Great question. The approach I've always taken (now that I'm past my prime) is to just show up. If I train 15 minutes and call it a day, at least I was active and sustained the habit of being active. If I train for a couple hours, that's great too. What I try very, very hard to avoid is doing nothing.
I suspect I get the majority of the gains from the first 20 minutes or so. And since I'm no longer training to compete at a high level, I don't need to eek out as much from my training as possible...but I have no data to back that up.
I've always wondered what the health trade-off is for a less mentally stimulating role if it dramatically reduces your stress levels and offers better work/life balance.
I used to be a high school teacher and, though not as physically taxing as working on a farm, I feel the same about how much easier my current tech job is.
This is my focus. Though admittedly selfish, I'm spending time learning more songs on the guitar, improving my cooking skills, mastering a new language, etc. Once our children are out of the house, I plan to also become more involved in supporting our community.
It took time to understand that my time is better spent supporting our kids' activities and maintaining an organized home than chasing another promotion.
My kids are 12 and 14 and I can't get them interested in coding beyond what they might do at school. They showed an interest in Scratch, but I believe I introduced it WAY too early. Moreover, it moved them too quickly past the creative aspects and into writing code. Also, years later, I showed them PICO-8 and they weren't terribly interested.
In hindsight, I would recommend working with them at a young age (<10) to design game art and ideas. Then, the parent implements it and ports it to a portable platform. The child sees the creative aspects and the final output, but is shielded from the coding side in the early days. I imagine a child playing a game they designed on paper with crayons would be really satisfying. It would almost be like magic!
Then, let the transition to the coding side happen more organically or through a school program or some such. Maybe when they finally ask, "So, parent, how do I actually code these games?"
I've always considered Stack Overflow research to be very valuable. Less for the answer to my question and more for the related topics, edge cases, and other details that frequently are included in thorough answers / comments / discussions.
When AI answers your question (and only your question), that's great for that specific instance, but it feels to me like it's lacking in breadth. I wonder if that results in the user becoming really, really reliant on said AI as they don't fully grasp the interconnectedness of coding? Just a thought.
I would do I everything I could to connect with others pursuing that same goal with the hope being that by working together we could increase everyone's chances of success.
Becoming an expert in anything is going to be full of challenging days where you question why you're doing this, just want to give up, get distracted, etc. Having others to lean on (and be leaned on) can help get everyone through those challenges. Additionally, knowing you're part of a group may give you some sense of responsibility do you won't be as likely to slack off.
Lastly, in my opinion, working with others and building friendships along the way makes the entire journey more fun.
What would happen if you just let them get up and get to school on their own? They might be late initially, but I bet they would figure it out and be on time after a short adjustment period.
I completely agree with this comment. I could have spent all day on my C64 without even having a game to play or knowing how to code beyond PRINT and GOTO. Hacking around on a computer back in the 80s made me feel like I was part of a secret club and that, at any moment, I was going to live out War Games or some such (especially once we had a modem). The possibilities seemed limitless!
And, depending on your situation, be careful. I was a collegiate athlete back in the day and recently tried to recapture some of that. The result? Torn labrum in my left hip that really can't be repaired (per doctor). I'm all for hard workouts, but respect your age (and prior injuries) if you're going to go down this path. Definitely ease your way into it.
My wife is a middle school mathematics teacher (and a damn good one). Sooooo many former students (now high schoolers) have approached her and said, "Because of you, I excelled in math in high school...and I love it!"
She had a student last year who actually told her in a very long letter, "You taught me that math matters. You taught me that I MATTER."
The earliest teachers / coaches / mentors set the foundation which is absolutely critical for all future learning.
Want to experience the highest of highs? Become a teacher. Alas, being do close to kids who are changing so rapidly (and often struggling with things outside of school) it also comes with some pretty deep lows.
Honestly, I don't understand what the pull is either. This is just cow clicker for music. I appreciate the design and interactivity, which is nice, but maybe because I'm a musician, I don't understand what is fun about this.
Agreed! And a skilled teacher would start by teaching Smoke on the Water with dyads (two-note chords) and then use that as a starting point for two discussions. First, one about barre chords and second, one about the same chords in their open format.
If the student is into classic rock, it's easy to expand this lesson into Cat Scratch Fever, Rock You Like a Hurricane, and Iron Man which are all similar to Smoke on the Water.