5 Learning Anti-Patterns
Summary
In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cottrell revisits the foundational topic of learning by examining five common anti-patterns that hinder effective knowledge acquisition. He argues that many developers and students default to these counterproductive habits, mistaking activity for progress.
The first anti-pattern is filling every spare moment with active learning input, akin to cramming. Cottrell explains that the brain needs downtime, especially sleep, to consolidate information. The second is hyper-focusing on a single subject at a time. Instead, he advocates for interleaving—learning two or three subjects in sequence—as it forces the brain to retrieve and contrast information, simulating real-world application.
The third anti-pattern is “waterfall learning,” where all studying (input) is separated from testing or application (retrieval). Cottrell emphasizes that learning is fundamentally about retrieval; thus, frequent self-testing, even before fully knowing the material, is more effective than passive consumption. The fourth, “softball learning,” involves only practicing easy retrievals. True learning requires pushing to the edge of one’s ability and embracing failure.
The final anti-pattern is “mockingbird learning,” or verbatim recitation without understanding. Cottrell suggests rephrasing concepts in your own words or teaching them to others to build genuine comprehension. Throughout, he ties the discussion back to the core principle that effective learning is an active, retrieval-heavy process that benefits from spacing, interleaving, and challenge.
Recommendations
Companies
- Linode — Sponsored the episode. A cloud hosting provider offering SSD servers starting at 20 credit for listeners using a promo code.
Tools
- Flashcards — Recommended as a very effective tool for learning because they force retrieval of information, which is a key part of the learning process.
Topic Timeline
- 00:00:00 — Introduction to learning anti-patterns — Jonathan Cottrell introduces the episode’s focus: evaluating how we learn rather than what we learn. He states the goal is to discuss five anti-patterns in the learning process, shifting from prescriptive advice to identifying common mistakes. The episode aims to help developers connect to their career purpose through better learning habits.
- 00:01:40 — Anti-pattern 1: Cramming and no downtime — The first anti-pattern is staying up late or filling every spare moment with active learning input. Cottrell shares his own past belief that learning meant constantly consuming content. He explains that the brain needs physical recuperation time, similar to a muscle, and that sleep is crucial for consolidating new information. The advice is to schedule breaks between learning sessions.
- 00:04:05 — Anti-pattern 2: Single-topic hyper-focus — The second anti-pattern is trying to learn only one very focused thing at a time. While focus is important, Cottrell cites science supporting interleaving—learning multiple subjects in sequence. This works by providing contrast and forcing retrieval when switching topics, which simulates real-world use of information. He suggests trying two or three subjects, with focused sessions on each, but not to the exclusion of others.
- 00:09:01 — Recap and sponsor message — Cottrell recaps the first two anti-patterns: avoiding cramming and embracing interleaving. He then delivers a sponsor message for Linode, detailing their cloud services, pricing, and a promo code for listeners. The episode returns to the topic of learning anti-patterns after the break.
- 00:09:52 — Anti-pattern 3: Waterfall learning — The third anti-pattern, dubbed ‘waterfall learning,’ is separating all studying (input) from testing or application (retrieval). Cottrell compares this to traditional school testing. He argues learning should be a back-and-forth between applying knowledge and refining it. Frequent retrieval, even via tools like flashcards used early, is key because learning hinges on the act of retrieving information, not just absorbing it.
- 00:14:01 — Anti-pattern 4: Softball learning — The fourth anti-pattern is ‘softball learning’—practicing only easy retrievals that don’t stretch your ability. Cottrell explains that if retrieval becomes too easy, it stops promoting learning. Effective learning requires pushing to failure, such as attempting to write a program with minimal prior knowledge. The difficulty of the retrieval process itself is what strengthens learning pathways.
- 00:16:04 — Anti-pattern 5: Mockingbird learning — The final anti-pattern is ‘mockingbird learning’—verbatim recitation or memorization without understanding. Cottrell uses the analogy of a mockingbird imitating sounds without understanding music. He recommends rephrasing learned concepts in your own words, teaching them to someone else, or applying the knowledge in a slightly different context (like building a grocery list instead of a to-do list) to ensure genuine comprehension and integration.
- 00:18:07 — Quick recap and conclusion — Cottrell quickly recaps all five anti-patterns: 1) cramming/no breaks, 2) single-topic focus, 3) waterfall learning, 4) softball learning, and 5) mockingbird learning. He encourages listeners to subscribe if they found value and thanks the sponsor, Linode, once more before signing off.
Episode Info
- Podcast: Developer Tea
- Author: Jonathan Cutrell
- Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
- Published: 2018-09-28T09:00:00Z
- Duration: 00:19:25
References
- URL PocketCasts: https://pocketcasts.com/podcast/developer-tea/cbe9b6c0-7da4-0132-e6ef-5f4c86fd3263/5-learning-anti-patterns/3e62810c-e346-4753-beae-f5ac4ba17479
- Episode UUID: 3e62810c-e346-4753-beae-f5ac4ba17479
Podcast Info
- Name: Developer Tea
- Type: episodic
- Site: http://www.developertea.com
- UUID: cbe9b6c0-7da4-0132-e6ef-5f4c86fd3263
Transcript
[00:00:00] What was the last time you evaluated the way that you learn?
[00:00:10] Not the things that you’re learning, not the things that you’re planning to put into
[00:00:14] your list of, you know, languages that you can put on your resume.
[00:00:21] I’m talking about the way that you go about learning.
[00:00:27] This is one of the very first topics we talked about on the show, and we’re kind of getting
[00:00:30] back to the bread and butter in today’s episode.
[00:00:34] Instead of talking about how you should be learning, in today’s episode, we’re going
[00:00:38] to talk about some anti-patterns for the learning process.
[00:00:42] My name is Jonathan Cottrell, and you’re listening to Developer Tea.
[00:00:45] My goal on this show is to help driven developers like you connect to your career
[00:00:48] purpose so you can do better work and have a positive influence on the people
[00:00:52] around you.
[00:00:53] We have five anti-patterns today, so we’re going to get straight into the episode.
[00:00:59] Before we do, I want to encourage you to subscribe in whatever podcasting app you
[00:01:02] use.
[00:01:03] In particular, you can use this as kind of a test or a trigger.
[00:01:07] If you hear something on this episode that you think is particularly useful, then
[00:01:14] use that as your judging criteria.
[00:01:16] If you think that nothing that you hear in this episode is worthwhile, then I
[00:01:20] don’t blame you for not subscribing.
[00:01:22] But if you do hear one thing that you think is worthwhile, then I encourage you to
[00:01:26] subscribe because I hope to provide value to you in future episodes, and the
[00:01:31] best way to ensure that you don’t miss out on those is to subscribe.
[00:01:35] Alright, so let’s jump into these five anti-patterns for learning.
[00:01:40] Number one, staying up late or otherwise filling every spare moment with some kind
[00:01:47] of active learning.
[00:01:49] You know, I’ve done this, and most people have, especially as a young developer.
[00:01:54] And while I was in school, a lot of the time I thought that studying meant
[00:02:01] consuming some kind of learning material, whether that learning material was a
[00:02:06] video or a book or some kind of lecture.
[00:02:12] My idea for what it meant to learn started with someone teaching a subject
[00:02:19] to me, whether that person was actively teaching it directly to me or if I was
[00:02:25] consuming it passively or asynchronously or in whatever way that I was
[00:02:30] consuming this content, I felt like the only way that I could say that I
[00:02:35] was actively learning was when I was consuming something.
[00:02:40] Now, this is incredibly untrue.
[00:02:42] A related version of this is cramming, right?
[00:02:45] Trying to push things into your brain.
[00:02:50] And as it turns out, this is not a good way to learn.
[00:02:54] Instead, we should be treating our brains for what they are.
[00:02:59] Our brains are a physical part of our bodies, and there are physical
[00:03:04] processes that have to take place for us to learn.
[00:03:07] And those processes do not happen at whatever speed we choose.
[00:03:12] As it turns out, learning is best done when we give our brains time to
[00:03:17] recuperate after that learning session.
[00:03:20] It’s not exactly like a muscle, but in a lot of ways, you can think of it that way.
[00:03:26] Providing yourself some time to recuperate actually aids the learning
[00:03:30] process, and sleep is incredibly important for this particular thing.
[00:03:35] I don’t try to give you really specific practices, but if there is one
[00:03:40] specific practice that I wish all developers would pay more attention to,
[00:03:45] that would be sleep.
[00:03:46] Sleep is a key part of learning new information.
[00:03:51] So I encourage you, for this first anti-pattern, instead of trying to fill
[00:03:55] every spare moment with trying to learn something new, give yourself time
[00:03:59] in between your learning sessions.
[00:04:03] Okay, anti-pattern number two.
[00:04:05] Trying to learn only one very focused thing at a time.
[00:04:09] And this may seem antithetical, it may seem even unexpected or counterintuitive,
[00:04:18] especially considering how often we talk about focus on the show.
[00:04:22] Another one of the earliest topics that we discussed on Developer Tea
[00:04:26] was focus.
[00:04:27] But as it turns out, when you are learning, one of the best things you
[00:04:31] can do is interleave your learning of multiple subjects together.
[00:04:39] The science backs this up, and I can’t tell you exactly why this works,
[00:04:44] but the science supports it.
[00:04:46] There are some reasonable theories as to why this works.
[00:04:49] For example, as you’re learning one subject, you can compare it
[00:04:53] to another subject.
[00:04:55] It gives you sort of something to grasp both subjects by.
[00:05:00] Rather than hyper-focusing on the one, you’re allowing yourself to kind
[00:05:06] of ping pong between the two, and that gives you contrast.
[00:05:11] Another and perhaps the more prevailing theory is that as you jump away from
[00:05:16] content, when you return to that content, whatever the content is,
[00:05:22] you’re forcing your brain to retrieve something that it has kind of moved
[00:05:26] away from.
[00:05:27] And that retrieval process, which we will talk about quite a few times on
[00:05:31] today’s episode, that retrieval process is key to learning as well.
[00:05:36] So as you’re training your brain to retrieve information that you haven’t
[00:05:40] actively been using, this is kind of a simulation of how you would use
[00:05:44] that information in real life.
[00:05:45] Very few times do we use only one small kind of narrow bit of
[00:05:53] information that we’ve learned in the past.
[00:05:55] We usually are using that information amongst other pieces of information,
[00:06:00] perhaps all of the time we are using information in concert with other
[00:06:05] information.
[00:06:06] And so it makes sense for us to try to simulate some of that in our
[00:06:11] learning process as well.
[00:06:13] So how many things can you learn at once?
[00:06:16] I was unable to find a really specific number for this, but I would
[00:06:20] encourage you to try two or three things and see how it works out for
[00:06:23] you.
[00:06:24] Certainly, there’s probably a cognitive limit as to how many things
[00:06:28] you can interleave before you truly don’t have enough focus to learn any
[00:06:33] of those things.
[00:06:35] And how you should interleave these things, you know, this point is not
[00:06:40] saying that you should read one page from one book and then read one page
[00:06:44] from another book.
[00:06:45] Instead, it’s about having focused learning sessions, but not multiple
[00:06:51] focused learning sessions in one topic at the exclusion of other topics.
[00:06:55] Right?
[00:06:55] So in other words, when you’re learning one topic, stay focused for that
[00:07:00] learning session, you know, whatever that learning session looks like.
[00:07:03] Maybe it’s you reading a chapter in a book or you’re actually applying this
[00:07:08] information and then move to a different subject.
[00:07:11] That is the process of interleaving, not trying to learn things quite
[00:07:16] literally at the same time, but instead more in series or
[00:07:20] sequentially with each other.
[00:07:22] OK, we’ve got three more anti-patterns that I want to get through.
[00:07:25] But before we do that, I want to talk about today’s awesome sponsor,
[00:07:28] Linode.
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[00:08:55] Thank you again to Linode for sponsoring today’s episode of developer T.
[00:09:01] So we’re talking about learning anti-patterns in today’s episode.
[00:09:06] These are things that you might be doing,
[00:09:08] thinking that they’re going to help you learn.
[00:09:11] We already discussed the first one was staying up late, cramming,
[00:09:17] filling every moment that you can with some kind of input.
[00:09:21] You need to take breaks, right?
[00:09:23] That’s the point of that first anti-pattern.
[00:09:26] The second anti-pattern is trying to learn
[00:09:28] only one very focused thing at a time,
[00:09:30] trying to become the master of that one thing
[00:09:33] before you move on to anything else.
[00:09:35] And you’re going to learn much more efficiently
[00:09:39] if you interleave subjects with each other.
[00:09:42] All right, so we’ve got three more anti-patterns.
[00:09:45] And these are, I’ve given these ones names
[00:09:49] and I think they’re particularly important to pay attention to.
[00:09:52] The first one is called waterfall learning.
[00:09:54] And hopefully you’re familiar with the concept of waterfall.
[00:09:57] If you’re not, the concept of waterfall development
[00:10:01] is working entirely in phases.
[00:10:03] So you have something like specification phase
[00:10:06] and then design phase, then build phase, then launch phase.
[00:10:11] And we’re not going to get into whether or not
[00:10:13] this is a good idea for development,
[00:10:16] software development, generally speaking.
[00:10:19] But we are going to talk about waterfall learning.
[00:10:22] And waterfall learning is essentially trying to
[00:10:26] shove all of your studying into one phase
[00:10:30] and all of your execution or your testing
[00:10:33] or your performance into another phase.
[00:10:37] Now this is similar to the way that schools
[00:10:41] tend to test students, right?
[00:10:44] So we’re kind of used to this pattern
[00:10:46] where we study, study, study, study,
[00:10:49] and then we have a test, right?
[00:10:50] We study, study, study, and then we have a performance.
[00:10:54] Unfortunately, this is really a terrible way to learn.
[00:10:59] Learning should be a back and forth process
[00:11:01] between applying knowledge in some way
[00:11:04] and then refining that knowledge
[00:11:06] and then applying it again.
[00:11:09] A much better cadence would be study, test, study, test,
[00:11:14] study, test, because as you’re testing,
[00:11:17] you’re using that test as a way of learning in and of itself.
[00:11:23] The process of testing is actually
[00:11:27] one of the most valuable teachers
[00:11:29] that you’ll have in your learning journey.
[00:11:32] That’s because learning is all about retrieval.
[00:11:35] We’ve said that word a few times in today’s episode,
[00:11:37] but learning is all about retrieval.
[00:11:39] And so the more times that you force yourself
[00:11:42] to retrieve information,
[00:11:45] the more effective that learning process will be.
[00:11:50] That’s very general, but if you think about it this way,
[00:11:53] if you were to consistently test yourself with,
[00:11:57] for example, flashcards.
[00:11:59] Flashcards happen to be a very effective tool for learning
[00:12:03] because they’re requiring you to retrieve information.
[00:12:07] It is a much better strategy for you
[00:12:09] to try to use those flashcards
[00:12:14] before you ever even know the answers, right?
[00:12:17] There’s actually some research that supports this.
[00:12:19] Before you even know the answers
[00:12:21] to the other side of the flashcard,
[00:12:24] using those flashcards and forcing retrieval
[00:12:28] is a much better strategy than staring at the answers, right?
[00:12:33] If you have the question and the answer,
[00:12:36] if you know how to read those questions and answers.
[00:12:40] This is equivalent to sitting and watching 50 videos
[00:12:44] on how to, you know, I don’t know,
[00:12:47] how to design something in React, right?
[00:12:51] If you sit there and watch all 50 of those,
[00:12:53] you’re not really doing much retrieval at all.
[00:12:56] And so what you’ve accidentally done
[00:12:58] is you’ve created this waterfall learning process
[00:13:01] where all of your studying,
[00:13:03] all of your so-called learning,
[00:13:05] the input phase is happening all at once.
[00:13:09] And then you’re gonna go and try to do something with it.
[00:13:12] And this is the first time that you’ve triggered
[00:13:15] that retrieval pathway.
[00:13:17] The earlier and the more often
[00:13:19] you can retrieve that information,
[00:13:22] the more likely you are to learn it.
[00:13:25] And remember, keep in mind,
[00:13:27] this is not to the exclusion
[00:13:29] of spacing those learning sessions out
[00:13:31] so that your retrieval is not happening back to back.
[00:13:34] You want to space out those retrievals
[00:13:37] and interleave them so that retrieval
[00:13:40] is a little bit more difficult each time.
[00:13:43] But the last thing that you wanna do
[00:13:45] is stop the retrieval process for an extended period,
[00:13:49] trying to shove information into your brain.
[00:13:51] This is not the way learning works.
[00:13:53] Okay, so that is number three,
[00:13:56] the third anti-pattern of learning, waterfall learning.
[00:13:59] The fourth anti-pattern of learning
[00:14:01] is called softball learning, softball learning.
[00:14:04] This is learning without stretching
[00:14:05] to the edges of your ability.
[00:14:08] The retrieval process, you learning one thing
[00:14:11] and then constantly retrieving
[00:14:12] that same thing over and over,
[00:14:14] eventually that retrieval is no longer causing learning.
[00:14:20] Instead, it’s just retrieval.
[00:14:23] So what does this mean?
[00:14:23] Well, essentially learning is giving yourself
[00:14:27] new information that you can retrieve into the future.
[00:14:33] If the information that you are retrieving
[00:14:36] is easy to retrieve,
[00:14:37] and you just retrieve it over and over and over,
[00:14:41] it doesn’t really have major benefits
[00:14:43] to your learning process.
[00:14:45] In some ways, you’re not really learning at all.
[00:14:47] Instead, start by pushing yourself to the limit.
[00:14:53] Your self-testing or quizzing
[00:14:56] or whatever retrieval process you use
[00:14:59] should push you to failure.
[00:15:02] You should go to the point where you are unable
[00:15:05] to continue, where you fail at something.
[00:15:09] For example, let’s say that you have done
[00:15:13] a quick overview of a particular project
[00:15:16] of a particular programming language.
[00:15:19] I would encourage you to go and try to write
[00:15:21] a program with that programming language,
[00:15:24] even when you have almost no information available.
[00:15:28] Now, this may make you feel particularly inadequate
[00:15:32] as a developer, but it’s also incredibly valuable
[00:15:36] because it’s forcing your brain to retrieve something
[00:15:39] that it doesn’t yet know how to retrieve.
[00:15:42] If instead, you simply recite some of the things
[00:15:46] that you learned, well, that retrieval process
[00:15:49] is not nearly as valuable as a more difficult
[00:15:52] retrieval process.
[00:15:54] And that’s why we call this softball learning.
[00:15:57] The idea is that you want the retrieval process
[00:16:00] to be difficult.
[00:16:02] The final anti-pattern for learning
[00:16:04] for today’s episode is called mockingbird learning.
[00:16:07] This is simply reciting information
[00:16:10] that you’ve just learned verbatim.
[00:16:13] Memorization often masquerades as learning.
[00:16:19] The problem is, if you memorize something,
[00:16:23] while you may have some raw information available,
[00:16:27] when it comes to actually integrating
[00:16:29] and using that information,
[00:16:32] and using it in concert with other information,
[00:16:36] you may not have that pathway created yet.
[00:16:41] In other words, you may not have full understanding
[00:16:43] of the information.
[00:16:44] And so mockingbird learning,
[00:16:48] just because a mockingbird can imitate
[00:16:52] the sound of a person singing, for example,
[00:16:56] doesn’t mean that a mockingbird understands music.
[00:17:01] In the same way, just because you can recite
[00:17:03] information verbatim that you’ve learned
[00:17:07] doesn’t mean you understand that information.
[00:17:09] Instead, a much better way is to rephrase
[00:17:13] what you’ve learned in your own words.
[00:17:17] This is perhaps most effectively done
[00:17:20] when you take that information
[00:17:21] and then you teach it to someone else.
[00:17:24] If you’re learning a coding concept,
[00:17:26] try to translate it into a new semantic domain.
[00:17:30] What does this mean?
[00:17:31] If you’re building, for example, a to-do list,
[00:17:34] instead of building a to-do list,
[00:17:36] try building a grocery list.
[00:17:38] This will force you to change some of the information,
[00:17:42] which will cause you to create a different grasp
[00:17:46] on that information.
[00:17:48] You’re having to go through
[00:17:49] some kind of translation process.
[00:17:51] And this causes those pathways
[00:17:54] are a little bit harder to travel
[00:17:57] than just repeating whatever it is that you just heard.
[00:18:01] And with that, we’ve reached the end
[00:18:03] of our five anti-patterns of learning.
[00:18:05] We’re going to go back through them very quickly.
[00:18:07] Number one, filling every spare moment
[00:18:10] with active learning, similar to cramming.
[00:18:13] Number two, trying to learn
[00:18:15] only one focused thing at a time.
[00:18:18] Remember, we’re supposed to be interleaving instead.
[00:18:20] Number three, waterfall learning,
[00:18:22] doing all of your learning
[00:18:23] without ever doing any retrieval.
[00:18:26] Number four, softball learning,
[00:18:28] giving yourself only very simple things to learn
[00:18:31] and simple things to retrieve,
[00:18:33] and then fooling yourself into thinking
[00:18:34] that you’re learning a lot.
[00:18:36] And then finally, mockingbird learning.
[00:18:38] It’s very similar to softball learning,
[00:18:40] but mockingbird learning,
[00:18:41] you could even be reciting very complex things.
[00:18:45] But because you’re not actually
[00:18:47] understanding the information,
[00:18:49] you’re not going to be able to apply that information.
[00:18:53] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode.
[00:18:55] And again, if you found any one thing valuable
[00:18:58] in today’s episode,
[00:18:59] I encourage you to subscribe
[00:19:01] in whatever podcasting app you use.
[00:19:03] Thank you again to Linode
[00:19:04] for sponsoring today’s episode.
[00:19:06] You can get $20 worth of Linode credit
[00:19:08] by heading over to lino.com slash developer T
[00:19:11] and using the code developerT2018 at checkout.
[00:19:15] Thank you so much for listening.
[00:19:16] And until next time, enjoy your tea.