Ask HN: What techniques do you use for gradually learning some topic?
There was a recent post here about handy git commands, and some of the comments mentioned a few commands not covered.  It reminded me that I've been meaning to expand my git-fu, but have not gotten around to it.<p>Likewise with improving my vi skills, my German vocabulary, and some number of other things.<p>Since I often don't follow up on setting aside explicit time to focus and study and practice, I've been playing with background or ambient learning.  For example, I have a twitter account that posts a random German word, with English translation, each hour.  I don't check it all the time, but I do read it when I'm glancing over a twitter feed.   (I also wrote a desktop flash-card thing to do the same thing, sliding into view every N minutes.)<p>What techniques to you all have for gradually acquiring new knowledge of some domain, in lieu of actually sitting still and studying?