John Locke said it well:
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
A good point and well said, even today.
I would add, as part of learning technical topics, that putting what you read into practice makes it ours. I often think about something that I can put into practice with work and take a little piece of that, and mix in something that interests me. For either one though, its going to be something I will use and do, I have spent a lot of time in classes or learning something cool and neat at the time. And never used it again.
If you can't make a project with something, or maybe a blog post about it, then what you learn may never be truly yours. It'll be like watching that cool TV show about the environment, medical advances, or something else you watch, think is cool, then forget about a week later. To paraphrase Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad, "you have to own this". Learn it, do it, make it yours.
I tend to find that the "new and improved" or "all the cool kids are doing" subjects often don't align with what I do. Maybe its just me, and since I am typically bad about making my own personal projects I can't always jump in with everyone else and learn the new and cool stuff. Still, that's ok, its not what I do and I am comfortable with my space, so the bigger thing is I don't stress over what I can't learn. No one needs to know everything.
Tech is HUGE! There is a lot out there, and to try and learn it all would only leave one disappointed. Find the corner of your world, and own that, make it yours. From that be happy with what you do.
Top comments (0)