Ask HN: How to stick to a learning plan when you learn online? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to stick to a learning plan when you learn online?

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I subscribed to many Udemy courses which are really really great, i learned much from them especially courses from Maximilian Schwarzmüller[0] but never finish them.

How do you stay motivated to finish many 30+ hours screencasts?

I'm a frontend developer since 3 years but my skills are still relative low. I know about a lot of things but not profound. I start things / courses but don't finish them. I always wondered why i got my frontend jobs so easily.

I KNOW i would progress very fast to a much more advanced level when i finish such a list of courses/tutorials. But yeah, i find it hard to stick to it and not get distracted.

How do you self-learn?

Thank you!

[0]https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=Maximilian%20Schwarzmüller

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There is a reason why online education is so cheap when compared to traditional schools.

The reason is very simple. Most people don't have the discipline to finish. It's just too easy to quit. You can try this or you can try that but ultimately you won't get past a few courses if any. I can almost guarantee that a few years from now you'll still have the same problem of not being able to finish.

Bite the bullet and find a regular school where you'll be accountable and are pushed to finish. And use the online courses as supplements. At least you'll start moving in the right direction. We hear about students that bitch about their large student debt. That's just the price of not having elite level self control to do it online. So their debt is well worth the fact that they have an education.

One possibility is to volunteer to do something you want to learn. That might force you to complete something in order to deliver it.

My take.

It is my learning style but I would have a hard time sitting through a 30 minute screencast never mind 30 hours.

I prefer reading to listening to lectures, but for most topics i think you are best off focusing your learning around problem sets. This way you know if you are succeeding or not.

I homeschool my son in math and used Kahn academy for the curriculum. I knew if he could do the problems there he was meeting common core requirements and the school district could not complain. I felt qualified to tutor math at that level but would have been lost without a curriculum.

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