Engineering: projects
Languages: talking to people, reading, studying
Dance: going to classes
It's always learn by doing with some supporting work, but what that means varies by skill.
All have a place: skill-by-skill is best for the actual *learning*, but (carefully chosen) projects are great for practicing and situating the new skill, themes provide interest, and a Big Hairy Audacious Goal provides motivation.
figure out cool end goal, cursory survey of the domain to find best practices, follow best practices studiously and iterate from feedback.
then get distracted halfway thr
Play, winds up being "skill by skill" *via* really tiny "learning projects". Learn each skill by doing projects that yield fast feedback; make sure that each thing is big enough to *yield* some feedback.
1. We refer to many apparently different activities as "play" -- play a game, play an instrument, playing around, play the fool, play someone *for* a fool.
This is not a coincidence; we use the same word because the underlying structures are deeply related.