means that you do not have constraints on your own project! Personally speaking, I had a sort of agenda that I followed but, sometimes, I was not really in the mood of doing anything, and for that reason, I simply took a day off with no regrets because I knew I needed some extra time for myself. After that, I found again the same enthusiasm I had before.
• Add a practical approach to anything you learn. Some concepts, whatever they are, need something further to be completely understood. Personally speaking, I found a continuous practice really helpful especially with concepts that I have never seen before (e.g., Decision Trees or Random Forest models in Machine Learning).

Those seem to be the main points of my story and I realize that they are something that everybody can use as a sort of “guideline”. Anybody can teach themselves how to start a new project and what steps to follow but the crucial point is commitment: the focus and the passion for anything make the difference.

Very recently, all those considerations above found a sort of “proof” thanks to my brother: in one of the several discussions we usually have, he suggested reading the book “Ultralearning” by Scott H. Young and, by reading some reviews on the Internet, I discovered that the same principles I applied in my project are almost the same ones he discusses in his book! Somehow, I found the most logical process to learn something by simply doing it with some simple criteria! That was really surprising and pushed me to write this post to tell my story. I am currently reading the book (I started a few days ago) and I find it really insightful. In the end, when a learning process is set in motion, the basic three things to remember, that run side by side with your passion and dedication for the project, are: organization, deep focus, and practice. With those, it may be possible to achieve any goal. However, also ultralearning is a skill that needs to be mastered: as mentioned above, I am still in the process of learning and practicing my knowledge about Data Science and I think it will be something that will always accompany me, despite anything else.

And if that is not enough, I will tell you another story about myself to prove the points above. Since I was in Middle school, I have always had a passion for the ancient Egyptian culture, in particular, about their language and the mysterious hieroglyphs. I have always wondered about their meaning until, one day, I discovered the pronunciation of one symbol, the so-called “Egyptian cross”: the simple sound “ankh” (meaning “live, life”) led me to a journey I have never dreamed of. I started looking for lists of signs, grammars, and lessons online because I wanted to know more (possibly everything :D). I was extremely focused on the little project and I started taking notes, consulting online translations performed by several scholars, reading their grammar books. I did that in my free time (when I was not busy with school and football) and today I can say that, despite the process was a little bit irregular (due to school, university,…), I am now able to read and translate an ancient Egyptian text, sometimes even without looking at a vocabulary (I also have a little blog where I’m translating the Book of the Dead, the ancient Egyptian funerary text). If I think about the whole process, I was not well organized but what made the difference was not only my passion for the subject but also the deep focus I put in it, which is one of the main points of ultralearning!

As a final note, I must say that also a good dose of self-criticism is necessary during the process of learning: knowing your (maybe momentary) limits can be used for better understanding what you are doing and what you need to do to overcome those limits. Personally speaking, despite the achievements described above, I still do not feel like an “expert” in the field: there are too many things to learn out there, impossible to come across in a restricted amount of time, and this is absolutely normal. I spent almost 10 years in the world of Physics and Astrophysics and I did not arrive even close to considering myself an “expert”!

Expertise is something that comes with experience and strong commitment: someone may become a specialist about something in four months, some other in four years but time must not stop you from pursuing your target because the secret of ultralearning (and the secret to become skilled in learning) is the dedication you put into your project and the importance you give to it.