A good question! Although I wonder why the timeline is set at 12 months....
This is what I learned:
1- amateurs try to hard sell and persuade with much energy. That is how you know they are amateurs. They make up for competence by inflating their confidence.
2- true experts are those who can explain things patiently and completely (and sometimes enigmatically and paradoxically so that it makes sense on a lower level that we understand even though its seems like there is more to it than our understanding allows) and dont feel threatened by your learning them, too. All the rest "experts" are bozos.
3- I learned that the limit of my achievement is the limit of what I don't know that I don't know. Which in turn can be expanded by directionless search in random directions, kinda like how probabilistic methods solve deterministic equations in higher math.
4- I learned that the ancient saying "women lack reasoning" is false, because women have a different kind of reasoning machinery. And it works on a different wavelength than is normally assumed. It is not important to know exactly what wavelength a woman's reasoning systems operate (you won't ever find out) but you gain some advantage knowing that it is DIFFERENT and always CHANGING.
5- Body language is approximately 10 times more powerful than verbal communication. It includes tone of voice, the way your eyes look on to the world, silence, and even how you socialize. It is the ultimate tool to prevent people from getting fresh with you. Ignore the nasty ones, and it hurts them way more than engaging them.
6- I learned that small differences (and issues and squabbles) dont smoothen out with time. They become bigger and worse. Prevention is 100 times more effective than cure.
7- I learned that the most intelligent and wisest writer born in UK is Robert Burton, not the moronic Shakespeare.
8- I found out that all the smart cats (and some wannabes like me) hang out on news.ycombinator.
9- I learned that deadlines are necessary but they should be quantity-based, not temporal. "I have to finish reading two chapters today" sounds like an ideal deadline than, saying "I must finish this book in 2 months".
10- I learned the best way to learn something is by reading books, not watching lectures or videos. They put me to sleep, videos do.
11- I finally managed to create a site such that the buttons turn on like a light bulb. Www.jans.surge.sh
12- I realized that optimism wins even when failure is guaranteed. Better to lose a game you enjoyed than to win one you didn't.
I could go on. I will stop because I have more things to learn!
:)