Wow time really flies, I set myself a goal of at least one blog post a month and then I realised yesterday that that deadline has passed already!

I also started writing something else before deleting it, thinking nobody would care to read that stuff.

Then I remembered… this is literally my own website. I can write and post whatever I want, and people are free to read or not read it, not like I’m forcing anyone to do anything! If this bores you, but you read it all, then that’s on you frankly 😛

So I’m back to ramble for a bit, for no real reason other than holding myself accountable and trying to keep some structure in what I’m doing.

I figure a decent enough topic would just be to yap about whatever I’ve been up to this past month, because while I’ve been neglecting the blog drafts sitting in my notion databases, I have actually been pretty on top of things.

I spent a couple of weeks building a system where I could take notes, store articles, and keep track of interesting resources while I do my study. The cool thing about this was that I had to actually do study to use and test the system, so I kind of tricked myself into doing work.

While I did that I was learning the theory behind data analysis and looking up some prominent names in the data visualisatoin scene for inspiration. These concepts will make an appearance in my next post where I discuss how I analysed my recent trip to Scotland, and the one after that when I’ve finally visualised it.

However it does come to a point where I have to learn the technical skills behind it all, and that’s when I really started to have fun!

I haven’t studied maths since grade 11, when I was 16. So I made my way to Google and searched “how do I learn statistics for data analysis” and I was presented with two awesome learning tools that both happened to have a month free trial. What a coincidence, I had a month left of work before flying out at the time, why not try them.

Those resources are Brilliant (kind of like Duolingo but for maths) and DataCamp, an in-browser coding school that I can quickly an easily load up during down time at work.

Perhaps the most useful thing I learnt from these two apps is that I really vibe with their teaching methods. For example, DataCamp shows a 3 minute video explaining a function, and then makes you practice it immediately after. This really tickles my fancy, the videos only include relevant information and the hands on practice keeps me from losing focus.

On Brilliant, they have successfully broken down complex topics into ELI5 comprehension, and the use a similar format. A short interactive lesson, and then a practice session to cement what you’ve learnt.

I’m currently a month in, and I can say it’s the most consistent I’ve been with self studying anything, probably because I’ve finally found a path that I’m passionate about, but it’s also down to finding a learning style that works for me. Shout out to my therapist who has been helping me with that over the past 7 months lmao

I wonder if I can spin this into something valuable for others before I sign off…

If you’re struggling to stick to something, it’s very unlikely that it’s laziness. I’m finally starting to understand that I do best when I work with my brain, and not against it. Every single time I’ve started something and given up on it, it’s been a learning moment. Ask yourself why it didn’t work for you, so that next time you don’t bother with those tactics. Reflect and analyse 😉

With that I’ll shut up and start working on the stuff I actually intended to post, thanks for reading, you’re awesome.