My ideal way of learning is often I need to find a way to make this work by any means. Really kicks me into focus on whatever topics help me get there.

I've been studying a lot lately. I had a really good success with videos with people actually doing live coding on projects from start to finish, and me actually coding along with them.

I have to basically watch and do together to make things stick.

For me: Reading >> Doing > Hearing >>>>> Watching

I hate videos. And love the people here that tag their posts with #video so I know to avoid it.

I love having a bunch of bookmarks to go through during downtime. Read a few articles, maybe add them to a list of resources to come back to with notes, being able to copy and paste code examples... good stuff!

Making a project is effective, but I feel most comfortable reading about a topic first. Lectures like in university are hit or miss.

I think the most ideal way to learn is to have someone next to you guiding you through some material. Next best would be having the ability to ask questions and get immediate feedback.

In either case, it's up to the learner to know they should ask a ton of questions.

Learning by doing, it's the only way.

This applies only to learning. I really like it:

Having a task => Doing by example => Googling => Reading docs => Refactoring :)

I read other people's code

I am a 👁 visual AND 👐 kinesthetic learner.

Podcasts 👂 are the worst way to learn for me (I can barely retain 10% 😞).

So my ideal way is to watch 📺/read 📚 & immediately practice at the same time.
Slow 🐢 upfront but can retain much more 🐇.

Funny Fact:
I can concentrate no problem at a noisy cafe for not being an auditory learner.

The ideal way for me is to imagine a requirement or create new one and start coding it with resources from the internet. I've learnt angularjs, typescript this way and feels like a challenge to conquer

It depends of technology and how much I want to go deep in learning it. Sometimes learning by doing is enough.

But, for example, to learn a new programming language/framework I would usually go the following way:

1. Video - Udemy/Pluralsight
2. Book - O'Reilly/Wrox/Apress
3. Creating my own application

I've found the best way for me is to just do it myself. No matter how many books I read, podcasts I listen to, I have to try it out myself for it to really stick.

For me the best way to learn is in a collaborative classroom environment where an instructor guides me through theory, examples and then challenges me individually or in a group to complete small challenges. The instructor has to be really good at inquiry-based learning, interacting often with the class and helping students solve problems by asking the right questions. If I'm able to not just reason myself but also see how others reason and understand their thought process, whether we solve things or not, this collective thought process helps me learn a lot faster. Collective troubleshooting let's call it.

So that's for large topics, like a whole new language for example. But if I need to learn something on a job while I'm building an application, I usually end up relying most heavily on documentation and forum discussions.

Great discussion! Loved reading everyone's posts. Thanks for asking, Christian!

Ideal or not, but in my experience the best way is to learn is when you get thrown in the deep end with actual problem to figure out.

Just reading or watching videos, sometimes it's good, you can pick up some smaller tips or tricks, that may or may not even be the main point of the article or video, but it could get a bit disheartening to see all this cool stuff and not have an opportunity to implement it in your day-to-day flow.

1. Question everything - Asking a lot of questions out loud, to myself, and to anyone who will listen
2. Doing - I cannot read about something, I prefer to get stuck in and will happy work into the night (best hours are 10pm - 2am) until I crack it
3. Failing - instead of thinking will this work, I just do it, and the results speak for themselves
4. Teaching - for me a crucial stage is passing on the knowledge, if I can't do that then I haven't really grasped the problem

Best way: build something with the thing you want to learn. It's not always practical, but if you can that's the easiest way to retain things IMHO

I never regret any spent time reading a good technical book, so I would say that reading is probably the best way to learn for me.

That being said, I don't do a very good job making time for reading. I mostly listen to podcasts/audiobooks in the "seams" or "gaps" in my day (driving, cleaning, etc).

It is pretty easy to zone out while listening so I try to take notes (or voice memos if I am driving) and make sure I type them up in my GitHub notebook.

1. Encounter Problem
2. Watch Videos
3. Read Docs
4. Solve Problem. Works like charm for me. 🔥 Workflow.

If it is "structured learning" then in my experience nothing beats a good book with well-thought out and interesting exercises at the end of each chapter (with sample solutions of course).
Why it works for me is that the author is constantly guiding me to be in the flow zone (no anxiety/no boredom) where optimal experience and performance is achieved while at the same time I am enjoying the process. I also enjoy modifying and extending the exercises to find further applications of the covered material.

For me it depends what I want to remember and how complex it is. If it's simple and easy to understand, auditory medium 👂 like podcast is enough for me.

If it's something complex then a visual medium 👀 like articles are enough.

However if there are a lot of steps or processes to remember and understand or a complex concept, then watching videos and doing it once or twice helps me to grasp it well.

Though doing anything practically, at least once, helps me retain things better😃