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How do you learn? How much time do spend on learning new things? What tools do you use? Below you can find a few my opinions, a few tools that I use.

The tools I use to learn are, in the order from the most used:

1. An interesting projects
2. A smartphone
3. An e-book reader
4. Books (yes, good, old-fashioned printed books)
5. A computer or a laptop

The first and foremost is an interesting project. By a project I mean my day-to-day job (choose it wisely, it’s a lot of your time) as well as some minor things done as OSS. Under this category go also all the spikes which haven’t been finished and all the fun projects I do at home. A smartphone with a good RSS reader allows me to deal with an enormous number of blog entries published by brothers in code. The phone enables me to drag down a Twitter bar in the Android app a few times a day when I have a few spare minutes(waiting for a coffee, etc.). I’m not an addict though. I do prefer to have internet access switched off most of the time. I use it offline with no notifications etc. distracting me all the time.

An e-book reader (I like to use a bigger format of one) is perf ect for longer periods of time (from 20 minutes and longer). Just have a few Google whitepapers unread and stored there.

I read non-technical books as well. I do like the paper versions, but sometimes they’re even harder to read than e-books (a crowded bus for instance). The time limit is also important. I tend to take one with me if I know that I’ll be able to read for more than 15, 20 minutes.

A computer for watching all the Infoq & Skillsmatter presentations. When I have one hour, I take one from my list of ‘to watch’ and watch it.

As you can see I have one rule: I’ve got to have sth on my to do list all the time, with different time requirements. I use it every time I have a few spare minutes. Things which may take longer (a good post on Twitter) are pushed to a to do list. The future version of me will handle it. Having a smartphone and a reader is more than enough for a standard day. Presentations watched on a computer are good for weekends or an evening spare time. I do encourage you. Make your list, assign time frames preferred by you and take a few of your knowledge sources with you. It’s worth it!

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Comments

Someone told once "The best way to learn is to have a problem that needs to be solved"

by macpak at 2013-05-09 07:31:00 +0000

Indeed. That falls into the first category. Having a problem in your day to day job, that's the best way I think.

by scooletz at 2013-05-18 08:45:25 +0000