Learning depends on the environment and whether it is pursued in an auto-didactic sense (Even for a job, say) or whether you are learning for an exam/part of a cohort.<p>It's not wrong to say Curriculum does not matter. But the level of curriculum is also something that needs to adjust to your current level and related fields you have knowledge within, to prevent you becoming overwhelmed.<p>Most people stop learning being motivation dries up as Test Anxiety rises to the point where they are at a "low-performance" place in the eustress curve. A few days there and people pause until it becomes urgent. A lot of this is a lack of momentum, but also not dedicating or having access to judgements of learning about your own progress.<p>In other words, if you judge your learning at all, it helps you manage.<p>There is a natural tradeoff between the flow-state of "just one flashcard with one information principle at a time, endlessly" and the longer term state influencing your time in flow-state of "am I progressing, what don't I know, how do I feel about my learning and mistakes?"<p>Think about learning databases, or CSS. When did you really takeoff?
Probably A) Practically copying others examples (existing queries ran in PhpMyAdmin, or codepen code)
And then later B) Once you overcame a big mistake and saw progress - suddenly what "Display" did clicked for you, and you saw how useful it could be to use the "fixed" option, it unlocked your understanding of the items in A and confirmed or disconfirmed your understanding of how it works.<p>Again it all depends. Self-motivated learning, even for a job, is easier to work with than compulsory learning. Because there, you don't even have the motivation to gaze up to the horizon and gather any excitement or understanding for what the learning might later lead to. It doesn't feel like a path, it feels like a brick wall. In this regard, a list of subjects is somewhat skin to someone stacking bricks, rather than elucidating a path. Overwhelming anxiety while learning is a real thing. The context really matters as to whether this approach is always the wisest.