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what is the hardest subject to lean? And how long did it take you?

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Bubble99

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 15, 2015
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What is the hardest to lean not in difficulty as some people may find calculus or computer assembly language hard and others may not find it hard at all but the about of time to learn it.

Well I group the subject in three parts of understanding/grasping it, intermediate and mastering it. In school or studying on your own where do you think it falls in that category.

Well engineering and physics seem to be the hardest. As physics or engineering is not some thing in three years you would be at understanding/grasping it and not even close to a intermediate level.

Well physics like a medical doctor is like 10 years of school before you get your phd at a mastering level.

But studying finance, economics or philosophy for three years would put you close to a intermediate level.

But studying psychology, neuroscience for three years would put you at understanding/grasping than say an intermediate level.

Leaning history or computer programming is probably the easiest as you can get say an intermediate level in one year if it is one topic. Say you going to learn WW2 or python or C++
 
As a mechanical engineer who has recently moved into software. Mastery of these isn’t something I call “difficult”.

What has been hardest for me to master is refereeing rugby. This while not a subject you were probably asking about is something which has been exceptionally difficult. Not only is it something you need to know the intricacies of the rules, you need to understand their context, manage players who are trying to compete, provide a good fair outcome. Every decision you have less than 1s to make, and every incorrect one scrutinised. Rules that get updated every couple of years too.

You have to do all this while running around with your heart at 180bpm
 
Lihp8270 said:
As a mechanical engineer who has recently moved into software. Mastery of these isn’t something I call “difficult”.

What has been hardest for me to master is refereeing rugby. This while not a subject you were probably asking about is something which has been exceptionally difficult. Not only is it something you need to know the intricacies of the rules, you need to understand their context, manage players who are trying to compete, provide a good fair outcome. Every decision you have less than 1s to make, and every incorrect one scrutinised. Rules that get updated every couple of years too.

You have to do all this while running around with your heart at 180bpm
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Well I read about how they say you need 10,000 hours needed to be good at sports, swimming, boxing, martial arts, music, chest, card games, drawing, art, so on.
 
lostom said:
Possibly, English and grammar.

I'm sure the other's you mentioned are also difficult.
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Indeed. When I finally thought I had the language mastered, they go and change it on me.😩 Growing up rules were we use shall for singular and will for plural. Now it's okay to use will for both singlar and plural.😑 Dagnabit, used to be ain't wasn't a word, now it is. I miss the days when literally only mean literally, not literally and figuratively. What really chaps my hide is they started replaceing all the thee and thou with you. How unpoetic.🤨
English, why you keep moving goalpost?🤓
 
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Bubble99 said:
What is the hardest to lean not in difficulty as some people may find calculus or computer assembly language hard and others may not find it hard at all but the about of time to learn it.

Well I group the subject in three parts of understanding/grasping it, intermediate and mastering it. In school or studying on your own where do you think it falls in that category.

Well engineering and physics seem to be the hardest. As physics or engineering is not some thing in three years you would be at understanding/grasping it and not even close to a intermediate level.

Well physics like a medical doctor is like 10 years of school before you get your phd at a mastering level.

But studying finance, economics or philosophy for three years would put you close to a intermediate level.

But studying psychology, neuroscience for three years would put you at understanding/grasping than say an intermediate level.

Leaning history or computer programming is probably the easiest as you can get say an intermediate level in one year if it is one topic. Say you going to learn WW2 or python or C++
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That’s easy. Life. It takes a lifetime to master.
 
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Bubble99 said:
What is the hardest to lean (sic) not in difficulty as some people may find calculus or computer assembly language hard and others may not find it hard at all but the about of time to learn it.

Well I group the subject in three parts of understanding/grasping it, intermediate and mastering it. In school or studying on your own where do you think it falls in that category.

Well engineering and physics seem to be the hardest. As physics or engineering is not some thing in three years you would be at understanding/grasping it and not even close to a intermediate level.

Well physics like a medical doctor is like 10 years of school before you get your phd at a mastering level.

But studying finance, economics or philosophy for three years would put you close to a intermediate level.

But studying psychology, neuroscience for three years would put you at understanding/grasping than say an intermediate level.

Leaning history or computer programming is probably the easiest as you can get say an intermediate level in one year if it is one topic. Say you going to learn WW2 or python or C++
Click to expand...
Spelling obviously
 
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Health economics. I had the worst professor ever who blamed the class for not understanding material he never taught. It was interesting stuff. Just a shame the professor didn’t know how to teach it!
 
Apple_Robert said:
I think the hardest subject to master is learning how to die while living life to the fullest.
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Did you leave out a "not" between "how" and "to die"?

I think it would take no skill at all to "learn how to die" while doing any number of risky but fulfilling activities (e.g. skydiving, cliff climbing, swimming with sharks, hand-feeding alligators, etc.). The skill would be needed if one's goal were to repeat such activities, or go on to different ones.

Or perhaps I've misunderstood your post.
 
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chown33 said:
Did you leave out a "not" between "how" and "to die"?

I think it would take no skill at all to "learn how to die" while doing any number of risky but fulfilling activities (e.g. skydiving, cliff climbing, swimming with sharks, hand-feeding alligators, etc.). The skill would be needed if one's goal were to repeat such activities, or go on to different ones.

Or perhaps I've misunderstood your post.
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I had a different meaning involved than the literal interpretation you deduced. That is not your fault. I was thinking more ethereal.
 
piattj said:
Cisco CCNA. Never worked so hard as on that one...
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Well it also depends how much the person knows about computers and experience working with computers.

A novice studying for a comptia A+ cert or network+ cert could take months to learn and understand it. Well some one having a computer experience can do it in two or three weeks.

Programming is the easiest you could learn any programming language in less than year and be at intermediate level.
 
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Bubble99 said:
What is the hardest to lean not in difficulty as some people may find calculus or computer assembly language hard and others may not find it hard at all but the about of time to learn it.
Click to expand...

Funny you mentioned calculus. I never got to take Calculus in HS where you are somewhat spoon fed the material. My first exposure was first semester freshman year at college. In an auditorium with 200 people. We also had "lab" with a TA, but they were basically worthless.

So I simply learned how to do the problems, but had no idea what it meant or why we needed it. Made it through 2 semesters of engineering calculus. Third was kicking my @$$ when I decided I wasn't going to be an engineer and dropped it.

I went to grad school 5 years after I graduated and they required a graduate level business math class. The professor spoon fed us what it did and how it worked and it was like 💡. I finally got it 10 years later.
 
I think it depends on the person. Different people have different talents.
In spite of the mind-numbing complexity of the subject, I never found Biology (including Ecology) difficult, but Maths above a certain level has always been beyond me.

English is difficult because it is a Creole, made up from many different languages, starting with Celtic, with Latin, Norse, Teutonic, French, and many others thrown in for leavening. And that's just the vocabulary. Blend in various flavours of Grammar, some homespun and some thrown in by Academics, and you have the dog's breakfast that is English. There are few rules in English, and most of them are broken. To Easily Split Infinitives and Beyond!
And WTH is a Gerund anyway?

Some things are difficult until you find the key to understanding it.
With Statistics, it is the Normal Distribution and Standard Deviations. Once you have those down, the rest follows. (Mind you, it took me three different courses in Statistics and Biometrics before it finally sunk in.)
With Chemistry, it is Electron Distributions (think Kekule's Dream and Benzene). Leaven that with a bit of Quantum theory and you can even understand the Periodic Table.

Spouses, Nah. No-one will ever truly understand their spouse.
I may, though, understand my cat...
 
It's obviously how to correctly use an apostrophe and takes several lifetimes to master. Based on what I've seen here and on other websites/forums, less than 50% of adults can actually use one correctly. Most just seem to throw them in whenever a word ends in 'S' or seem to think it should be used to pluralize a word.

I'm obviously joking, but this is a pet peeve of mine. I'm blown away at how many people don't know how to use one.
 
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Although of course not all users on this forum have English as their first language. Or perhaps like me some might be dyslexic.
I think there are bigger things to worry about.
 
DaveFromCampbelltown said:
I think it depends on the person. Different people have different talents.
In spite of the mind-numbing complexity of the subject, I never found Biology (including Ecology) difficult, but Maths above a certain level has always been beyond me.
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Preach it, brutha. Math with numbers only = easy. Mix in the alphabet = okay, I'm near my limit now. Introduce Greek letters = it's Greek to me.
 
When I first read this thread, a line from a Kipling poem came to mind:
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster​
And treat those two impostors just the same;​

On rereading the entire poem, I realized it was a long list of "hardest subjects". So here they are, all nicely arranged in verse:
en.wikipedia.org

If— - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Bubble99 said:
Well it also depends how much the person knows about computers and experience working with computers.

A novice studying for a comptia A+ cert or network+ cert could take months to learn and understand it. Well some one having a computer experience can do it in two or three weeks.

Programming is the easiest you could learn any programming language in less than year and be at intermediate level.
Click to expand...
everyone's answer is personal to them, in responding to the OP
 
My favorite yet toughest subject has been women.
I'd go in to detail but it's going to change. Fascinating from sometime in elementary school to today.
 
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