The cure for accumulating knowledge for later use?

I've recently found myself stuck in books.

I fell into the trap of accumulating knowledge for later use.

You know, it will surely come in handy someday.

Unfortunately, that "someday" is also the time when I'll seriously start creating games 😒

To somehow get back on track, I've decided to overthink the relationship between theory and practice.

Only practice will push us forward and help us achieve our goals, no need to explain that. Just like you, I've heard it many times:

• Just start.

• You only need enough knowledge to begin, no more.

• Don't learn more than you need.

• Need-to-know basis.

Of course, it's easy to say "only as much as you need at the moment," but it's harder to know what that means in each case.

Nevertheless, if we aimed only for the minimum and made progress, could we benefit from delving into theory?

Of course, the only question is: when?

Enlightenment came recently when I realized that theory is the second thing (besides experiments) that can help us refine our skills.

Without theory…

• we won't optimize the code; it requires knowledge of how the chosen technological tool works.

• we'd have to try something to find out if it can't be done, with theory (or just experience) we can often know the answer beforehand.

But starting with theory to end up with minimal practice often results in… Well, this…

So.

Practice first!

Then theory. It is mandatory, though.

As The Techlead once said:

Do the extra mile; it's less crowded there.