CodingBlocks
91. How to Learn Programming Skills


We continue our dive into how to learn things while Michael’s voice sounds an awful lot like Joe’s, Joe says it’s a square, and Allen says it’s as triangle … oh, and Google Feud is back!
Using your podcast player to read these show notes? You can view this episode’s full show notes and participate in the discussion over at https://www.codingblocks.net/episode91.
Sponsors
- Datadog.com/codingblocks – Sign up today for a free 14 day trial and get a free Datadog t-shirt after creating your first dashboard.
 
News
- To everyone that left us a review, thank you. We truly appreciate it.
- iTunes: lawfej, Arezx27, Zta192
 - Stitcher: Inquizarus, garyalex, SarahA
 
 
How to Get Better at Getting Better
The 5 models
- Deliberate Practice
 - Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition
 - Four Stages of Competence
 - The Learning Pyramid
 - 7 Learning Styles
 
Setting goals
- Uber or Graph Database?
 - Picking what is important to you…
- Play to strengths?
 - Strengthen your weaknesses?
 - Focus on highest ROI?
 
 
Deliberate practice
- Understand your goals, your aptitude, and execute custom exercises
 - Tailored towards advancing skill, ignores knowledge
 - Listen to episode 78 for a deep dive on deliberate practice.
 
Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition
- Controversial
 - The optimum way to learn changes as your knowledge and skill grow
 
Novice
- Understand the tools / philosophy
 - Explore ecosystem
 - Define learning goals
 - Getting started
 
Beginner
- Training course
 - Buy a book
 - Playground project
 
Intermediary
- Experiments
 - Documentation
 - Reading
 
Advanced
- Teach others
 
Four Stages of Competence
- Unconscious incompetence
- Don’t recognize the deficit
 - Often undervalues the skill
 
 - Conscious Incompetence
- You know you’re bad 
 - Making mistakes and learning from them is important
 
 - You know you’re bad 
 - Conscious Competence
- Using the skill requires attention and effort’
 
 - Unconscious Competence
- Skill becomes second nature
 - Teaching can be tough, depending on how you learn
 
 
The Learning Pyramid (aka cone of learning, or cone of experience)
- Passive Teaching Methods
- Lecture 5%
 - Reading 10%
 - Audio Visual 20%
 - Demonstration 30%
 
 - Participatory Teaching Methods 50%
 - Practicing by doing 75%
 - Teaching others 90%
 - Well, it’s controversial.
 
7 Learning Styles
- Visual (spatial):You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
 - Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music.
 - Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
 - Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
 - Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
 - Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
 - Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study.
 - Also controversial.
 
Resources We Like
- The Imposter’s Handbook (bigmachine.io)
 - Take Control of Your Life (Complete Developer Podcast, episode 16)
 - How to pick up a new technology in minimal time? (dev.to)
 - Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (Wikipedia)
 - Four stages of competence (Wikipedia)
 - Why the ‘learning pyramid’ is wrong (The Washington Post)
 - Overview of Learning Styles (learning-styles-online.com)
 - Learning Styles Debunked: There is No Evidence Supporting Auditory and Visual Learning, Psychologists Say (Association for Psychological Science)
 - 
How to be a Programmer: Community Version (GitHub)
- How to be a Programmer: Personal and Team Skills (episode 38)
 - How to be an Intermediate Programmer (episode 39)
 - How to be an Advanced Programmer (episode 40)
 
 - #100DaysOfCode
 
Tip of the Week
- DevTube – Find curated programming videos by topic, speaker, and popularity.
 - Code Sharing with Serverless Functions using NPM or Node packages.
 
CodingBlocks
        
