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curriculum/1.solar-system/1.welcome/10.how-to-learn/index.md

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---
type: story
title: "How to Learn Here"
xp: 25
duration: 25
difficulty: 1
---
# How to Learn Here
> **[INCOMING — Mission Control, Earth]**
>
> Cadet, take a breath. You've spent the morning in the shell.
> Before we take you to Git, we need you to know how learning actually
> works in this program.
>
> Cadets who finish the program share three habits. Cadets who quit
> share three different ones. We're going to tell you which is which.
>
> [TRANSMISSION CONTINUES]
## Rule 1 — Understand Every Line
You will use AI here. Claude, ChatGPT, our onboard NAV-7 — whatever
you reach for. We don't forbid it. We *expect* it. The world you're
training to enter assumes AI fluency.
But there is one rule that does not bend:
**You must be able to explain every line of code you submit.**
If AI writes a function and you can't say what each line does and why,
you have not learned. You've outsourced thinking. The checkpoint will
catch the gap. The first real project will catch it harder. Use AI as
a tutor and a sparring partner — never as a ghostwriter.
## Rule 2 — Help the Cadet Next to You
This is a peer-learning environment. There are no professors here.
There are people who landed last month, last week, and yesterday — and
right now, you.
Two things follow from that:
- **When you understand something, teach it.** Explaining a concept to
someone else cements it in your own head better than reading it twice.
- **When you don't understand something, ask.** Your peers solved this
exact problem hours, days, or weeks ago. Their explanation will
usually beat ours.
The cohort is the curriculum. Treat it that way and the program runs
on rails. Ignore it and you'll fall behind alone.
## Rule 3 — Struggle First, for Fifteen Minutes
When you get stuck — and you will, every day — the instinct is to ask
right away. Resist it.
For fifteen minutes, struggle. Re-read the briefing. Read the error
message slowly. Try one thing. Try a second thing. Notice what you
expected versus what actually happened.
Most of your real learning happens in those fifteen minutes. Skip them
and you don't just miss the answer — you miss the *thinking*. After
fifteen, ask. Not before.
## Asking a Good Question
When you do ask — peer, AI, or staff — three things make a good
question:
1. **Context.** What were you trying to do?
2. **What you tried.** What approach did you take? What error did you
see?
3. **The exact error.** Copy it. Don't summarize it.
A good question gets answered in ten minutes. A bad question gets
ignored for an hour, or worse, gets the wrong answer because nobody
understood what you meant.
> **[CLOSING — Mission Control]**
>
> Two days in, you'll have habits. Make sure they're the right ones.
>
> Six Git challenges follow. Then a paired battle. Then Python.
>
> Keep going.
>
> [END TRANSMISSION]