How to Learn

In the software profession, learning is an integral part of our job. I will describe a few techniques - which, taken together, comprise a loose framework for learning any new complex piece of technology, whether it be a new framework, library, platform, or programming language - using resources you can readily find on the internet. Toby Ho Toby Ho is a veteran JavaScript developer in Atlanta. He blogs at tobyho.com and is passionate about helping others learn. He is active in the open source community where his proudest work is Test’em - a Javascript test runner.

Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated by an algorithm.

00:00 : that's not all right welcome how many of
00:10 : you award during that exercise nobody
00:14 : how many of you enjoyed that awesome ok
00:18 : cool I will do that another time maybe
00:21 : ok so and a recent echoes our event
00:28 : where some developer got together to
00:31 : help each other troubleshoot some
00:33 : problems and help each other learn I ask
00:37 : the attendees this question and I'm
00:41 : going to show you some of the responses
00:42 : that i got this was one of them this was
00:51 : another this was another response that I
00:59 : got and this was another one so if you
01:12 : can imagine someone who is completely
01:14 : brand new to this period of reading
01:17 : software and they have this expectation
01:20 : this idea of what learning is going to
01:24 : be like and they think that is going to
01:26 : be a series of stages that you have to
01:30 : get through so like a series of
01:31 : staircases they make a stage in a video
01:37 : game when you get to the end up to the
01:39 : stage then you can move on to the next
01:42 : but when they get there with a fine
01:45 : instead is this a plethora of entry
01:50 : points and if they had this reaction
01:55 : they would not surprise me
01:59 : because basically this is a case of
02:02 : information / overload but there's more
02:09 : here is another response that I got the
02:16 : rate at which new things are coming out
02:19 : that have to be learned is ever
02:21 : increasing so this is a JavaScript trend
02:25 : graph that made based on the data in
02:28 : JavaScript quickly which is a newsletter
02:30 : curated by Peter Cooper so on this chart
02:37 : you can see some of the most popular
02:42 : technologies using the field today and
02:45 : you can clearly see some of them that
02:47 : are trending up and some of them that
02:49 : are trending down so a couple things
02:53 : that are trending up clearly is a react
02:56 : that's in the dark blue to the bottom of
03:00 : the right there and at my script 6
03:03 : that's the light blue just about react a
03:10 : couple of things that look to be
03:12 : trending down back down the in the dark
03:16 : green there you can see some other over
03:20 : here in 2002 2003 and then trending
03:25 : downwards another one is CoffeeScript in
03:28 : the light purple and jQuery that the one
03:35 : in the light orange over here also seems
03:38 : to be trending down and
03:41 : no dress in the bright orange it looks
03:45 : to be trending down browser for this
03:47 : particular case it's misleading because
03:50 : our Peter Cooper has also at some point
03:53 : started a separate newsletter dedicated
03:57 : to know Gia's alone so hey so not only
04:02 : is the number of things to learn how
04:04 : we're increasing the defense that you
04:07 : learned yesterday may not even help you
04:09 : tomorrow and to expect that any one
04:15 : developer can know all these things
04:18 : there's kind of like expecting the one
04:20 : person to have watched all the shows
04:22 : they were nominated at the Emmys this
04:25 : year I have no responses to my question
04:32 : so this was one of them and then I had
04:38 : this one and effectively these are cries
04:44 : to help so how do you survive in this
04:50 : ever-changing landscape could it be that
04:58 : we are outgrowing the stairs metaphor
05:01 : maybe I'll reality is more like a series
05:05 : of interconnected stairs maybe like this
05:10 : or maybe it's like the big giant stairs
05:14 : all around us or maybe it's more like
05:18 : this so this is a game called the World
05:23 : of Warcraft or I think it's urgent
05:26 : originally it was just called a warcraft
05:28 : and some you might have played it may be
05:31 : back in college and your dorm
05:33 : so in this game you're dropped into this
05:36 : unexplored world with very meager
05:40 : resources at the beginning and most of
05:43 : the world is blacked out you can only
05:46 : see the parts of the map that you have
05:49 : explored this is a slightly more
05:53 : explored world and you can see that more
05:56 : parts of the world the on the top left
05:59 : here have been like like that light it
06:03 : up and you can also see that some of the
06:06 : parts are grayed out and those are the
06:09 : parts you have seen but you just don't
06:11 : have currently have eyes on it right now
06:15 : so that I think this is a helpful way to
06:18 : think of learning as exploring a brand
06:22 : new world I think this is a healthier
06:24 : way to thing about learning in the midst
06:26 : of all of this vastness of knowledge
06:29 : that we face today and here are some of
06:33 : the ways in which learning is similar to
06:36 : this so everybody has to start somewhere
06:39 : with meager resources the more you
06:43 : explore the more you know and if you get
06:47 : stuck somewhere like I there was a river
06:51 : that you cannot cross or there was a
06:53 : release enemy's stronghold that you
06:56 : cannot take down you can always explore
06:59 : elsewhere but you can always come back
07:02 : to it when you have later you have more
07:04 : resources and in a way this model kind
07:09 : of even out the playing field because no
07:11 : matter who you are and where you are in
07:15 : your journey the big picture always
07:18 : looks like this this is the part that
07:21 : you don't know this is the part that you
07:25 : know the amount that you know is
07:27 : infinitesimal compared to the amount of
07:31 : things that you don't know so in a sense
07:33 : we are all movies and we are in the same
07:36 : boat
07:37 : so if you need to survive with these
07:41 : meager resources you need to become a
07:45 : damn good explore and schools will not
07:55 : get you there schools are not enough
07:58 : because schools cannot deal with this
08:01 : constant influx of information and this
08:05 : rid of change it's not that you should
08:09 : not go to school but while you're in
08:12 : school if you do go to school you want
08:15 : to focus on acquiring the skills that
08:17 : you need in order to be able to cut the
08:19 : court and be able to continue learning
08:22 : on your own so it makes a good Explorer
08:29 : well whereas most people normally stick
08:33 : to what they know explores through the
08:38 : opposite they gravitate towards the
08:41 : unknown and also and so a great way of
08:48 : learning to become a better explorer is
08:53 : by getting into the habit of asking
08:56 : questions and also making sure that you
08:59 : get them answered easy way of looking
09:03 : that action of it is by keeping a log of
09:07 : questions like a question in a notebook
09:12 : every time that I that a question pops
09:15 : up into your head when you're working on
09:18 : a project when you're learning a new
09:20 : thing when you're reading a tutorial
09:22 : when you're reading a book when you're
09:24 : watching a talk whatever whenever
09:28 : whenever something it feels out of place
09:32 : funny confusing if the scale that is a
09:37 : sign that it's probably a good time to
09:40 : write down a question and sometimes it
09:42 : might be hard to articulate the question
09:45 : but power through that and it'll get
09:48 : easier with practice don't forget to get
09:59 : those questions answered though set
10:01 : aside time for them and sort of view it
10:05 : as a to-do list that you need to go over
10:08 : and over and over again and when you get
10:11 : a question answered you've loved it up
10:13 : so you can check that off and this is
10:18 : actually a good answer to this question
10:19 : that we had earlier keeping a question
10:23 : log will help you fill in your knowledge
10:25 : gaps another bluray of Marion can
10:30 : yourself towards the unknown and to
10:33 : explore and to explore the things that
10:36 : you don't feel comfortable with is this
10:39 : productivity hack that I stole from
10:41 : tempers so this hack works like this
10:46 : write down three to five things that you
10:50 : fear most anxious or uncomfortable about
10:53 : and then look at each item and ask these
10:57 : two questions number one this were the
11:01 : only thing I accomplished today will I
11:05 : be satisfied with my day and number two
11:09 : we are moving this item for make all the
11:13 : other items on this list unimportant or
11:16 : easier that is a great way to prioritize
11:21 : what you have to do to learn let's talk
11:28 : about
11:28 : because I'd refocus admits all of this
11:33 : information our working memory is
11:37 : limited and can hold only about a
11:40 : handful of things concepts at any one
11:43 : time and as programmers and you I'm sure
11:48 : you notice working memory is an
11:51 : especially precious resource so it
11:56 : doesn't really help to have all this
11:57 : stuff on high blast tonight effectively
12:03 : we have to somehow be able to take this
12:05 : blast blasting fire hydrant and reduce
12:09 : it down to a series of trips so that
12:14 : means isolating isolation we have to
12:17 : learn one thing at a time because we
12:23 : have to find the right difficulty level
12:26 : for you so for example if you're going
12:30 : to learn react do not also try to learn
12:33 : flex redux us6 battle gulp and a web
12:37 : pack all at the same time start from
12:40 : scratch they were starting from scratch
12:43 : to over using a template or a template
12:47 : project generator or something like that
12:49 : this way you know exactly what
12:52 : ingredients you are putting into the mix
12:54 : so this is how I like to start messing
12:59 : around with react for example I will
13:02 : just create a new empty directory I
13:04 : would create index dot HTML file inside
13:08 : of it and this is the most kind react
13:13 : oriole on their website and luckily it's
13:17 : got this this bit of HTML that you can
13:21 : simply use in your index.html to
13:24 : bootstrap a project so that's really all
13:27 : you need is just one file and then
13:29 : you plugging the first piece of the
13:33 : example code bear and then you're off
13:35 : and running basically and you can start
13:37 : messing with this code and there's no
13:40 : need to be fancy and go to es6 just use
13:45 : the classic es5 syntax unless of course
13:48 : if you are already familiar with es6
13:51 : done by all means go for it again find
13:55 : the right difficulty level for you and
13:57 : you can go actually go a step further
14:01 : and to simplify it even more if you
14:04 : don't use gsx because that's actually
14:08 : optional so this is actually how I the
14:11 : first time I learned react I decided
14:14 : well I didn't care particularly for the
14:17 : gsx syntax by the way to just extend tax
14:22 : I mean this this use of the tags inside
14:25 : of the JavaScript which requires a
14:27 : special preprocessor so didn't care for
14:32 : that sir I just learned react without
14:35 : using that syntax and just use the true
14:39 : javascript counterpart instead once you
14:44 : finish a tutorial or two and have a
14:47 : couple of told projects under your belt
14:49 : then they're ready to move on to flux
14:51 : the goal here is to take information in
14:55 : small drips and to avoid this
15:05 : when you're in the market that is too
15:08 : volatile for your comfort you want to
15:10 : latch onto the most stable currencies so
15:14 : if you know there's a set of skills that
15:16 : will always be useful to you regardless
15:19 : regardless of the flavors of the day do
15:23 : not double down on them but how'd you
15:28 : know that they're scary but don't worry
15:31 : I'm going to tell you now touch typing
15:35 : very underrated if you're not however
15:40 : you are not touch typist not fluent
15:43 : touch typists okay touch typing means
15:49 : you type without having to look at your
15:51 : keyboard okay yeah so if you're not a
15:55 : touch typist that's a big win to learn
15:58 : it now so i would strongly encourage
16:00 : that and if you're just starting i would
16:03 : encourage you to take a look at deloitte
16:06 : & commack as alternative keyboard layout
16:10 : options delivery in troubleshooting
16:16 : source control using the command line
16:21 : how to ask questions online
16:26 : object-oriented programming functional
16:30 : programming refactoring your
16:35 : communication skills task management and
16:38 : I mean this is not an exhaustive list
16:41 : but oops but the point is oops the point
16:50 : is that this is a list of skills that I
16:55 : know that if you invest your time and
16:58 : energy into learning and
17:00 : any of these well it's very unlikely
17:02 : that you would have wasted your time and
17:06 : debugging is a especially important one
17:10 : which I will come back to later oops I
17:14 : messed up my slides sorry okay so
17:27 : embracing your mistakes is something I
17:30 : think that's very important to keep in
17:32 : mind when you're studying so the back
17:36 : when I was working for the mechanical
17:38 : school of engineering for droid attacked
17:40 : I made a mistake which caused it one of
17:43 : the co workers I work with to have to
17:48 : redo some of her work and she was
17:51 : furiously she she barked at me and I was
17:56 : taken aback that was not there is not an
18:01 : environment very conducive to learning
18:05 : turns out that experienced developers
18:08 : that just any mistakes as junior
18:11 : developers they just recovered from them
18:14 : faster I credit this quote to tie least
18:18 : Raleigh and her brilliant talk at
18:21 : realcomp so everyone can just measure
18:26 : out about making mistakes because we're
18:29 : all in the same boat in fact I will
18:34 : argue that it's not just okay to make
18:37 : mistakes is actually better to be making
18:41 : mistakes when you learn there's actually
18:47 : some research done by some scientists
18:50 : that shows that trying first
18:53 : and then falling to to retrieve the
18:55 : answer is actually helpful to learning
18:57 : something so in this article in one of
19:01 : the studies that was mentioned limit
19:04 : students were asked to take some reading
19:07 : comprehension tests and it was separated
19:10 : into two groups the experimental group
19:12 : and the control group in the control
19:15 : group where the students would do a
19:19 : normal reading comprehension test they
19:20 : read an article and then they would
19:22 : answer some questions about the article
19:24 : to see how much they understood about
19:27 : the article in contrast the students in
19:31 : the experimental group they are made to
19:34 : answer the question before they read the
19:36 : article and then they read the article
19:39 : and then they would answer the same
19:41 : questions again what they found is that
19:45 : the students in the experimental group
19:48 : the better how much better around ten
19:53 : percent okay you might say well ten
19:56 : percent is not that much is it really
19:59 : worth it because you know it took some
20:01 : effort right to add to another mistake
20:04 : and then recover from it so okay let me
20:08 : try another line of argument students
20:13 : are taught not to make mistakes they
20:17 : obey you talk to always stick with this
20:20 : prescribed method even if it doesn't
20:23 : work here my daughter thought it would
20:27 : be funny to stop in the middle of the
20:28 : racetrack and being the responsible at
20:32 : that that I am I decided to stand there
20:35 : and just observe and these two kids are
20:40 : just stuck behind her and they have no
20:43 : recourse but to just wait there students
20:49 : are in
20:50 : to take chances are not afraid of making
20:52 : mistakes when they see in new
20:55 : opportunities new ways to solve problems
21:00 : they take them these kids are the
21:04 : operators and that's what you are going
21:10 : to need those all breathing skills
21:12 : because in our profession you can always
21:15 : count on being able to stay on the happy
21:18 : path so does that mean for you in your
21:23 : studies when a tutorial seems too easy
21:28 : that's a red flag that doesn't mean when
21:33 : you complete a torial that doesn't
21:36 : necessarily mean that you have
21:37 : successfully learned the concept so i
21:41 : propose to you this rule that i call it
21:45 : the for something rule if you make it
21:48 : through the entire tutorial or a lesson
21:50 : or close without failing at something
21:53 : even once you fell so how to prevent how
22:05 : to prevent that well then wait to try to
22:06 : make mistakes is by doing something more
22:09 : open-ended so come up with some ideas of
22:12 : the oil and ask questions that you don't
22:17 : know the answers to another approach
22:22 : that you could take is to fellow a
22:25 : tutorial that detours while you're doing
22:28 : that tutorial so you're using the
22:30 : tutorial as a guardrail and in air
22:35 : invariably when you
22:36 : reading through the material your
22:39 : questions are going to pop up in your
22:41 : mind and that's a good time to read it
22:45 : down in your question lock and to the
22:49 : detour what will I wonder it will happen
22:51 : if i change that if i deviated from the
22:55 : tutorial in this way so do that do that
22:58 : and find out what happens when you're
23:01 : done with that detour come back go a
23:03 : little further and take another detour
23:06 : again find the difficulty level that is
23:09 : right for you and ask questions about
23:13 : things that you are unsure be a damn
23:18 : good Explorer okay now you might say to
23:25 : me Toby limit it sound so easy the
23:29 : better stop trying to get something to
23:31 : work is really painful so how do we
23:34 : recover from mistakes when we make them
23:39 : so that is the realm of debugging and
23:42 : troubleshooting now there are other
23:46 : types of mistakes other than bugs but
23:51 : books that are caused by smaller level
23:55 : mistakes are so common and such a big
23:58 : source of frustration for learners that
24:01 : have paid special attention to this
24:03 : problem so much so that i've started a
24:07 : project with the aim of providing an
24:09 : effective means of teaching these skills
24:11 : to up-and-coming developers debug school
24:17 : is still under construction right now
24:20 : you can sign up to be notified when the
24:22 : door is open i'm going to talk about one
24:26 : of the most important concepts that are
24:28 : covered in my lessons and that is the
24:30 : scientific method sometimes going to
24:36 : help somebody debug a problem they say
24:38 : to me
24:39 : that's not possible that this cannot
24:43 : possibly happen and they will show you
24:47 : that it cannot possibly happen because
24:49 : they've already verified this and
24:51 : they've already verify this Liberty
24:54 : provide app that can that as if they
24:57 : have found the smoking gun that proves
25:00 : that baby right and therefore the
25:02 : computer must be wrong and while
25:07 : computers have been known to be drunk at
25:10 : times a much more probable explanation
25:15 : that is that this is simply a case where
25:19 : a strongly held assumption is mistaken
25:25 : we knew they could we make assumptions
25:28 : about the code we write this is natural
25:31 : and this is not very necessary because
25:34 : unless we make assumptions we cannot
25:37 : plan and in case you didn't know colon
25:41 : is an activity that requires a lot of
25:43 : planning however if you're debugging
25:48 : things did not go according to plan if
25:54 : something defies logic that means that
25:57 : one of your assumptions are wrong you
26:00 : need to set out which one of those it is
26:05 : same way that you might want to set out
26:08 : who is the mole in a spy agency you get
26:13 : suspicious paranoid even trust no one
26:19 : not even yourself because the man has a
26:25 : good track record at deceiving you so
26:28 : far so what makes you think you can get
26:31 : away what which you can outsmart it in
26:34 : the usual way instead we better have
26:39 : something more scientific
26:43 : so then run color box we're going to
26:46 : look at it our program as if it was some
26:49 : kind of phenomenon a sort of black box
26:53 : that behaves in a certain way similar
26:56 : that we don't completely understand yet
26:58 : but we are ready to learn more about
27:01 : through scientific investigation and
27:06 : this is the recipe for the scientific
27:10 : method first you ask the question then
27:14 : you form a hypothesis trying to explain
27:16 : why inform a prediction based on that
27:20 : hypothesis there will happen if I did
27:23 : something specific and then you perform
27:27 : an experiment in order to test that
27:29 : prediction you do an analysis to look at
27:36 : what happened in the experiment and you
27:39 : try to understand why and if the loop
27:43 : isn't closed if it's necessary then you
27:47 : go back to step one and do it all over
27:49 : again come up with and your question and
27:51 : do the same thing to try to answer it
27:53 : again so it turns out that we as a
27:58 : species are actually pretty good at this
28:01 : a most they will be inspected Lee do
28:07 : something that's very close to the
28:09 : scientific method but with one
28:11 : difference let me show you what usually
28:14 : happens so first we would as a good
28:18 : question then our brain automatically
28:23 : comes up with some kind of hypothesis
28:27 : then we'll come up with a prediction and
28:32 : then we
28:33 : during the experiment and then we will
28:39 : form to ourselves tab we got it right so
28:47 : the moral of the story is don't skip
28:50 : step 4 ok the next strategy is a bit of
28:58 : a trick to help you understand a concept
29:01 : better and faster and that is
29:04 : juxtapositioning what is
29:06 : juxtapositioning well is when you put
29:10 : two otherwise unrelated concepts
29:12 : together side by side mashups odd
29:16 : juxtapositions and now i'd use objects
29:19 : to brazil juxtapositions to and i might
29:23 : say juxtapositioning is to concept as as
29:29 : as our blender is two feet and and that
29:34 : very sentence that i just said is also a
29:36 : juxtaposition so that table s is my son
29:43 : Marty and then to the right of him is
29:46 : Shakira multi-platinum recording artist
29:51 : Marty had been familiar with secures
29:54 : music because she is on his mom's
29:58 : playlist but he didn't feel particularly
30:01 : strong about her music however that
30:06 : changed one night when at a restaurant
30:10 : we heard a band played or one of sakura
30:14 : songs after that night he asked for this
30:20 : song every time that we were in the car
30:22 : and he asked her to be put on repeat all
30:25 : the time that is the power of the
30:29 : juxtaposition this is a model
30:35 : learning that I stole from the book why
30:38 : don't students like school and in this
30:41 : model learning is the interaction
30:43 : between three things their long-term
30:46 : memory that's the box on the bottom the
30:50 : working memory that's the box on the top
30:53 : right and the environment that is the
30:57 : hexagon over there the material that is
31:01 : being presented to you is being
31:04 : presented to you in the environment and
31:06 : assuming that you are paying attention
31:09 : it goes into your working memory now the
31:12 : tricky thing is to get that thing from
31:16 : your working memory to go into your
31:18 : long-term memory in terms of the depuy
31:25 : thing that has to happen but to engage
31:27 : your brain in thinking activity in
31:32 : thinking about the subject in question
31:34 : as it relates to the knowledge you
31:37 : already have in your head in your
31:40 : long-term memory in other words the step
31:45 : that in your long-term memory the bottom
31:48 : box there is sticky the truth Beverly so
31:55 : if you learn not to learn the new
31:58 : material where if you want it to stick
32:00 : need to figure out a way to get that
32:04 : pretreated bubblegum to build up from
32:07 : this battle box up into their top box
32:11 : here and start grabbing stuff you wanted
32:17 : to stick to the new stuff and I passed
32:23 : it that may be the best way to do that
32:25 : is by juxtapositioning something that
32:28 : you know where with the thing that
32:30 : you're trying to learn so in my son's
32:33 : case he is already familiar with the
32:36 : song already
32:37 : but hearing that song in a new contacts
32:40 : in a rest we're in a restaurant it's a
32:43 : different band it's a different singer
32:44 : that allowed him to check the Passover
32:46 : just oppose the version of the song he
32:48 : knew with the new version this of the
32:50 : song that is here's hearing I have used
32:55 : this concept to learn to sing a
32:58 : Portuguese song that I'm upset even
33:01 : though I know zero Proteus i would first
33:05 : listen to my favorite version of this
33:07 : song many many times and i would try to
33:12 : sing along with it once i started to be
33:17 : able to sing some of the parts i would
33:21 : switch to listening to a different
33:23 : recording of the same song preferably
33:27 : one that has a slayer temple and then
33:31 : after a while doing that i will just
33:34 : oppose on top of that actually reading
33:39 : the police lyrics in a written form
33:42 : while I'm singing along with the song so
33:46 : what I find is that I get something new
33:49 : from each new juxtaposition that there's
33:53 : something every time I do one of these
33:56 : things there is something that i can use
33:58 : from them there's something I can use
34:01 : from each of them that makes it easy for
34:03 : me to remember different aspects and
34:06 : different parts of the same song I'd
34:10 : rather use this concept for learning
34:12 : programming languages others learn
34:14 : programming language rust I decided to
34:17 : write a little comment line program they
34:19 : allow a beginner to very easily declare
34:22 : static websites using the github pages
34:25 : services I then also decided to reread
34:30 : that same program in Haskell and this
34:34 : exercise helped me to very quickly
34:36 : identify the weaknesses that I had
34:39 : unless
34:40 : and vice versa because the weaknesses
34:43 : that I had in rust and Haskell so in
34:48 : fact just as positioning is another
34:50 : effective way of filling up your
34:52 : knowledge gaps how can you apply this
34:57 : concept well the formula is actually
35:01 : very different it's doing something
35:04 : that's the same but different same but
35:08 : different same but different so here are
35:10 : some ideas for you you can have to seem
35:14 : concept explained in different ways for
35:17 : you you can get different for example
35:20 : you can read different blog posts about
35:22 : the same concept you can read a
35:25 : different book chapters that are also
35:28 : covering that same concept he can watch
35:31 : different texts about that same concept
35:33 : you can do different tutorials about the
35:35 : same concept you can do video course
35:38 : lessons about that same concept you can
35:41 : also do different curve exercises that
35:44 : are related to the same concept you
35:48 : could take a problem that you know where
35:51 : maybe you know in a previous trap you're
35:55 : in the restaurant business well do
35:58 : something thats related to the
35:59 : restaurant business and rather than
36:02 : program if you are in orders we can use
36:08 : your unique skills to teach others
36:10 : programming you can rewrite a program in
36:15 : the language that you already know and
36:17 : contrast that with the one that you're
36:19 : learning you can rewrite a nap in a
36:26 : different protein style a different
36:28 : framework or different language vice
36:32 : versa you can rate a different type of
36:35 : app using the same programming language
36:38 : so some of some examples of this is was
36:41 : fun
36:42 : you can use HTML and JavaScript to read
36:45 : the native app and with electron and
36:48 : load WebKit you can use this same
36:51 : technology to write desktop applications
36:56 : the answer is the same language but on a
36:59 : different side you know what side I'm
37:02 : talking about you can we implement you
37:07 : can we implement a library or a concept
37:10 : in a different language and framework
37:12 : and actually you see this a lot in the
37:15 : open source world and I personally have
37:17 : done this a lot it's like all that seems
37:21 : like a cool concept in Rudy or Haskell
37:25 : or whatever I'm going to be implement
37:28 : that in JavaScript or something so you
37:31 : get to this proliferation of open source
37:34 : libraries that I just reimplement
37:36 : reimplement ations of a concept that's
37:39 : found in another programming language
37:44 : wait there's more there's a motorway of
37:47 : using juxtapositioning you can use just
37:51 : the positioning validation by as
37:54 : choosing something that is already in
37:56 : your repertoire so an example of that is
38:00 : you could write old code without using
38:04 : inheritance ah but that's something I
38:07 : have personally done so far so good you
38:11 : can write clear without using any
38:12 : objects vice versa you can write code
38:15 : without using any functions you can even
38:18 : write code without using any if
38:19 : statements if you can believe that you
38:24 : can write code without live in jquery we
38:27 : can write a web app without using a
38:28 : back-end there's tons of ideas go crazy
38:33 : just give you giving you the tip of the
38:35 : iceberg here ok let's talk about
38:41 : teaching what you learn back to others
38:47 : since Roman times will have known that
38:50 : teaching is actually a really effective
38:53 : way to learn and evidently we still know
38:58 : that today because couple days ago I
39:00 : heard this set by Kyle Simpson that has
39:04 : worked out and this is called the
39:09 : protege effect which says that the best
39:12 : way to learn is by teaching and there's
39:15 : this guy named John Paul Martin here's a
39:19 : teacher in Germany in the 1960s and he
39:23 : developed this teaching leopard call
39:25 : learn and charge mohawk and between that
39:30 : which means learning by teaching where
39:34 : students are asked to prepare and give
39:37 : lessons to each other in the classroom
39:40 : in this method although it requires more
39:45 : work both on both on the part of the
39:47 : teachers and the students it worked
39:50 : really well in terms of teaching in fact
39:56 : has been shown that if students were
39:59 : told even that will have to teach each
40:03 : other um afterwards before they learn
40:09 : the material that they have to learn
40:11 : they learn better so they don't even
40:14 : actually have to teach each other they
40:17 : just have to think that they have to and
40:19 : this by thinking that they will learn
40:22 : better so along the same line of
40:27 : research a computer program called Betis
40:31 : brain was made Betty as a teachable
40:34 : agent
40:35 : an AI that you can teach concepts to and
40:39 : it has been shown in this research that
40:42 : students who teach concepts to Betty
40:45 : after they learn the subject matters
40:48 : they do better than the students who
40:51 : don't but when I look at this the
40:56 : thought that came to my head was this
40:59 : it's not like we have a shortage of
41:02 : learners here learning is the last thing
41:05 : that we need to outsource to a computer
41:07 : right there are actually real people
41:11 : that you can teach to so if you want to
41:18 : take advantage of this strategy I become
41:22 : a teacher go seek a new depth in your
41:25 : local area I'll speak and mentor others
41:29 : I hope organized that Atlanta our
41:33 : javascript meetup here and now there's a
41:37 : good place to find out and help others
41:40 : you can also do the same online I on IRC
41:45 : chat rooms in all weathers that tech
41:49 : further we're on have learners and
41:54 : mentors hang out those are this
41:59 : community de called code newbies which
42:02 : is a duration community where people
42:06 : there are supportive and everybody is
42:09 : helping everybody learn also blog
42:14 : blogging is one of the best way to
42:17 : solidify understanding of the concepts
42:20 : that you're learning right now and let a
42:22 : great way to
42:25 : elucidate something that you know is by
42:28 : making screencast especially for coding
42:31 : and you don't have to be an expert in
42:33 : order to teach in fact beginners have an
42:39 : advantage over experts because there's
42:42 : this effect called the curse of
42:44 : knowledge experts they take for granted
42:50 : that the idea is that they know by heart
42:53 : and those things the nurse
42:55 : subconsciously so they don't they don't
42:58 : want even consider the possibility that
43:00 : other people may not know those things
43:03 : already so as a result of that the
43:06 : skipper wore a lot of material that
43:08 : otherwise would become knowledge gaps in
43:12 : in other people that they're trying to
43:15 : teach so beginners actually have the
43:20 : potential to be better teachers let's
43:31 : see you how much time okay I'm gonna
43:37 : come back to this worldview thinking of
43:43 : learning as exploring a brand new world
43:47 : and the idea that learning is a constant
43:54 : process that that we can never stop
43:57 : learning this is this a course or is
44:03 : this a blessing so so in one day I
44:12 : realized that that most time left i'm
44:19 : less than learning is sort of the key to
44:24 : getting lifelong happiness and you have
44:28 : probably heard this from other people
44:30 : and there are different ways of arriving
44:34 : that at this conclusion but the way that
44:36 : I arrived at it is I read this book this
44:42 : book is called flu the psychology of
44:44 : optimal experience in this book the
44:48 : author talks about this state of mind
44:51 : that he calls the flow state Thursday is
44:55 : when all of your attention is focused on
45:00 : doing one thing when time stands still
45:03 : and there you have no distractions
45:08 : whatsoever and like Michael Jordan talks
45:11 : about being in the zone and he's when
45:14 : he's in the zone he sees the basket and
45:16 : it's like this giant big old bucket that
45:20 : he's just tossing stuff into um so that
45:24 : that is the first day and what
45:27 : researchers have found is that people
45:29 : are the happiest when they're within
45:33 : this flow state when they are operating
45:35 : under this flow state and the thing
45:39 : about that thursday is if if you operate
45:47 : in this under the spawn set you will
45:52 : scale up very very quickly because
45:56 : you're at a really really high level of
45:59 : efficiency in terms of learning and if
46:03 : you if you've done one thing if you have
46:07 : achieved one skill in a first day
46:09 : chances are there will be very long
46:12 : before you sort of level up and then
46:16 : that the same skill won't be interesting
46:19 : to you anymore so you actually won't be
46:22 : able to achieve the same Thursday by
46:24 : doing that same thing you're going to
46:26 : have to level up if you want to be able
46:30 : to reach that same closely again so
46:34 : obviously they the answer to that is
46:37 : learning if you want to keep having
46:41 : these flow States well then you had
46:43 : better keep learning learning more and
46:46 : more and more and more and more and thus
46:49 : lives on lifelong learning so that's
46:57 : what I wanted to leave you with today
47:00 : thank you