Sometimes I learn fast
Sometimes I learn slow
So what?

Learning curve is a graphical representation of a learning rate. That is how much you have learned with a certain amount of work. This expression is used in all kinds of fields and poker and backgammon are no exceptions.

Commonly there are two interpretations of what we call a steep learning curve. Following the lines of my explanation of the term, it should mean that you learn a lot with a relatively small amount of work. On the other hand I have often seen the expression used meaning that it's very hard to learn something. Just to be clear, when I say steep learning curve, I mean that at some point you learn a lot  with a little amount of work.

Learning curve in video editing
Recently I have spent a lot of time learning to edit and produce videos. First I started out with Camtasia which turned out to be a really good program. When I first opened the program I was kind of overwhelmed by all the functionality I was about to learn. Then I watched a few videos about it on YouTube and dug right in and started my first production.

It took me 50 hours to produce my first video of an amazing duration of five minutes. It felt like almost impossible to produce decent looking videos in a somewhat efficient manner. After another 30 hours studying the program I had learned all the available functionality. Now it's possible for me to edit and produce the videos much faster.

My learning curve were rather flat/slow in the beginning and in the middle it really got steep to finally plateau out. I'm sure a lot of people would never have gotten around to the steep part due to the tough beginning, and often I wouldn't have either. That is interesting from a learning perspective

Your learning curve combined with a specific subject
If your teacher/coach knew what kind of learning curve you usually have it would be possible to fit most subjects into that certain profile.

My learning curve is generally very steep at the beginning but after a while it plateaus out even though there are still much to learn. When I have to learn something new it's a good idea that is poses some challenges right from the start to get me going.

When I've reached a certain level of skill in the subject, it's important for my further development that I slow down. Typically this is when general principles just don't cut it anymore. I'm not a detail-kind-of-guy. I have to be spoon-fed details to have just a small chance to learn to use them over general principles. That keeps me from getting extremely good at anything. Because I can overcome most start-up-detail learning I become fairly good at most thing I get involved with.

Backgammon were extremely easy to learn for me because there are so many general rules that you can become very good based om that alone. That's unfortunately not the case with poker. General principles will only take you so far and from a certain point most of what you learn is details and fine-tuning. Currently I'm somewhere near the end of the general principles part and at the beginning at  the detail part. It has taken me a long time to acknowledge that my future earnings comes primarily from learning details and fine-tuning. I didn't change my learning pace when I needed to and got stuck.

In areas where you need to learn a lot of details from the start like language and playing an instrument, I have a very flat learning curve, but when the general structures start to show I pick up momentum again.

What does your general learning curve look like and do you act accordingly when learning new stuff?