Quote Originally Posted by Ouroboros
Trial and error works best for me. It's probably not the most efficient route, but if I can make a few mistakes and then understand WHY they were mistakes, it's likely that that knowledge will contribute to the learning process in related areas, making the trial and error easier the next time around. Does that make sense?

As far as HOW I learn/process information, I kind of take a 'branching' approach. I make sure that I have a solid grasp on a fundamental concept or process and make logical jumps both to more basic concepts and more advanced ones (usually at the same time) and see how they relate to each other. If the jump proves correct, I'll add it to my proven knowledge and jump again, usually laterally and try to relate that backwards to the proven knowledge. Wash, Rinse and Repeat until I can relate almost any point in a subset of information to any other point without fail. Like a big, nerdy spiderweb.

As far as how it works for me...good so far. But it also helps that I don't get frustrated by much of anything.

O
Ditto...IMHO you can't effectively learn the finer points of something until you understand the overall architecture of it...get the theory/terminology down pat and the other stuff IMO will come easier...

In general, my background has been broad enough that I could skip the theory part; however, in the few cases I have stumbled across something entirely new, I have usually started with a book on the subject to get a broad view of everything and how it interconnects...once I am comfortable with how its supposed to work, then I start diving into the nitty gritty of it and trying to apply it to the problem that I am trying to solve...

While I have been successful in the past with learning something on the fly without the theory, it has almost always been necessary to go back and look at it later...so far its worked extremely well for me...