All of us have unique learning ability. Learning new thing has two of many approaches ( i.e TOP-DOWN or BOTTOM-UP ). TOP down approach is from Generalisation to Specialisation approach and BOTTOM up is inverse. Which approach to follow depends on the individuals choice and level of experience. In both the cases you can start small then broaden your learning and then narrow it down for easier storage and retrieval. Let's do a comparative analysis today of these approaches and understand which approach is better.
Learning something new requires lot of efforts and if you do it wrong then you tend to confuse yourself and lose confidence. Let's take an example of the BOTTOM up approach, if you are learning a new programming language and you start with the datatypes, reserved keywords, access specifiers, etc. then you will need more efforts to first store all what you learnt then club them together to create a logical whole. Most of us will argue saying that - That's how we learnt as a child. We learnt basic things then we started grouping and generalising them. But isn't it the old way of doing things since ages ? Think for a moment in the preliminary stages of human development we did not know much about our surroundings and we started with basics and built our knowledge bank and then started grouping things. We learnt about wheel followed by motion creation which lead to invention of vehicles, machines, etc. But what if we invert the approach ?
BOTTOM up approach is good when everyone ( I mean almost everyone ) is new in learning things but its a slow way to learn and recollect information. Your brain has to remember things as they are without any relation. For example if you want to buy a property and I explain you about the rooms first then tell you about the building then about the society then where is this property situated within the city, your brain will not be able to easily correlate things. On the contrary if I tell you first about where is the property in the city you brain will first try to understand how to reach to that location ? Next I explain you about the society you will know high level what all community shared assets are present. Then I explain about the building then you start think about your level or ownership in detail. Eventually when I explain about the rooms then you will know what accessibility you have in your private space.
TOP down approach is good because we can start with simple and logical things based on our prior knowledge. You can start learning a new Programming language by understanding what is the key differentiator that makes it unique. When to use it ? Why to use it ? What are its use cases ? What are it pros and cons ? Now that you got to know these things, you should look for how to write a basic code and execute it. The classic hello world program :) Now you know that you can write and run a Program written in this new language. Next comes is finding the basic components of the Program you have written and understanding them at high level. Just to know what they are. Then as mentioned above you can deep dive on different topics by starting with basic composable building block. For instance in case of Java its classes. After classes you can see its kinds like interfaces, abstract classes, etc. These are the composable things similar to classes but are different w.r.t what they represent and their use cases. Now you could go for datatypes by learning and using them in your Program sample codes. You are gradually creating a depth in your knowledge. But wait are we missing something. What about packages, modules, JAR files, etc. Aren't these at a higher level compared to classes ? Should't we start learning about them if we follow TOP down approach ? So what should we do. A new approach to follow ? Start in the middle and go both ways.
Hence I recommend a sweet spot between these approaches is to find a starting place which is not very lower level and not very higher level based on your comfort level and experience. Most of the books and official documentations which I read, do not follow this sweet spot approach, as they have to generalise things. Hence its onto us to find that spot and learn accordingly. You can either traverse both ways from the spot towards Generalisation and Specialisation following parallel baby steps. What is your sweet starting spot of learning a new Programming language ? Think over it !!
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