Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?

For me, moving to the bay area was a big deal. Was easy to be the "big fish in a small pond" in my old town. If moving is not an option, contributing to an open source community you respect may be a good analog.

Thanks, very good advice.

I like your journal idea.

It occurs to me that I just assumed you meant a physical journal, when that wasn't in the post. I feel like that would help me a fair bit compared to a digital one (I find physical books easier to focus on. Something to do with the spacial consistency, I think).

I work as a consultant so I am always getting exposed to new industries and technologies. Sometimes I am learning because I absolutely have to in order to be successful on the project I have signed up for, or otherwise I find my self learning new things because I have either heard of a topic through a friend/colleague or I have a general interest. I usually have 2 or 3 topics i.e. Ruby, Systems Thinking, Presenting, that I want to focus on.

For each of those focus topics I then: - Read a lot! I try and get a book done each week, maybe a second on the weekend. I have worked hard at improving my reading speed and if I really focus when I read (sit down at a desk, remove any distractions, get a nice coffee) I find I can get through material very quickly. While I am reading I take notes, I use these notes later on for writing (see later point) - Listen to podcasts/audiobooks, I like to put on an audio book and do a repetitive form of exercise or just walk around, I live in a city with lots of great places to walk so heading out for a 4 hour walk in the evening is easy and I can easily get through an audiobook, I take notes while I walk too. - Write about it, if I am learning about something I like to write about it too, this helps me cement the topic I am learning. - Do a course or workbook on the topic

Apart from the focus topic areas, I am subscribed to the Economist, Bloomberg Business week and various mailing lists, I like to scan through these articles and read any that catch my attention, I feel that having these taps on broader interest areas keeps me from getting too bored or narrow in my field of specialty (which is software).

I think the thing that helps me the most though is that I work as a consultant. I move industries (banking, retail, government, biochemical) and technology (c#, java, ruby, javascript) every few months so I am constantly finding myself in the deep end in new fields - this drives me to be on top things and is a good motivator to rapidly learn.

I have learned more in my 4 years as a consultant then I did in the 4 years at uni and 3 years working for other software shops.