From Theory to Practice

July 10, 2008 9:48 AM

How can I learn to apply theories and concepts that I learn to real-world situations?

I love learning new things. I learn and comprehend concepts and theories fairly easily. However, I find that I often stumble when it comes time to apply these.

As an example, I'm a programmer and I know Object Oriented principles, theories and best practices, but only because I've read about them. When I go to write a program, I can't make the connection between the concepts and the problem I'm trying to solve. I feel I don't know how to connect all the theoretical pieces together.

Has anyone out there overcome something like this? Any tips on how I can be a more practical person, using the knowledge that I have. Am I touching on the whole knowledge vs. wisdom thing? Are there general or programming-specific methods to going from theory to practice?

posted by AvailableName to education (6 comments total)

Sort of a facile response, but practice, practice, practice. You need to be working through tough problems that force you to apply your theoretical know-how. Theory is great for understanding how or why something works, but it's frequently next to useless for actually doing that thing. I can't think of many exceptions where this isn't the case.
posted by decoherence at 10:00 AM on July 10, 2008

If you're stronger at theory than practice, maybe you're being held back by the fact that you value theory too much. If the practice doesn't fit with your existing theoretical idea of how it should work, resist the temptation to throw up your hands and say: "It's not working!" Instead, draw the conclusion that "Oh, it works like this. My theory told me it works like that. So it looks like my theory was wrong." In other words, focus less on judging yourself ("I'm no good at applying theoretical knowledge!") and focus more on the idea that there's a back-and-forth between theory and practice -- it's all part of a larger process of arriving at knowledge. And if they clash, err on the side of practice, not theory.

This is just a guess. I may be mischaracterizing what you're actually experiencing here -- if so, disregard my answer. (Ironically, if that's the case, then you're confirming my point: my theory would be wrong, and you would discover my theoretical error from experience.)
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:24 AM on July 10, 2008

Look at what other people have done with the same information: both in the abstract, and in very specific instances. Then you'll have a repertoire of solutions, and in a better position to develop your own.

I listened once as a guy once related a story about his teacher (of PHP/mySQL, I think), who had promised anyone in the class a thousand dollars if they could eat an apple in one bite. The point being that before you can answer the big question, "How do I make this work?," you've got to break it down into smaller and more manageable questions (e.g. "How do I pass that variable over to that function?"). So the challenge to you is to figure out what those questions are.
posted by evil holiday magic at 10:37 AM on July 10, 2008

To expand on decoherence's suggestion to practice: that's going to be hard if you don't know what to practice ON. (Or WITH.) I would suggest:

* tutorials with step-by-step practice for you, and/or books on OOP with practice problems with the answers in the back, and
* getting involved in an open-source project that uses OOP, so you can locate and work on some manageably-sized (see evil holiday magic, above) programming problems that use OOP.

A couple of other things:

* Don't assume that everything in your real life will be a good match for your new knowledge. You've studied OOP. You want to apply it. There are a lot of programming challenges where OOP is appropriate - but not all of them. When you start looking at a problem or challenge, ask yourself, "Is my new knowledge appropriate to this thing?" Indeed, ask yourself, "How can I figure out when OOP is useful for a particular programming challenge?" You can apply this to all kinds of new knowledge. "Wow, I just read a lot of great stuff about making sauces. Now it's time for dinner. I was going to make chicken for dinner. Is my new knowledge of sauces appropriate to this meal? How can I tell when a meal is a good opportunity to practice applying my new sauce knowledge?"

* Keep feeding your interest in a topic, and don't be too discouraged if it doesn't all come together at once. I've been studying music off and on, with varying levels of energy, pretty much all my life. When I have the time to open myself up to lots of sources, things fit together better in my head, and applying the theory comes more easily and makes more sense. Every so often, I'll come across a new presentation of something I've read about dozens of times before, and suddenly it makes a lot more sense. So, while you're practicing, and looking for specific occasions to apply your new knowledge, do keep feeding your interest with input from other sources.
posted by kristi at 10:57 AM on July 10, 2008

Spend some time (an hour, a day, whatever) looking at every event, positive or negative, and assertain how it could be turned into an opportunity to do or practice something.

Walking down the street? Think of 2 alternate routes to your destination and weigh the pros and cons of both. How does each one fit your abilities? If your talent is in observing nature and processing new events, then the more scenic route might be for you! If your talent lies in efficiency and organization, then you use your superhero strength mental mapping capabilities to assess the shortest path, and stun others with your street navigation prowess!

Did you get a crappy email from somebody today? What a wonderful opportunity to practice non-avoidance and and or tactful communication! Or at the very least, how to set up a f-off filter in gmail. Could be useful later, when you have to deal with a real whopper in your inbox.

The point is, LOOK for opportunities to use your skills. Finding them is half the battle. Change the focus...Instead of walking around with a hammer and a desire to bang on things, walk around looking for nails, screws, broken things, fixed things, funny things, new things, old things. Pick one thing and ask it what it needs. Check your inventory of tools and techniques, and see what you can rig up.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:36 PM on July 10, 2008

These are all helpful answers. They've confirmed a lot of what I felt I needed to do; namely practice. Thank you all.
posted by AvailableName at 10:58 AM on July 28, 2008