<story><title>12 Months of Mandarin</title><url>https://isaak.net/mandarin/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lxe</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think I can do SRS. My dopamine system is at a point where I can&amp;#x27;t do anything for a long time that isn&amp;#x27;t interesting, has immediate or intermediate rewards, or can capture attention for a long time. And on top of that, repeating that habit requires all these criteria.&lt;p&gt;Examples:&lt;p&gt;Scrolling on the phone?: Basically direct dopamine injected into my brain. Can do indefinitely. Not good.&lt;p&gt;Programming? Sure I can put a few hours in, or even days if building quick prototypes where the payoff is imminent.&lt;p&gt;Reading? Can go on indefinitely, depending on the book: it&amp;#x27;s just continual stream of interesting immersive stuff&lt;p&gt;Exercise? Well that depends on the activity. Running indoors without any stimulation: absolutely cannot do. Cycling or running or walking outside with an audiobook, or music? Absolutely: constant stimulation plus endorphins.&lt;p&gt;Learning Piano? Only if I can bang out a few good tunes immediately in the session, then I can allow myself to struggle with the difficult stuff in between. Absolutely cannot and won&amp;#x27;t do rote deliberate practice. This hinders my progress significantly, but at least I have fun.&lt;p&gt;Learning a language? Well, unless I can get imminent rewards, or be continually interested and engaged, there&amp;#x27;s just no way I&amp;#x27;ll be able to do this. And I feel like rote, deliberate practice is just impossible for me to build a habit out of.&lt;p&gt;One way I know for a fact that I can learn another language is through necessity to communicate with it. Let&amp;#x27;s say I&amp;#x27;m thrown into an environment where the ONLY way I can get anything done is through having to communicate directly, without the aid of translators or tools. I think this is how babies learn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>swatcoder</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t think I can do SRS. My dopamine system...&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m willing to bet you&amp;#x27;ve never had probes analyzing anything about your dopamine system and how it responds to any of the activities you go on to describe. More likely, you&amp;#x27;ve started using trendy pseudo-scientific jargon to justify why you &lt;i&gt;believe&lt;/i&gt; yourself to be physiologically limited.&lt;p&gt;Do you struggle to see through or enjoy to some of those activities? So be it.&lt;p&gt;But chalking that up to some scientific sounding stuff you pieced together over the years just hardens those limitations. It&amp;#x27;s a very bad habit that&amp;#x27;s become really common lately. I strongly recommend trying to break it. It&amp;#x27;ll open up some doors that you&amp;#x27;re currently keeping shut.</text></comment>
<story><title>12 Months of Mandarin</title><url>https://isaak.net/mandarin/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lxe</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think I can do SRS. My dopamine system is at a point where I can&amp;#x27;t do anything for a long time that isn&amp;#x27;t interesting, has immediate or intermediate rewards, or can capture attention for a long time. And on top of that, repeating that habit requires all these criteria.&lt;p&gt;Examples:&lt;p&gt;Scrolling on the phone?: Basically direct dopamine injected into my brain. Can do indefinitely. Not good.&lt;p&gt;Programming? Sure I can put a few hours in, or even days if building quick prototypes where the payoff is imminent.&lt;p&gt;Reading? Can go on indefinitely, depending on the book: it&amp;#x27;s just continual stream of interesting immersive stuff&lt;p&gt;Exercise? Well that depends on the activity. Running indoors without any stimulation: absolutely cannot do. Cycling or running or walking outside with an audiobook, or music? Absolutely: constant stimulation plus endorphins.&lt;p&gt;Learning Piano? Only if I can bang out a few good tunes immediately in the session, then I can allow myself to struggle with the difficult stuff in between. Absolutely cannot and won&amp;#x27;t do rote deliberate practice. This hinders my progress significantly, but at least I have fun.&lt;p&gt;Learning a language? Well, unless I can get imminent rewards, or be continually interested and engaged, there&amp;#x27;s just no way I&amp;#x27;ll be able to do this. And I feel like rote, deliberate practice is just impossible for me to build a habit out of.&lt;p&gt;One way I know for a fact that I can learn another language is through necessity to communicate with it. Let&amp;#x27;s say I&amp;#x27;m thrown into an environment where the ONLY way I can get anything done is through having to communicate directly, without the aid of translators or tools. I think this is how babies learn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hintymad</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t think I can do SRS&lt;p&gt;No need. :-) Comprehensible Input and immersive language usage can be your superpower.</text></comment>