Learning Methods & Growth
Overview
A meta-domain: how to learn effectively, retain knowledge, and build skills. The source vault itself is an embodiment of these principles — over 1,000 notes accumulated and maintained using structured knowledge management practices.
Core Areas
Study Techniques
Feynman Technique — the primary learning method referenced:
- Study the concept
- Teach it in simple language (without jargon)
- Identify gaps exposed by the explanation
- Simplify further until fluent
Active Recall — testing yourself rather than re-reading Spaced Repetition — reviewing material at increasing intervals (Anki-style) Deliberate Practice — focused work at the edge of competence, with immediate feedback
Teaching a Complete Beginner
Notes from teaching an artist with no technical background to code — the lessons split cleanly by side of the table.
What the teacher must do: name the vocabulary. The gap is rarely the logic; it is the words used to describe it. Given
def sum(a, b):
return a + bthe explanation has to spell out that sum is the function name, that a, b are parameters, and that return sends the output back to the caller. parameter, call and return are exactly where a beginner stalls, and they are invisible to anyone fluent. This is the Feynman Technique applied by the teacher rather than the learner: jargon that survives the explanation marks a gap in your model of what they don’t know.
What the learner must do:
- Try, fail, keep curiosity. Do it badly a few times before asking why. Patterns and best practices only mean something once you have felt the problem they solve — reaching for the answer first skips the part that makes it stick.
- Take alone time. Being a lone wolf is bad practice at work and good practice when learning. Struggling through a problem solo builds understanding that being told the answer does not.
- Search, including the model. An LLM handles a vague, badly-phrased question better than a search box does, and can re-explain the same idea in different registers until one lands — use it to vary the explanation, not only to get the answer.
Knowledge Management
The vault itself implements the PARA method for organising actionable work, and this overlaps strongly with Knowledge Management as a broader practice of capture, retrieval, and synthesis:
- Projects — active work with deadlines (
1 Doing/) - Areas — ongoing responsibilities (
2 Areas/) - Resources — reference materials (
3 Resources/) - Archive — completed/inactive (
4 Archive/)
The wiki/ folder applies the LLM Wiki pattern: AI agent maintains a persistent, synthesised knowledge base above raw sources — compounding over time rather than re-deriving on every query.
Language Learning
- IELTS preparation resources
- English term acquisition: vocabulary, idioms, business English
- Bilingual note-taking (English + Chinese) across technical domains
Reading Practice
- Authors studied: Higashino Keigo (東野圭吾 — Japanese mystery), Tim Keller (theology/relationships)
- Narrative and storytelling analysis
- Reading-to-retention pipeline: clip → summarise → integrate into wiki
Relationships
- Career Development — skills built through deliberate learning
- Entrepreneurship & SaaS — learning as competitive advantage
- Feynman Technique — primary study method
- PARA Method — knowledge organisation system
- Knowledge Management — broader concept for how information compounds into usable understanding
- Reading Principles — slow reading as deliberate friction: harder input, easier retrieval
- Game Design — fun is the brain acquiring patterns, which makes game design a theory of instruction