learning new technology (The 10-step system)

this contents was copied from soft skills the software developer's life manual ebook

I discovered that there were three main things I needed to know to be
able to learn a technology:
1 How to get started—What were the basic things I needed to know to get
started using whatever I was learning?
2 The breadth of the subject—How big was the thing I was learning and
what could I do with it? I didn’t need to know every detail to start, but
if I had a decent overview of what I could do and what was possible, I
could always find more details later.
3 The basics—Beyond just getting started, what were the basic use cases
and the most common things I’d need to know to use a particular technology?
What was the 20% I could learn that would cover 80% of my daily usage?

The 10-step system
Step 1: Get the big picture
It’s important to at least understand a little bit about a subject before diving into it.
Then you can figure out exactly what you need to learn and decide the best way to do it.
Suppose you wanted to learn how to do digital photography. You might start out by searching the internet for everything you could find on the subject and skimming blog posts and articles about digital photography. You could probably have a good idea of how big the topic is and what kind of subtopics exist within a few hours of research.

Step 2: Determine scope
Learn C# : Learn the basics of the C# language needed to create a simple console
application.
Learn photography : Learn digital photography for shooting portrait pictures.
Learn Linux. Learn how to set up and install Ubuntu Linux and how to use its basic
features.

Step 3: Define success
Before you try to learn anything, you should have a clear picture in your mind of what
success will look like. The goal of this step is to come up with a clear and concise statement that will define success for your learning endeavor.

Bad success criteria | Good success criteria
B : I can take good pictures with my digital camera.
G : I can go through all the features of my digital camera and describe what they are, as well as why and when I should use each feature.
B : I can learn the basics of C#.
G : I can build a small application in C# that makes use of all the major language features.
B : I know how to use HTML to build web pages.
G : I can create my own homepage that displays my resume and sample work on the internet using HTML5.

Step 4: Find resources
RESOURCE IDEAS
❂ Books
❂ Blog posts
❂ Online videos
❂ Experts or people already knowledgeable about the topic you want to learn about
❂ Podcasts
❂ Source code
❂ Example projects
❂ Online documentation

Step 5: Create a learning plan
A good way to create your learning plan is to see how others are teaching
the subject you want to learn about. By looking at all the resources you’ve gathered,
you can get a better overall picture of what content needs to be covered and what order you should cover it in

Step 6: Filter resources
It’s important to narrow down your resources to a smaller list of the best ones to help you achieve your goals. You’ve got to cut down your resources to a number that
you can manage.

The goal of steps 7–10 is to actually learn the material by using my learn, do, learn, teach (LDLT) formula.

Step 7: Learn enough to get started
Have you ever bought a new videogame and taken a quick look at the manual
before you popped the cartridge in your videogame system and started playing?
That’s exactly what you want to do here. After you’ve played around a bit, in the next
step you can go back and read the manual in full.

Step 8: Play around
As you play around, your brain naturally forms questions: How does this work? What happens if I do this? How do I solve this problem? These questions lead you in the direction of what’s actually important. When you get back and find the answers to your own questions, not only will it be more rewarding, but you’ll remember more of
what you study, because what you learn will be important to you.

Step 9: Learn enough to do something useful
For this step, you’ll go through all the resources you gathered and learn about your module in depth. Take as much time as you need to thoroughly understand your subject matter by reading and experimenting, watching and doing.

Step 10: Teach
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
—Benjamin Franklin

You can teach what you’ve learned in many different ways. You could write a blog post or create a YouTube video. You could even talk to your spouse about what you’ve learned and explain it to them. The important thing is that you actually take some time to take what you’ve learned out of your own mind and organize it in a way that someone else can understand.

WAYS TO TEACH
❂ Write a blog post.
❂ Create a YouTube video or tutorial.
❂ Give a presentation.
❂ Have a conversation with a friend or your spouse.
❂ Answer questions in an online forum.


FINDING A MENTOR CHECKLIST
❂ Have they done what I want to do?
❂ Have they helped someone else do what I want to do?
❂ What results do they have to show?
❂ Can you get along with this person, personality-wise?