What's Your Learning Strategy?

I'm taking a break between reading a book, watching some online courses, and cracking on with the work 'I should be doing'.

You see I'm throwing myself into learning a new discipline, and thought I would share my musings about my approach to learning new things.

Why Learn Something New?

I am often asked how I can possibly know so much from so many different subject fields or why I have so many 'good' ideas.

Ironically I am often asked by the same people why I have my head in a book, or am learning a new subject which may or may not have any direct implication to what I currently do.

For me there are a few different answers to this:

1. Necessity: I have to do X and in order to do it I need to learn Y
2. Opportunity: Knowledge of X is expected by people as a barrier to entry to opportunity Y
3. Curiosity: I have heard a lot about X from people and want to know what it's all about or have been challenged that I have misunderstood X
4. Incremental: I have spent years learning about X and it's changing and faced with the choice want to keep up-to-date
5. Didn't Think About It: This is kind of the time and place thing, and it just sort of happened - sometimes it is because you've been around other people doing it and us humans are awesome modelling machines which we often forget

Perhaps just as important though is why you should not want to learn something, and I sum that up as one thing... opportunity cost. You have a limited time on this planet, quite probably you have a limited amount of money and almost certainly competing things crying out for your attention.

This is why I've allowed some skills to lapse as no longer the path I choose and would rather focus my attention elsewhere.

Recognise That Learning Is Cumulative

If you learn one thing it helps you add context for learning another. The interesting thing with this though is that those connections are not always obvious, and they can be separated by years (i.e. not learn topic X then go on to learn Y after but rather you learnt X years ago but it plays out when learning Y).

When I spent a year studying in Germany there were a few people I met that spoke multiple languages fluently, one of my friends Marion was fluent in 13 languages (probably more now). She explained to me that learning Spanish made it easier learning Portuguese and then it was a sinch to learn Italian.

The same is true of programming languages, learn a few and then picking up the next one is not a stretch. This is probably because by then you've picked up the concepts of conditional logic and loops, and nuances to the approach of design patterns and why the language developers chose to take a different approach (there are only so many problems they are trying to solve).

This is also true when you learn seemingly unrelated subjects though, there is often things at a meta level that you can draw from whether it is similarity or difference, us humans will draw interesting connections to hang your hat on.

Learning Styles

People have different learning styles, things that work for them. For you it may be that watching videos on YouTube works, yet for me it may be reading a book.

So what I outline here works for me, you probably will need to tweak it for yourself. Which is why the set way of teaching at school is so flawed, you may be more a visual learner or tactile needing you need to get on and do it for yourself.

Work with your learning style and try to complement it with other ways of doing things and seeing or asking yourself if it is helping you come to grips with it.

Stage 1: Kick The Tyres

If I don't know the subject in question I will first seek to understand what it's about, where it fits in with other things I know or know of. I may watch a few videos, read an article or two, find an audio book, etc.

Think of this as the kicking the tyres phase which I am seeking to understand:

• What it's about
• How it relates to what I've already done or learnt
• How much effort it is going to take to learn it to various levels (basic, intermediate, mastery)
• What am I going to get out of it (it could just be enjoyment)
• Do I want to invest my time in it

If at the end of this stage you decide it's not for you, that's fine but you'll have more context when talking about it or when you decide whether to learn something else - the oh it's kind of like thought...

Stage 2: The Search For Suitable Cheap Resources

This is where I seek out suitable books, online courses, thought leaders and websites. This is not just on Google, this is also looking on Amazon, reading reviews and seeing what the reviews are.

As you might imagine I subscribe to a number of platforms such as Pluralsight and Safari (not on commission folks), and will look on those platforms too for resources in the area I want to learn. For you this may be the likes of Udemy (remember that they offer money back if you're not happy).

I'll have a look a bit deeper into these and download/bookmark resources that I want to spend more time on. I may by the odd physical book or two on the topic because there is something still magical about physical books and post it notes etc.

Word of caution, do not go off buying something that costs hundreds or thousands at this stage. Also don't by a ton off the likes of Amazon as this is what one of my mentors described as Shelf Development not Self Development.

Stage 3: Consume These Resources

Having gathered things in the previous stage, I set about consuming them. You need to set aside time for doing this.

If it is a book I will skim read the book first, you're not reading at this point for pleasure like the latest novel. The point is to start building context upon which to build your understanding.

Unfortunately lots of subjects are complex and don't lend themselves to linear learning of start of book to end of book. Aside from the author's writing style not being aligned with your personality.

Skimming over the topic first you'll be better able to understand where things fit in. This may be reading the chapter headings, the introduction and the summary at the end of the topic (I do this with video courses too).

By way of analogy imagine watching a who dunnit, at the end they reveal who did it and the great detective makes sense of all the clues and things along the way that led to their deduction. If only you had seen the signs... well skimming does just that and once you've seen the signs you'll pay greater attention to the sign posts.

Go back and dive into the sections you need to pay more attention to, your brain is now spotting things that are more important to learn and will find it easier to draw connections.

Move on to the next resource, and yes you can be a channel hopper if the resource is not working for you or not making sense at the moment. There is no rule that you have to finish one before switching, and no rule that you can't go over the same resource again (this time you'll probably reinforce things or spot things you didn't the first time).

Stage 4: All In Or Park It

Having learned a subject to this level you'll have read a couple of books, consumed some online content, etc. Chances are you now understand the subject to be able to talk about it to a friend if asked.

You're unlikely to be an expert by any means, more like a have a go amateur hero. You need to decide whether you want to commit more of your resources to deepening your knowledge or whether they are best allocated to learning something else.

If you decide to park it and move on, realise you can always come back to this subject if you want to, and I have done just that on many occasions, sometimes decades have passed!

If you're all in then it is at this stage you choose which resources will get you there. It may be another book or another online course, or it may be that you choose to find night classes, a mentor or a expensive course to send yourself on.

Not all of them have the same value and realise that getting to the next level will likely take you longer than you did in the previous stages and you have to commit.

As an example for public speaking I read a book or two, joined Toastmasters, then sent myself on a course then joined a year long mastermind programme.

Stage 5: Dipping In Deep

This is the stage where expert and mastery comes, yes sorry the prior stage probably got you to an advanced intermediate level but not a subject matter expert (at least in my experience).

This is where you dip in deep into some advanced areas of the subject in question and learn those. I prefer to think of this as dipping because there is often not a clear pinnacle at the top of the mountain range.

Dedicate a bit of time of learning areas of the subject to a more advanced level if mastery is important to you.

Stage 4/5 Alternative or 6: Find Complementary Skills To Learn

Sorry it's not linear :)

At any point you should be on the look at for complimentary subjects to learn or skills to acquire. This is not to say your abandoning what you're currently learning but you can greatly increase the value of it by acquiring complimentary skills.

If A Picture...

So it's a rough sketch and clearly need to learn how to do this on my iPad...

So What Am I Learning Now?

Did I say it's not linear :)

Stage 5: C# Programming Language

Stage 4: Azure cloud platform, WordPress

Stage 3: React the JavaScript front end language

Stage 2: Adobe InDesign

Stage 1: Puppet / Chef for automation, Visual Studio Team Services

You can switch between things, and fully expect to be turning over more subjects at stages 1 and 2 before you'll allow them to move up into stage 3+