Learning to learn: Rails [closed]

Question

It's been 20 years since I learned any coding and things are very different now. After playing with cakephp and yii, I decided on ROR. I'm having a blast!

My question is not so much about ROR, but the best way to learn anything. I started learning ROR and found out about version control and git. That was interesting and lead me to a few days of really learning it. I got back to rails and found out about RVM. That too was really interesting and I spent a couple days learning that. It goes on and on like this. I almost obsess about every new thing I learn.

The real question: Is it better to learn just enough to get by in the beginning and go back later and learn the intricacies of your tools or is it better to really learn each tool as you go?

Hope this makes sense as it is more of a philosophical question than a technical one. Thanks

Answer 1

I don't think you should learn whatever you are most interested in at the moment because this can easily get out of hand...

I suggest a more focused approach to learning. Pick a real project with a goal (it should be challenging, but still realistic). Then learn along the way to reach your goal. Try not to learn stuff that's not directly related, and make sure you learn everything that you need to come up with a really good, simple solution. When done, pick next goal and repeat.

Answer 2

I think you should learn whatever you are most interested in at the moment.