In many professions, we champion the concept of the “lifelong learner,” but what does that actually look like in real life?
Your learning plan may be little more than a “maybe someday I’ll get around to it” list in the back of your mind, but this isn’t ideal. “Someday” rarely comes, so having a bit more structure around timelines makes you more likely to make progress. Some detail is also a good thing- which books do you want to read? Which courses do you want to take? Which blogs do you want to follow?
It’s pretty common to see learning plans in tech that include learning a new language or framework or diving deep into algorithm design, but rare to see strategies that include our ability to communicate those same ideas to others. The focus is on what is known as “hard skills” instead of “soft skills,” i.e., the squishy human side of working in the modern world.
Part of the overemphasis on hard skills in tech, and many other professions, may come from a self-perpetuating cycle- people who have been in the profession for a long time never focused on these skills, so when giving advice, they don’t include them. The problem is that we are automating away more and more of the work that requires hard skills. That leaves these soft skills in a gap where automation can’t yet take over.
The other part of the issue is that soft skills can be more challenging to learn. You can still read books and blogs to pick up some ideas, but you need other humans to try these things and then ask for feedback and reflect on how things went. While going to a lecture might be considerably more effort than just reading about the topic, the effort may be worthwhile if you also get to spend some time with other people in your field, discussing what you’ve learned and networking with them.
If you look around at what is considered an “ideal” skillset, you’ll start to see discussions about a t-shaped skillset. This is someone who has a deep knowledge of one or two areas and has a breadth of knowledge from other areas. Music is an excellent example of this. Usually, a given musician will specialize in a specific style of music. However, when they start to borrow elements from other styles, they can begin to create new and unique music. Similarly, a professional who has invested in learning various things means that you will have unique viewpoints and experiences to bring to your job that is attractive to many employers. You may even discover that something you are learning about is something you want to pursue as a possible focus point in your career moving forward.
When you face an issue and have to investigate the solution, you may see that as a short-term investment. And that’s true, but that info is also available to you in the future. The accumulation of these solutions is a part of what can make an experienced professional so valuable. As the saying goes, “junior devs just copy/paste code. Senior devs know which code to copy/paste”. The value in many scenarios isn’t being able to solve the problem yourself. It’s seeing which possible solution is best for your situation and applying it.
This is also why learning outside of an immediate problem is valuable. It lets you focus on understanding the context around an item instead of just the specific issue itself. Learning while working is often a bit like reading random pages from a textbook- you’ll get a decent idea of what to do, but you’ll have missing pieces until you read the rest of the book.
At least in the tech industry, many employers are growing to understand the value of dedicated learning time and ensuring devs get it as part of their typical workday. Even if you aren’t so fortunate, building learning into your daily life will help ensure you keep at it. This doesn’t have to always be a big chunk of your time. Reading a blog post or two instead of scrolling TikTok can be an excellent way to squeeze this in, though there’s no need to get rid of all your TikTok time ;).
When we talked about remote working, we discussed setting aside some space at home specifically for working, even if the difference was just changing the color of your lights or lighting a specific type of candle. Learning works best the same way. You may not set aside a particular space in your home for it, but you can choose specific music, lights, scents, and surroundings to set yourself up that this is learning time.
Events like ‘Study Together’ here on Discord are a great tool you can use to motivate your learning. Peer pressure doesn’t have to be a bad thing when it helps you do beneficial things. Community also allows you to find new resources and get you unstuck when you need them. Fortunately for those in tech, this sort of thing is built into the industry. You just need to take advantage of it.
Most of the topics I teach on Discord are because people in the community find them interesting or important, though sometimes I just pick something that I think is useful. When I’m choosing, it’s usually something that I feel is important and I want to learn more about. I push myself to understand the material better than I would otherwise by teaching the info. Teaching directly isn’t the only way to do this, but it is good. Blogs, LinkedIn posts, Youtube, and similar content types can fill in this role exceptionally well and serve the dual purpose of improving your professional reputation.