Why Do We Dread Learning?
January 6, 2020 8:02 PM Subscribe
Hi folks,
I'm a self-taught software developer trying to make the jump to a big tech firm. I am currently studying algorithms and data structures to prepare for interviews.
I always feel a bit "frightened", I would say, before I start studying; it is something that I am not looking forward to. However, once I actually sit down and start learning, I honestly find it to be very enjoyable. I've noticed I feel this way almost any time I am learning something new - the time leading up to the studying is not pleasant, but once I sit down to learn, I am have a good time.
Does this "fright before the storm" have a name? Has it been studied by psychologists?
I always feel a bit "frightened", I would say, before I start studying
I think that's the natural reaction that comes from many people's experience as a child at school. Teachers often made it feel scary, even if the material itself should be fun.
posted by rd45 at 3:51 AM on January 7, 2020
I think that's the natural reaction that comes from many people's experience as a child at school. Teachers often made it feel scary, even if the material itself should be fun.
posted by rd45 at 3:51 AM on January 7, 2020
Anticipation? You know you’re going into some new thing or environment so your brain/body throws some exciting adrenaline into the mix. Maybe our lizard brains are not very good at sorting out “the this is something new that I will overcome by learning about it” from the “this is something new that I will overcome by fighting to the bloody brutal death”.
Anxiety and excitement are pretty close cousins. I sometimes have luck reframing my thoughts from “I am scared/anxious about this thing coming up” to “I am excited about this thing”. Excitement I can deal with.
posted by arha at 4:26 AM on January 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Anxiety and excitement are pretty close cousins. I sometimes have luck reframing my thoughts from “I am scared/anxious about this thing coming up” to “I am excited about this thing”. Excitement I can deal with.
posted by arha at 4:26 AM on January 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I feel this, too. For me, i think it has less to do with learning than with starting any new task or project. Sometimes it can feel really daunting — like there’s an uphill climb ahead, and you can’t even find the first foothold. But like yourself, once I dive in and start struggling with the details, suddenly it’s not so bad — it’s something I can cope with and work through.
So given that the hardest part is getting started, my biggest tip would be to minimize the time you spend thinking about starting. If you’re busy doing something else (or relaxing or whatever) and it isn’t study time yet, don’t think about it! Be immersed in whatever it is you’re doing. And when it comes time to study — because you’ve set aside time for this, correct? — just get right down to business and start working. Maybe don’t start out with the hardest problem, maybe start with an easier one first. Or maybe start out by tackling some small part of the problem first. Find a foothold and then get involved in the details of the thing. I know one piece of advice they give with algorithms is to work out the brute force solution first before trying for the more elegant solution. May or may not work for you, but I do think it’s a good way to get over the initial paralysis and start working on a solution.
posted by panama joe at 4:38 AM on January 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
So given that the hardest part is getting started, my biggest tip would be to minimize the time you spend thinking about starting. If you’re busy doing something else (or relaxing or whatever) and it isn’t study time yet, don’t think about it! Be immersed in whatever it is you’re doing. And when it comes time to study — because you’ve set aside time for this, correct? — just get right down to business and start working. Maybe don’t start out with the hardest problem, maybe start with an easier one first. Or maybe start out by tackling some small part of the problem first. Find a foothold and then get involved in the details of the thing. I know one piece of advice they give with algorithms is to work out the brute force solution first before trying for the more elegant solution. May or may not work for you, but I do think it’s a good way to get over the initial paralysis and start working on a solution.
posted by panama joe at 4:38 AM on January 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
It's time for one of my perennial 'I'm always recommending this in AskMe' answers!
I'm pretty sure the hugely-popular free MOOC, Learning How to Learn talks about this, in the context of how to overcome it, beat procrastination etc. I can't remember exactly what they say about it, because it's a while since I did it - I think it's along the lines of it being a recognised phenomenon, that lasts a specific amount of time, so if you can just make yourself sit down for that amount of time initially, you'll find you're over the hump. But they're probably more specific and detailed than that!
I'd definitely recommend giving the course a go if you're learning something new and interested in understanding more about the process of learning itself. It'll improve your study techniques, as well as being an intrinsically interesting and enjoyable course. It's not too onerous, shouldn't add a huge amount to your workload and will be really beneficial in the long-term. The course is created by academics who are specialists in the field of learning, and is pretty research/evidence based.
posted by penguin pie at 5:41 AM on January 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
I'm pretty sure the hugely-popular free MOOC, Learning How to Learn talks about this, in the context of how to overcome it, beat procrastination etc. I can't remember exactly what they say about it, because it's a while since I did it - I think it's along the lines of it being a recognised phenomenon, that lasts a specific amount of time, so if you can just make yourself sit down for that amount of time initially, you'll find you're over the hump. But they're probably more specific and detailed than that!
I'd definitely recommend giving the course a go if you're learning something new and interested in understanding more about the process of learning itself. It'll improve your study techniques, as well as being an intrinsically interesting and enjoyable course. It's not too onerous, shouldn't add a huge amount to your workload and will be really beneficial in the long-term. The course is created by academics who are specialists in the field of learning, and is pretty research/evidence based.
posted by penguin pie at 5:41 AM on January 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
Psychologists are aware that many humans "mislabel" happy excitement and fright. In part, because physiological excitement is a part of fright. Your heart beats faster, your palms get sweaty, the stomach might churn. I don't know off the top of my head what this mislabeling is called, but if you look into Emotion Regulation, which is a module of DBT therapy, you might get some insight.
In the meantime. Can you see what happens if you rename that constellation of physical stuff as "excitement" instead of "fright?" Physically, they tend (tend!) to feel a lot alike. Our interpretation of those physical sensations is really important to what we do with them.
posted by bilabial at 6:36 AM on January 7, 2020
In the meantime. Can you see what happens if you rename that constellation of physical stuff as "excitement" instead of "fright?" Physically, they tend (tend!) to feel a lot alike. Our interpretation of those physical sensations is really important to what we do with them.
posted by bilabial at 6:36 AM on January 7, 2020
The current model of emotional functioning identifies four primary emotion ranges: joy-sadness, anger-fear, trust-distrust, surprise-anticipation. Human animals (as well as many other animals) tend to anticipate anything "new" or "change" as the negative side of those ranges because of the possibility of getting eaten or experiencing a critical misadventure. It is totally fair to feel that way. It is possible for humans to process it in more nuanced ways, though. (Also, a lot of people experience anticipation in much the same way as fear, distrust, and sadness. That's a thing you can work on.)
This hurdle to learning is one of the reasons educators go through a lot of training in pedagogical theory and execution. It's also the reason a lot of people buy self-help books and therapy and drugs (legal and otherwise) and productivity courses and supplements and television and all the other distractions commercially available at this time.
We sort of live in an age where everyone expects to be entitled to a discomfort-free existence, but the most successful people learn to feel the feeling and know what it is and manage it and do the thing. The (super great) podcast Ologies just re-ran one of its most popular pair of episodes called "Fearology", which is a good jumping-off point (see the links listed at the bottom of the page for each of the two episodes for more info).
posted by Lyn Never at 7:49 AM on January 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
This hurdle to learning is one of the reasons educators go through a lot of training in pedagogical theory and execution. It's also the reason a lot of people buy self-help books and therapy and drugs (legal and otherwise) and productivity courses and supplements and television and all the other distractions commercially available at this time.
We sort of live in an age where everyone expects to be entitled to a discomfort-free existence, but the most successful people learn to feel the feeling and know what it is and manage it and do the thing. The (super great) podcast Ologies just re-ran one of its most popular pair of episodes called "Fearology", which is a good jumping-off point (see the links listed at the bottom of the page for each of the two episodes for more info).
posted by Lyn Never at 7:49 AM on January 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
For me it’s definitely performance anxiety. A lot (too much) of my identity is wrapped up in how clever I am, but it’s really something I have little control over. What if this time the instinct for details and connections and synthesis doesn’t come? Who am I then?
I get anxious just thinking about it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:04 AM on January 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
I get anxious just thinking about it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:04 AM on January 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
I also have this issue with starting new tasks. Once I'm actually doing the thing, it's fine, but starting the thing... it's like getting blood from a stone.
The most successful strategy that I have found is to break down the task into more granular subtasks. As explained in an illuminating comic I recently read on Twitter (which I wish I had bookmarked), if tackling the first resulting sub-task leaves you back in the same psychological situation, you need to keep breaking them down into smaller and smaller pieces until you get units so small that they are literally impossible to fuck up.
So if you're learning software stuff, don't make plans to "learn binary trees" or read an entire chapter of a book or a whole tutorial at once, or schedule open-ended learning sessions. Set yourself a small, specific and above all easily achievable target, like: "today I will read this one section", or "today I will do this one example exercise from the book". You will probably end up reading more and doing more work, because it's going to be fun. You just need to be the skydiving instructor and kick your brain out of the plane, because it doesn't want to jump.
posted by confluency at 8:26 AM on January 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
The most successful strategy that I have found is to break down the task into more granular subtasks. As explained in an illuminating comic I recently read on Twitter (which I wish I had bookmarked), if tackling the first resulting sub-task leaves you back in the same psychological situation, you need to keep breaking them down into smaller and smaller pieces until you get units so small that they are literally impossible to fuck up.
So if you're learning software stuff, don't make plans to "learn binary trees" or read an entire chapter of a book or a whole tutorial at once, or schedule open-ended learning sessions. Set yourself a small, specific and above all easily achievable target, like: "today I will read this one section", or "today I will do this one example exercise from the book". You will probably end up reading more and doing more work, because it's going to be fun. You just need to be the skydiving instructor and kick your brain out of the plane, because it doesn't want to jump.
posted by confluency at 8:26 AM on January 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sometimes I feel that way when I'm going to start something I know I like to do, like making stuff out of wood. I've wondered if maybe I don't want to start because then I don't have it to look forward to then? Maybe it is something like that.
posted by BeeDo at 8:46 AM on January 7, 2020
posted by BeeDo at 8:46 AM on January 7, 2020
I can so relate to this. I found this article helpful.
...the problem starts when you know what you need to do, but balk on doing it. [The problem] grows in that space between the knowing and the doing. The anxiety, shame, and fear associated with the task rise as long as you live in that space. Nothing else happens in this phase, except for your own suffering and aging. We can call it the Unproductive Phase. The longer this phase goes on, the more anxiety it generates and the harder the task itself appears to be.
The moment you start acting on something, you are at the beginning of the end of the anxiety associated with that thing. Many or most procrastinators are pessimists, habitually overestimating the difficulty of what they are avoiding. They think doing it is the hard part. But not doing it is much harder. The odd task that turns out unexpectedly hard doesn’t change anything — the counterproductive phase will always be counterproductive, and the anxiety will always shrink with action.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 10:36 AM on January 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
...the problem starts when you know what you need to do, but balk on doing it. [The problem] grows in that space between the knowing and the doing. The anxiety, shame, and fear associated with the task rise as long as you live in that space. Nothing else happens in this phase, except for your own suffering and aging. We can call it the Unproductive Phase. The longer this phase goes on, the more anxiety it generates and the harder the task itself appears to be.
The moment you start acting on something, you are at the beginning of the end of the anxiety associated with that thing. Many or most procrastinators are pessimists, habitually overestimating the difficulty of what they are avoiding. They think doing it is the hard part. But not doing it is much harder. The odd task that turns out unexpectedly hard doesn’t change anything — the counterproductive phase will always be counterproductive, and the anxiety will always shrink with action.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 10:36 AM on January 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
Along with performance anxiety, work is a tough place to learn.
A lot of energy at work is spent on feeling and looking competent. Think of most job hunting and keeping advice: stand up straight, laugh at superiors' jokes, study things ahead of time in privacy so you can ace the interview.
Most people who manage corporate America don't respect the act of learning. They reward assholes who would be sent to detention for their disrepectful/arrogant attitudes and behavior. They fund brief learning sessions and want everyone to pick things up at the same pace. Some are hostile to those who learn differently or have different physical abilities.
posted by Freecola at 5:45 PM on January 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
A lot of energy at work is spent on feeling and looking competent. Think of most job hunting and keeping advice: stand up straight, laugh at superiors' jokes, study things ahead of time in privacy so you can ace the interview.
Most people who manage corporate America don't respect the act of learning. They reward assholes who would be sent to detention for their disrepectful/arrogant attitudes and behavior. They fund brief learning sessions and want everyone to pick things up at the same pace. Some are hostile to those who learn differently or have different physical abilities.
posted by Freecola at 5:45 PM on January 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
My pet theory: Cognitively challenging tasks like learning and problem solving require more mental energy expenditure in a very literal way. Combine this with the fact our our brain is innately attracted to sedentary, low-calorie expending behaviors... and maybe aversion to mental effort results?
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 12:22 PM on January 9, 2020
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 12:22 PM on January 9, 2020
Further to my answer above, I went back and reskimmed some of the Learning How to Learn materials, and one thing that comes back to me is that when we think about doing something that seems hard, the same parts of our brain fire up as when we feel physical pain. (Hence procrastination, because we’re programmed to avoid pain). If we start the task, that pain pattern persists for a short period of time, but then dies away.
That doesn’t explain why we find it “painful” and I can’t remember if they go into more detail on the course, but worth a look into, I think it’s fairly early on in the course.
posted by penguin pie at 12:13 PM on January 10, 2020
That doesn’t explain why we find it “painful” and I can’t remember if they go into more detail on the course, but worth a look into, I think it’s fairly early on in the course.
posted by penguin pie at 12:13 PM on January 10, 2020
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