Decide Whether You Need the Theory First
Added 2026-11-02
Judge by whether you get stuck, not by completeness.
I want to learn a practical skill (described below). Judge whether I need theory first: 1) three aspects where skipping theory leads to mistakes; 2) three aspects you can learn by doing, with theory added later; 3) a minimal hands-on path; 4) when it becomes necessary to go back for theory; 5) if I insist on theory first, name the biggest risk.
Site original
Chinese original
How to use
理论是为了不卡住，不是为了学完整。
Try tweaking it
- Ask for one diagnostic question first to locate where you are stuck.
- Replace "explain it" with "give three progressive exercises; correct me after I answer".
What you should get
- A diagnosis of exactly where you are stuck
- A small set of self-checkable exercises
Common mistakes
- Asking it to explain from scratch, and still not knowing where you went wrong.
- Memorising the explanation as the answer, then failing on any variant.
How to check the output
- It names exactly where you are stuck instead of re-explaining everything.
- Exercises are graded and self-checkable.
Where it works
- Good for: diagnosing where you are stuck, then giving the smallest exercise instead of a lecture.
- Watch out: ask it to flag uncertainty rather than memorising a confident but wrong explanation.