How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
swanson.github.com
How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#2>Instead of trying to do Deliberate Practice, I’d fool myself into thinking I was investing my time wisely by reading blog posts and examples but not actually doing much of anything.
That is one reason for serious learning I use textbooks. The book itself helps structure your learning, it is easy to keep track of how much you have covered, and commitment is simpler, since you can just commit to finishing the book.
It doesn't help as much though for longer term learning; I have a tendency to procrastinate between books, and often switch directions and even fields of study. On the other hand, the OP's "learning list" doesn't help much with that either.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#3>Instead of trying to do Deliberate Practice, I’d fool myself into thinking I was investing my time wisely by reading blog posts and examples but not actually doing much of anything. That is one reason for serious learning I use textbooks. The book itself helps structure your learning, it is easy to keep track of how much you have covered, and commitment is simpler, since you can just commit to finishing the book. It…
That's a good point about textbooks. Do you find that if a book includes Exercises at the end of each chapter that you actually do them? That's been a big challenge for me - so many great books have 'Action' sections but I rarely find myself putting down the book and doing them.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#4I see Vim on that list.
Best way to learn Vim is to get stuck without internet for 30 minutes. Once you explore every avenue of entertainment in your documents/downloads folders, you remember `$ vimtutor` and just have a go at it. Tried and true.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#5I see Vim on that list. Best way to learn Vim is to get stuck without internet for 30 minutes. Once you explore every avenue of entertainment in your documents/downloads folders, you remember `$ vimtutor` and just have a go at it. Tried and true.
I want to be good at Vim, but it isn't practical for me at the moment. At work, I've spent the last year and half in Visual Studio or Eclipse (both due to the nature of the projects) and it was really hard for me to switch my brain into "Vim mode" for my own personal stuff.
With something as fundamental to the job as a text editor, I have to do it 8 hours a day or it won't stick.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#6I see Vim on that list. Best way to learn Vim is to get stuck without internet for 30 minutes. Once you explore every avenue of entertainment in your documents/downloads folders, you remember `$ vimtutor` and just have a go at it. Tried and true.
I want to be good at Vim, but it isn't practical for me at the moment. At work, I've spent the last year and half in Visual Studio or Eclipse (both due to the nature of the projects) and it was really hard for me to switch my brain into "Vim mode" for my own personal stuff. With something as fundamental to the job as a text editor, I have to do it 8 hours a day or it won't stick.
I actually learned most of my Vim foundations using ViEmu[1] for Visual Studio. While some things are missing, it does an impressive job of emulating Vim and not stepping all over VS and R# (aside from Ctrl-R key bindings).
I used the viemu cheat sheet lessons[2] for the learning process. As I became comfortable with the commands in each, I moved on to the next lesson.
[1]:http://www.viemu.com/ [2]:http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial...
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#7I went through a similar exercise last week.
I'm trying to leave the place I'm working, and I'm mostly concentrating on places that are a little above my weight class (because if I'm going to try and get a new job, I don't want to go work at the half-dozen places that do the exact same level of work that I do. I've had a few jobs not pan out, so I wanted to take a step back and rethink things)
So I started an Omni-Focus project, which I called Me 2.0 (although I could have used any of the myriad project-tracking applications, or just a text editor)
In it I started trying to list all the things I wanted to learn. I noticed when I finished that it was predominantly a list of books to read (many of which have exercises that I want to make sure I go through and actually complete).
I noticed that some of them have dependencies on other ones (so I linked those tasks) but others I can start working on in parallel. We'll see how well I can stick to it.
Just writing it all out was a helpful exercise though. There's something freeing about having specific tasks, and not just nebulous concepts.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to be good at Vim, but it isn't practical for me at the moment. At work, I've spent the last year and half in Visual Studio or Eclipse (both due to the nature of the projects) and it was really hard for me to switch my brain into "Vim mode" for my own personal stuff. With something as fundamental to the job as a text editor, I have to do it 8 hours a day or it won't stick.
I actually learned most of my Vim foundations using ViEmu[1] for Visual Studio. While some things are missing, it does an impressive job of emulating Vim and not stepping all over VS and R# (aside from Ctrl-R key bindings). I used the viemu cheat sheet lessons[2] for the learning process. As I became comfortable with the commands in each, I moved on to the next lesson. [1]: http://www.viemu.com/ [2]: http://www.viemu…
On the Eclipse side, I've been using viPlugin[1]. It is not free, but I've felt like it has been worth the cost since my forays into vim had all failed before getting this plugin. If you're working heavily with Eclipse/VS, it is definitely jarring to switch back and forth between one of those and vim, but using a plugin like this eases that pain.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#9>Instead of trying to do Deliberate Practice, I’d fool myself into thinking I was investing my time wisely by reading blog posts and examples but not actually doing much of anything. That is one reason for serious learning I use textbooks. The book itself helps structure your learning, it is easy to keep track of how much you have covered, and commitment is simpler, since you can just commit to finishing the book. It…
That's a good point about textbooks. Do you find that if a book includes Exercises at the end of each chapter that you actually do them? That's been a big challenge for me - so many great books have 'Action' sections but I rarely find myself putting down the book and doing them.
I am willing to do exercises if the answer is in the back of the book. Programming Pearls did a good job in this respect.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#10>Instead of trying to do Deliberate Practice, I’d fool myself into thinking I was investing my time wisely by reading blog posts and examples but not actually doing much of anything. That is one reason for serious learning I use textbooks. The book itself helps structure your learning, it is easy to keep track of how much you have covered, and commitment is simpler, since you can just commit to finishing the book. It…
Good point on textbooks. I would add to that a couple other things:
1) There are a lot of development-related things that I simply want cursory knowledge about right now. Blog posts, textbooks, and the like are great there. The way I go about things is to maintain a list of books to buy and buy them on a FIFO basis. Typically there is about a year lag between when a book goes onto the list and when it comes off and is purchased.
I then work through the book read it, etc. Go on to the next. The book then goes up on my reference shelf and I can go back to it when I need to.
The second group of things I need to learn I have strong knowledge in a related area and really need to work with someone to solve a particular problem. Niche areas of accounting (I maintain accounting software) is a good example of this. I bring myself up to a "conversational" level of knowledge, then work with a customer's accountant to make sure everything is implemented right.
But keep in mind I read about 100 textbooks a year and only a small minority are on IT. Most are hobbies (archaeology, linguistics, history, anthropology, and the like are big topics). It is easy to work an approach like this in.