You'll Never Master Programming (and that's okay)

A talk I gave about how there is always more to learn in programming—mastery is a moving target. I talked about getting competent, overcoming plateaus, and how important it is to get brutal feedback as you learn new things. I talked about the idea of deep focus as a means to learn quickly. I argued that focused, deliberate practice, is more valuable than throwing endless hours at a problem.

I ended with an anecdote about Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. As he was dying, he gathered his students around him and asked to be buried in his white belt. He was the highest ranking martial artist of his time and he chose the symbolism of the beginner for his legacy. The journey and practice of continually learning is never over. What a gift that is.

Transcript

1. YOU’LL NEVER MASTER PROGRAMMING (and that’s okay)
4. BASE LAYER OF COMPETENCY
5. 80/20
6. What 20% of the Ruby standard library will allow me to program 80% of the things I need to program?
7. OVERCOMING THE PLATEAU
8. 0 15 30 45 60 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Typing skill plateau
9. 1. Receive ongoing feedback to course correct and improve. DELIBERATE PRACTICE
10. 2. Focus attention on a specific skill that needs to be learned. 1. Receive ongoing feedback to course correct and improve. DELIBERATE PRACTICE
11. DEEP FOCUS
12. DEEP FOCUS knowledge_acquired = time_spent * intensity_of_focus
13. MULTITASKING == DISTRACTION
14. So we have scales that allow us to divide up people into people who multitask all the time and people who rarely do, and the differences are remarkable. People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand…they’re pretty much mental wrecks. “ ” Clifford Nass
15. MULTITASKING == DISTRACTION Trains our brains to crave distraction.
16. 1. Be bored
17. 9:00 - 11:00 Read textbook and apply lessons learned to a codebase 11:00 - 12:00 EMAIL! TWITTER! INTERNET! 12:00 - 1:00 Write more code
18. 1. Be bored 2. Track your focus time
20. 1. Be bored 2. Track your focus time 3. Be accountable
22. 1. Be bored 2. Track your focus time 3. Be accountable 4. Set a limit to your day
23. BASE LAYER OF COMPETENCY
24. OVERCOMING THE PLATEAU
25. DEEP FOCUS
27. @andrewmarkle THE END