Framework for Skill Learning

Posted by michaelshoe on Monday June 23, 2025 @01:00AM
from the self-post dept.

When you learn a new skill, it is important to have a strategy beforehand. I like the framework of STR, or Structure - Technique - Resources. Not sure if anybody would benefit from this but I definitely have, and so want to share here.

Structure: Structure is mainly the context, background, and organization of knowledge. It helps point you to what you need to pay attention to. It also lists out the different sub-categories or sub-skills within the skill. Depending on the breadth of the skill you may have many sub-skills if you choose a broad skill like writing, or few if you choose a narrow/specific skill like social media writing for finance executives looking to build personal brand online.

Technique: Techniques are the meat where people often focus the most. It is the what / who / when / how. Techniques are mostly rule based, and can be complex. However, diving straight into techniques when just starting out could be misleading as you haven't figured out all the components.

Resource: Resources play a much bigger role than most people think. Resources can be both public, and private. Knowing where to find valuable resources when you need them is the biggest differentiator between an experienced and a rookie. For a programmer, this might be the Github. For a designer, this might be Canva. And the ultimate goal is to build a private resource pool that you own.

The three parts reinforce on each other. For anybody looking to learn a new skill, this could be a useful framework to have before you dive - especially in the age of AI. You can prompt these to ChatGPT or Claude and let it teach and guide you each step, greatly reducing the time of learning.

Re:Framework for Skill Learning by ambrosial on Monday June 23, 2025 @06:17AM (#44354122)

Thanks for this. I was struggling to keep myself focused to learn something new. Surely apply this. It is easy nowadays to let yourself lose direction, given that there are abundant resources to learn from. I think this will help me to keep focus.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Framework for Skill Learning by aristofun on Monday June 23, 2025 @10:14AM (#44356016)

Hi, chatgpt!

First, what's the point of this post? You mention few extremely generic areas of learning without any actual meat to it. What is the framework that you suggest?

Second, in my experience, learning depends heavily on both a learner and a skill being learned. Beyond some common sense observations (like learning by doing, having some plan, setting goals etc.) there is no point in generalizing and overthinking the learning process itself.

Because what works "on average" with hi probability wouldn't work for you (unless the skill being learned and you are both perfectly average in all relevant parameters).