What I do when I don't know what I'm doing

How I incorporate learning new things into my everyday work.

Transcript

1. What I do when I don’t know what I’m doing An everyday approach to technical learning
2. Who I am Self taught developer. Formally taught (former) scientist.
3. Why this talk Learning is a skill which can be practiced.
4. The big question: What am I going to learn?
5. What am I going to learn? What is there to learn? What do I want to learn? What is worth learning?
6. What is there to learn? What do I want to learn? What is worth learning? Find out what’s out there Eavesdrop, idly browse, mindlessly scroll through work related social media
7. What is there to learn? What do I want to learn? What is worth learning? Not knowing this is painful This would improve my skills This looks so very fun
8. Don’t forget it Keep it all in one place. (Pocket, Evernote, email, notebook, anywhere outside my head) USE THE SHARE MENU SAVE EVERYTHING
9. What is there to learn? What do I want to learn? What is worth learning? Who is using it? What are they doing with it? Is the community decent? Are there good docs? Is it stable? Is it safe?
10. Be ruthless, critical and harsh With myself mainly.
11. What and why. Next: Where and when?
12. Where and when? Small projects for big things. Larger projects for small things.
13. Evaluate the project What I know What I know I don’t know What I don’t know I don’t know
14. What I know What I know I don’t know What I don’t know I don’t know How big is the project? What can I count on to work? Could I do it without the new thing?
15. What I know What I know I don’t know What I don’t know I don’t know Is there anything else in the project I don’t know?
16. Scope thoroughly Be deliberate in using what I don’t know. Keep everything else known, even if it’s embarrassing.
17. Define the beginning and the end Where does what I don’t know start? Where does what I don’t know end? Define success.
18. What I know What I know I don’t know What I don’t know I don’t know The killer. What haven’t I realised I need to know before I can do this?
19. Finally I’m ready for How?
20. The docs Read the instructions. Words matter, learn the jargon.
21. When Googling ALWAYS Check the date. Check the version. Check the author.
22. How? Get going Get started Get unstuck
23. Get going Get started Get unstuck Tutorials and courses and docs, oh my. Time spent figuring out what I’m doing is not wasted.
24. Do something simple but cheat Use playgrounds.
25. Codepen.io Gorgeous. All the best front end stuff you could ever want. Excellent for perfecting visuals. https://codepen.io JS, CSS, HTML *I like specific recs in talks. These may or may not work for you. There are many others.
26. JSFiddle An oldie but a goodie. Useful layout when asking for help and/or isolating js problems. https://jsfiddle.net/ JS, CSS, HTML *I like specific recs in talks. These may or may not work for you. There are many others.
27. Local by Flywheel The easiest local dev environment for WordPress. https://local.getflywheel.com/ WORDPRESS, PHP *I like specific recs in talks. These may or may not work for you. There are many others.
28. Glitch.com Try out js easily. Good for working along with tutorials. Great examples with one click fork and lovely community. https://glitch.com/ JS, CSS, HTML *I like specific recs in talks. These may or may not work for you. There are many others.
29. REMEMBER Making something work is not the same as fully understanding it. Making something work is what counts.
30. Get going Get started Get unstuck What happens when I can’t even greet the world?
31. The Gulf of Getting Started with the Invisible Maelstrom of Assumed Knowledge I don’t know enough to get started. The most basic examples assume knowledge I don’t have. Assumed knowledge is invisible.
32. Get going Get started Get unstuck Break it down again.
33. Scope thoroughly What needs to be done? What do I know how to do? What don’t I know how to do? Break it down again
34. Define the beginning and the end Where am I? Where do I need to be? Define success. Break it down again
35. Rinse and repeat with the isolated problem Break it down again
36. Project complete but All the feelings
37. The Dunning-Kruger effect is not imposter syndrome http://agilecoffee.com/toolkit/dunning-kruger/
38. The end. @tharsheblows
39. Sidney Harris: http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/