September 20, 2014

How to Learn

Lessons learned about learning

  knowledgable_and_productive = false

  learn = [
    "pick a development track",
    "learn how to learn",
    "listen to smart people",
    "use interactive resources",
    "read books",
    "read code", 
    "write code", 
    "ship code",
    "teach"
  ]

  until knowledgable_and_productive
    learn[2..-1].each do |practice|
      practice
    end
  end

###Pick a Development Track

learn[0] # => Pick a development track

My areas of interest are Ruby, Rails, Git/Hub, Heroku & AWS, Markdown, JavaScript, and UNIX based development and production environments.

###Learn How to Learn

learn[1] # => Learn how to Learn

The podcast Ruby Rogues Episode 131 “How to Learn” is amazing. Its worth a listen even if you are not into Ruby.

###Listen to Smart People

learn[2] # => Listen to smart people

Go to meetups
Follow smart people on Twitter. You might want to try @kytrinyx and @sandimetz
Follow smart people on GitHub and read their blogs and fork their repositories. I am a fan of Matt Swanson. My site is based on his template Lagom.
Subscribe to some podcasts. I like Ruby Rogues.

###Use Interactive Resources

learn[3] # => Use interactive resources

My two favorite flavors are Browser Based Learning and Test Driven Development Learning.

Browser Based Learning requires no client configuration. Client configuration is newbie kryptonite.
TDD Learning secretly teaches you how to write tests while you are learning a new software concept.

Browser Based Learning Picks

Code School
Code Academy
Tutsplus

Try Git

TDD Learning

exercism.io
Ruby Monk

###Read Books and Online Media

learn[4] # => Read books

Subscribe to Rails Weekly newsletter

Cookbooks Michael Hartl, Learn Rails

D3.Js D3 wiki Scott Murray’s D3 Book

**Git Pro Git

Videos * Railscasts * Watch the free Tutsplus tutorial on Sublime

###Read Code

learn[5] # => Read code

Read good code. Start here

###Write Code

learn[6] # => Write code

Write lots of code. Even if its bad. Especially when its bad. Fork and contribute to repositories. Like mine.

###Ship Code

learn[7] # => Ship code

Writing code is fun but seeing it come alive on the cloud is a blast. The barrier to entry is low and the upside endless. I deploy to Amazon Web Service by way of Heroku.

###Teach

learn[8] # => Teach

Helping others to learn is one of the best ways to learn an new competency. Blog about a new move, help a newbie, or teach a class. Its kind of like rubber ducking with humans.

Example

##Here’s how to pass a block of code through a method

Learn more about this at RubyMonk.com.

family= ["Matt", "Dana", "Lucy", "Bode"]

def meet_us(fam)
  puts "Meet our family of #{fam.length}."
  yield
end

meet_us(family) {family.each {|f| puts f}}

How to Learn

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