Lately I've been trying to learn one new thing every day. And one of the sad discoveries that I've made is that I'm capable of forgetting things almost as quickly as I learn them.
So, two months after I learned how to write vim macros - I've already forgotten the specific keys used to define and run them. Now, I can re-learn this very quickly - I've got good notes, the memories are just slightly hidden, and I haven't forgotten any concepts, just simple keys. But this will slow down my use enough that I probably won't pull this tool out when I need it.
This got me thinking about how I needed to complement training with some some repetition, some practice. That just learning something isn't good enough. This is exactly what martial artists do - they would call these katas. It's also what musicians do - they would call these scales.
Showing posts with label Learn 1 Thing Every Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learn 1 Thing Every Day. Show all posts
2012-09-10
Learning 1 Thing Every Day
When I was 18 and a programmer in the USMC I decided the best way for me to become skilled was to learn one thing every day about programming in addition to my daily duties. I recruited a colleague and each of us committed to learning and sharing our discoveries.
By learning I don't mean just reading about some feature or method, but instead studying it to the degree necessary to be able to easily apply it later. Fitting this extra work into our schedules meant that most of these discoveries were fairly small. But they accumulated and built upon one another very quickly. Perhaps more importantly this strategy positively affected our daily outlook by helping us frame our day within an optimistic, learning context.
Decades later I'm a mid-career technologist who tends to neglect my technical skills while focusing on organization, communication, and resource issues necessary to get projects successfully deployed. So, I've decided to resurrect this strategy to resharpen my skills and inject some more fun into my day. I'm going to use this blog to help me track these items and summarize the impacts.
By learning I don't mean just reading about some feature or method, but instead studying it to the degree necessary to be able to easily apply it later. Fitting this extra work into our schedules meant that most of these discoveries were fairly small. But they accumulated and built upon one another very quickly. Perhaps more importantly this strategy positively affected our daily outlook by helping us frame our day within an optimistic, learning context.
Decades later I'm a mid-career technologist who tends to neglect my technical skills while focusing on organization, communication, and resource issues necessary to get projects successfully deployed. So, I've decided to resurrect this strategy to resharpen my skills and inject some more fun into my day. I'm going to use this blog to help me track these items and summarize the impacts.
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