On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:48:44 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>> One has to look for opportunities to present and to write, and take
>> advantage of them.  That's how you improve - by doing, and then by
>> evaluating the experience.
> 
> For the most part, it's a case of not having the time or money to
> improve things. For example, I'd like to be able to sing. But I have
> literally no idea how you'd go about that, and I can't afford it anyway.
> You say that writing is all about getting good feedback, but I can't
> think of any way to do that. And so forth.

You ask for feedback from people who have offered to give you feedback on 
your writing.  Several of us here have done so.  So you don't need to 
think of a way to get good feedback, because that's been offered already.

>> So then what would your next step be?
> 
> Beats me!

To start by asking for assistance would be good. ;-)

>> Which is why you would use something like Google (remember Google? ;-)
>> ) to learn more about a topic.
> 
> I guess it's a case of not bothering to even search for it under the
> assumption that I won't find anything of use. Usually when I search I
> find nothing useful, so over the years I've gradually given up.

You could ask for help.  I might also suggest you start playing with 
language a bit - in particular, word association.  When I was a teenager 
working in a software store/bookstore, I'd have customers ask how to do 
something with a particular piece of software, and if we had any books on 
the topic.

I'd take them back to the books on the subject, point them out, and grab 
what I had determined (through experience of doing this exercise before) 
was most likely to have it.  Usually the customer would peruse the table 
of contents; I'd start doing word association and look in the index.  In 
probably 4 times out of 5, I'd be at a page that would give them detail 
on what they were looking for before they'd gotten past the table of 
contents.

That is a skill that can be learned.

>> For more technical topics (not IT specific, but more detailed topics),
>> learning is an iterative process.  You find a resource, read it, and
>> then evaluate "did I get what I needed?" - and if you didn't, then you
>> find the next resource.
> 
> I spent quite a long time doing that with digital filter design.
> Eventually I gave up due to the sheer intractability of finding anything
> remotely useful. (Fortunately, many years later I finally stumbled upon
> a very good resource by accident...)

The trick is to train yourself to do so intentionally so finding the 
right resource isn't accidental.  Do you have a local library?

>> You need to learn to do this iteration rather than giving up after
>> round 1 so frequently.  You did it with your dancing classes, so apply
>> that to other areas in your life. :)
> 
> Uh, I went to *one* dance school, and I'm still there. Not a great
> analogy. :-P

Actually, it's an excellent analogy, because you determined:

1.  You wanted to learn to dance
2.  You identified someplace that could help you do so
3.  You identified the class(es) that you were most interested in
4.  You went to class and learned
5.  YOU KEPT AT IT
6.  You are continuing to refine your skills by still going to class

It's a perfect example of the iterative process of learning, because 
you've gone through many iterations.

Jim

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