Top Down Learning Vs Bottom Up Learning

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

So there has been some confusion lately concerning my attempts at learning tech. A front end language always seemed like the most logical place to start, yet I would feel too bored and restless to concentrate on the lessons. Oddly enough, I was flying right through a course that taught ethical hacking until I hit the paywall and had actually found the course quite addictive. Similarly I had previously studied a computer science course that starts with bits and bytes and how and why they work. I found that course engaging as well and had advanced far enough to correctly explain why an imaginary electronically operated train had derailed by viewing the code which was in 1s and 0s. I eventually quit that one not because of a lack of interest but due to feeling like it was pointless due to not knowing where the code is actually input and perhaps also feeling as though it was perhaps useless without other coding languages. I had been simultaneously studying JavaScript from two different sources. One of those sources had kept me more engaged due to it's gamified lesson format with short completable challenges, but sadly the app was discontinued. The other program felt tedious and while it was thrilling to first see an image that I had coded pop onto the screen, I just couldn't keep at it. Additionally, some of my code built drawings were rather pathetic. It's kind of weird trying to draw something blind. It's like the computer age version of trying to draw a sketch with pen a paper with a blindfold on only now you have to write a lengthy paragraph in order to do it. Anyway, I have been researching why this could be and apparently some people do actually learn better in this seemingly backwards manner due to high levels of curiosity and a drive to understand the hows and whys of a system.

 

[FayetheADHDsquirrel]

 

[Judge]

I eventually quit that one not because of a lack of interest but due to feeling like it was pointless due to not knowing where the code is actually input and perhaps also feeling as though it was perhaps useless without other coding languages.

Good observation, Faye.

This is where learning coding, HTML markup and cascading stylesheets along with graphics done all at the same time can be quite rewarding. That whatever you are creating you can see through a browser. On both an aesthetic and functional level. Nothing more rewarding than seeing your code not only look good, but do exactly what you intended.

Thinking back on those days, had I attempted to learn such things piecemeal and without purpose, I would have lost interest in it as well.

If you try again learning multiple skills you can actually apply with a single objective in mind, you may attain a different and better outlook of such things.

 

[Outdated]

This is where learning coding, HTML markup and cascading stylesheets along with graphics done all at the same time can be quite rewarding. That whatever you are creating you can see through a browser.

This Hands On approach is how most of us learn, myself included.

When it comes to programming and languages most people start at a very early age - as young as 9 or 10. They don't start out formally, they start by playing video games on a real computer instead of a console. On a real computer you can edit the programming of the game, and if a game gets too tough that idea enters the kid's heads and they start tinkering, trying to give themselves better chances. This is also exactly how I started.

So a lot of these kids have a very good grounding in how programing works and are usually familiar with a couple of different languages before they finish high school. There's even different extracurricular activities specifically for kids that are in to this sort of thing.

Code Camp | Australia's favourite holiday & after-school fun!

 

[Judge]

So a lot of these kids have a very good grounding in how programing works and are usually familiar with a couple of different languages before they finish high school. There's even different extracurricular activities specifically for kids that are in to this sort of thing.

Code Camp | Australia's favourite holiday & after-school fun!

Yep. I met a lot of such kids working as a corporate web designer for computer games. Those in-house developers...so young and making all that money back then. A strange, yet fun working environment.

Of course in those days computer programming was still considered on the frontier of technology occupations. Right up to the "dot-com crash".

 

[Crossbreed]

FYI, the bottom-up approach is analogous to a priori reasoning.
Top-down, a posteriori.

Both approaches are useful.

 

[Ken]

So there has been some confusion lately concerning my attempts at learning tech. A front end language always seemed like the most logical place to start, yet I would feel too bored and restless to concentrate on the lessons. Oddly enough, I was flying right through a course that taught ethical hacking until I hit the paywall and had actually found the course quite addictive. Similarly I had previously studied a computer science course that starts with bits and bytes and how and why they work. I found that course engaging as well and had advanced far enough to correctly explain why an imaginary electronically operated train had derailed by viewing the code which was in 1s and 0s. I eventually quit that one not because of a lack of interest but due to feeling like it was pointless due to not knowing where the code is actually input and perhaps also feeling as though it was perhaps useless without other coding languages. I had been simultaneously studying JavaScript from two different sources. One of those sources had kept me more engaged due to it's gamified lesson format with short completable challenges, but sadly the app was discontinued. The other program felt tedious and while it was thrilling to first see an image that I had coded pop onto the screen, I just couldn't keep at it. Additionally, some of my code built drawings were rather pathetic. It's kind of weird trying to draw something blind. It's like the computer age version of trying to draw a sketch with pen a paper with a blindfold on only now you have to write a lengthy paragraph in order to do it. Anyway, I have been researching why this could be and apparently some people do actually learn better in this seemingly backwards manner due to high levels of curiosity and a drive to understand the hows and whys of a system.

I find this quite interesting because I'm not sure where I fit.

I have almost never been able to be taught. Actually, I can learn, I just can't be taught so class room learning is a major killer for me. I have always suffered a debilitating fear of any teacher. Also, my mental processing is too slow for any classroom. I was diagnosed as mentally retarded with major learning disabilities.

Thus, a college degree was never an option for me, yet I retired as a senior electronics design engineer - something that a degree is a hard requirement for. I never attended any electronics or engineering classes. I started learning for my career as a young child due to an unyielding passion for all things electronic. I learned by dissecting discarded radios, TV, anything electronic. I removed all the parts and experimented with them, learning what they did and how they did what they did. I also studied physics and electronic theory books from the library. I built circuits using all the scavenged parts as part of my "learning" / entertainment. It was / is an overwhelming obsession.

I could only get low level jobs, but at almost every job, I would design and build circuits to add to whatever equipment the job used to make it work better. This was both a problem and benefit. It did build a reputation and at the last few jobs; engineers from the engineering departments started sneaking down to ask me questions on electronics theory. They would bring their design schematics for my opinions.

Eventually, I got a low level job at a contract electronics design firm. I was very enthralled at working at a design firm even though I wasn't an engineer. My excitement, however almost got me fired because I started pointing out design flaws in their designs. The boss (business owner) was working on a project that he was having a really hard time with. As I passed by his desk and casually ask how it was going, he expressed his difficulty in keeping the processor stable. I quickly pointed out that he needed a bypass capacitor and pointed out on the schematic where to put it. Then I rushed off to get one from the parts room and brought it back. He seemed irritated at wasting the time with something from a non-engineer, but he did it anyway. He tack soldered the capacitor in, turned it on and it worked perfectly. He looked at me with open-mouth disbelief and slowly exclaimed that he had been trying to solve that issue for two weeks. With more and more of that happening, I was eventually promoted to engineer and then finally senior electronics design engineer. My life goal with no classroom or educational credentials.

So, I guess I got an education, it just wasn't by any classical, typical classroom method.
I'm not sure, was this top down or bottom up?

 

[JDShredds]

Forgive the long winded reply but: This idea only recently came to my attention and became quite the epiphany. But not an epiphany when it was described to me (top down), but when I experienced it first hand (bottom up).

Revisiting code to increase my skill set (I know front end fairly well but want to expand to more complex programming and back end), I went to try a codecademy course and very quickly found myself not only frustrated, but almost angry. It went from the big picture, then to categorical theories of the big picture, and kept going from there, theoretically connecting them without any practical experience (only to have the details applied later). I stopped and got frustrated: How the hell can any of this make sense when you don't even know how a single function works and connects to the others?

I flat out deleted the bookmark and went back to dabble with freeCodeCamp (which has helped me IMMENSELY over the years and I learn rapidly on there, and then go apply it to my own projects). I then realized... oh! Those are clear distinctions between top down and bottom up learning. And I learned that about myself from the bottom up, by actually doing the thing and seeing how my own thinking style works in detail.

This also applied to when I learned how to play guitar nearly 30 years ago. I was musically gifted but learned differently. Theory made absolutely no sense to me (and bored me to death). Lessons were nearly pointless. So I picked up the guitar, gave up the lessons, and learned how to play songs one part at a time. After a while I pieced all of the patterns, octaves, harmonies and structures together. I learned how they all related to each other by actually playing them (and listening to them).

Its now entirely intuitive, and all that external stuff (theory, modes, labels) is only useful in order to explain something to someone else. For example, I can play in a mode without knowing I'm even playing in a mode. I inherently can feel the "rules" so to speak. I don't learn the name of the mode, how it differs from other modes, and then practice the modes. Instead I discover the mode and then later learn it has a name. And then discover another thing I do has a name. And so on.