At some point you ought to "learn how to learn." I am not all sure how this could work in your preset situation and schedule [i.e. most people need to learn a vocation or are already involved in their vocation]. The best thing I would imagine would be to start a kind of "iyun shiur"[in depth session] as it is called on your own. Maybe with just one essay from Rav Shach or just one page of Gemara and working on it on your own. But the way this would work I think would be you would need one Gemara [like Bava Metzia or Ketubot] and a few Rishonim and Achronim like R. Akiva Eiger. With the proper materials and books you could probably do it on your own.
The problem seems to be that most people are not in walking distance from any kind of authentic Lithuanian yeshiva. So the only way most people will ever be able to learn Torah is by doing it on their own [and staying away from people that are pretending to teach Torah, but are actually demons as Reb Nachman mentioned in the Lekutai Moharan Volume I:12] [The trouble is the vast majority of people that claim to be teaching Torah - are teaching the Torah of the Sitra Achra (the Dark Side).]
Maybe it is a matter of taste but in yeshiva, I was not ready for Reb Chaim Soloveitchik kind of things, and instead did a lot of Pnei Yehoshua and Maharsha. The issues the later achronim and the achronim starting with Reb Chaim and going up until Rav Shach are very different and deal with very very different kinds of issues. I feel both are important.
Today I would have to say the Reb Chaim et al. up until Rav Shach are more important. But I can not explain why. The main thing is that Reb Chaim deals with more fundamental issues.
In a lot of places I have seen a tendency to skip what is called "לחשבן את הסוגיא" "to calculate the sugia (subject)." --to work out in exact detail what Topphot is saying before jumping into lamdanut ("global issues " that is how the sugia relates to other places in Shas). This is something that is ignored nowadays, but it is something that Reb Chaim and all the achronim assumed people were doing on their own. Nowadays it is almost completely skipped.
[The first thing you show up to yeshiva is they tell you to get your own copy of the basic rishonim, the Tosphot HaRosh, the Rashba, the Ritva, and the Chidushei HaRamban [Nachmanides] and also the Tur, Beit Yoseph. I can't say if this is all that helpful. Maybe for some it is.But for me learning from great roshei Yeshiva like Naphtali Yeager and Reb Shmuel Berenbaum was probably more helpful. It is like learning the violin. You can pick up something by reading books, but to actually be able to do it you need someone that is an expert. The problem nowadays is-- in Torah, very evil people claim to be experts. Therefore you have to have someone either from the Ponovitch in Bnei Brak itself or some authentic Litvak yeshiva.
But I am just trying to give you an idea of what is involved in knowing how to learn.
The problem seems to be that most people are not in walking distance from any kind of authentic Lithuanian yeshiva. So the only way most people will ever be able to learn Torah is by doing it on their own [and staying away from people that are pretending to teach Torah, but are actually demons as Reb Nachman mentioned in the Lekutai Moharan Volume I:12] [The trouble is the vast majority of people that claim to be teaching Torah - are teaching the Torah of the Sitra Achra (the Dark Side).]
Maybe it is a matter of taste but in yeshiva, I was not ready for Reb Chaim Soloveitchik kind of things, and instead did a lot of Pnei Yehoshua and Maharsha. The issues the later achronim and the achronim starting with Reb Chaim and going up until Rav Shach are very different and deal with very very different kinds of issues. I feel both are important.
Today I would have to say the Reb Chaim et al. up until Rav Shach are more important. But I can not explain why. The main thing is that Reb Chaim deals with more fundamental issues.
In a lot of places I have seen a tendency to skip what is called "לחשבן את הסוגיא" "to calculate the sugia (subject)." --to work out in exact detail what Topphot is saying before jumping into lamdanut ("global issues " that is how the sugia relates to other places in Shas). This is something that is ignored nowadays, but it is something that Reb Chaim and all the achronim assumed people were doing on their own. Nowadays it is almost completely skipped.
[The first thing you show up to yeshiva is they tell you to get your own copy of the basic rishonim, the Tosphot HaRosh, the Rashba, the Ritva, and the Chidushei HaRamban [Nachmanides] and also the Tur, Beit Yoseph. I can't say if this is all that helpful. Maybe for some it is.But for me learning from great roshei Yeshiva like Naphtali Yeager and Reb Shmuel Berenbaum was probably more helpful. It is like learning the violin. You can pick up something by reading books, but to actually be able to do it you need someone that is an expert. The problem nowadays is-- in Torah, very evil people claim to be experts. Therefore you have to have someone either from the Ponovitch in Bnei Brak itself or some authentic Litvak yeshiva.
But I am just trying to give you an idea of what is involved in knowing how to learn.
