# Learning Goal: Data Analysis Foundations

## My Learning Goal
Within 2 months, get the lay of the land of NLP and data analysis techniques, and rebuild a working mathematical understanding of basic statistical analysis.

## Why It Matters
I often struggle with information overload and figuring out what's important. I want to be able to take a jumble of data and extract the vital things without getting lost — to orient myself to concrete facts.

## My If-Then Plans
- If I reach for a library to solve a problem I actually want to learn, then I will not use the library — I will crack open a new crate and write it myself, using the library's source code as reference if needed.

## My First Step
Download some textbooks, do Wikipedia dives, take notes, and pull out a spreadsheet to work through basic statistics.

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# Learning Goal: PostgreSQL Fluency

## My Learning Goal
Within 6 months, develop fluency with SQL and PostgreSQL — being able to construct complex expressions freely because I understand what they mean and how they work, not just looking them up.

## Why It Matters
Right now I can build a database but struggle to extract specific subsets of information. With this fluency I'd be able to get at key information easily — which connects directly to the broader goal of not getting lost in data.

## My If-Then Plans
- If I get stuck on an SQL expression, then I will work through specific examples from the dataset manually — in a spreadsheet if needed — to figure out what the query actually needs to do.
- If I feel lost and don't have enough of a map to know what to ask, then I will play with the data manually, doing the operations step by step, to figure out what has to happen to get from a lot of data down to the specific data I need.

## My First Step
Use the real database work already in front of me as the practice ground — every time I hit a wall, work through it manually before reaching for an answer.

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# Learning Goal: Profiling, Performance, and Testing

## My Learning Goal
Within 2–3 months, learn the profiling tools in the Rust ecosystem. Within 6 months to a year, develop good profiling technique — making it a natural, habitual part of how I work, not something bolted on after the fact.

## Why It Matters
I'm doing non-traditional DB design with event sourcing and writing my own algorithms for big data work. I need to know if things are actually fast, and whether improvements actually improve them — not just feel like it.

## My If-Then Plans
- Even if my code feels fast enough, I will still create profiling loops throughout to understand how long things are actually taking and establish a baseline.
- If I find myself blindly trying techniques to increase speed, I will instead write profiling code first to find the real bottlenecks — so I know where to focus and when I've actually improved things.

## My First Step
Learn the Rust profiling ecosystem — find the tools, get one set up in the current project, and create a first profiling loop.

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# Learning Goal: Rust Type System

## My Goal
Within 3–6 months, be able to design traits, type structures, and trait bounds independently — without needing LLM assistance to construct them. When I can look at a data relationship, translate it into types and bounds myself, and work through the design to completion, I'll know I'm there.

## Why It Matters
The same way I can follow pointers and imagine data structures spatially, I want that fluency with types — not memorizing rules, but being able to see the shape of a problem and express it.

## My Self-Check
If I can't sketch the whole structure in an editor without leaning on example code, I haven't internalized it yet.

## My If-Then Plans
- If I get stuck and start losing motivation, then I will open my journal and work through it in writing.
- If I reach for example code before I can sketch something myself, then I will close it and try to sketch it in an editor first.

## My First Step
Keep working on the data collection and analysis project — writing as much of the code manually as possible, without LLM assistance from the start.
