When learning J, or any other programming language (and this also applies in various non-programming contexts), it's important to pace yourself.
Try to hard, to much, too fast, and you get overwhelmed. Give up and you do not get anywhere at all. (Sometimes these can be good things, of course - depending on your priorities.) There's a range of possibilities. I guess one important issue has to do with making connections. Each of us has our own particular realms of experiences and expertise. For example: me knowing something that you do not know does not help either of us draw a connection between that piece of information and something which you know but which I do not. The simple things are sometimes the hardest to deal with, and sometimes the best. A related issue is that education is useless if you are not able to try it out and see if it works. The reason, here, is that even the best of us make mistakes, and the only way to distinguish between a relevant insight, and an irrelevant or mistaken expression of insight is to try it out and see what happens. Of course, you can't do that with everything, either, so you also get to choose what things you will assume to be correct and what things are worth engaging in. In the context of J and the forums here, I'd put it this way: Sometimes it's good to try a bit of code out to see if it works. Sometimes, if you can't make it work, it's worth asking about (I can't tell you how many times I have felt silly for asking and sillier after seeing the answer, but it's a lot). Sometimes, if it works, it's worth exploring further or talking about. Anyways, you cannot learn from your mistakes if you never make them. And you also need to allow time for reflection, to really understand these lessons. And sometimes you just need to restate the obvious. Thanks, -- Raul ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
