Hi, I’m Jack

Recently, the team discussed how to learn a new skill. In view of this topic, I also summarized a few points, hoping to have a little help to some new people in the industry

In the IT industry, we often need to learn new skills, and the longer you work, the more skills you need to master. Therefore, the ability to learn a new technology efficiently is still very important to us

To talk about how to learn a new technology, first of all, we have to think about what does the new technology mean?

In my opinion, new technology can actually be defined as gaining more skills and experience by learning from existing materials, so as to improve efficiency or realize more value. For example, by learning Docker, you can not only quickly build the environment of common software in daily learning, but also become handy for the deployment process of projects at work. With the deepening of the mastery of Docker technology, You will naturally consider whether there is a more simplified and perfect way for the current project deployment process, or share the Docker technology in the company to help other colleagues quickly understand this technology, so as to promote the efficiency of the whole team

Today, I’m going to share with you a basic step of my own learning

On the whole, it is the process of alternating theory and practice and spiraling upward

Theory: Read blogs/videos to get the big picture

The first step is to start with a technical article or video. Blog and public articles, are peers after learning or practice summed up the extracted knowledge, the article is often standing in the perspective of learning and use of output, so it is more convenient for us to quickly start. Take a look at a couple of articles and get familiar with this new gadget by explaining it in a colloquial way. Quickly understand what the technology is, what its core points are, why it exists, what problems it solves, what advantages it has, etc

2 Learning by analogy

In addition, before learning a new technology, you can learn by analogy

You take this new technology and compare it to what you already know. Of course, it can also be compared with the similarities of a certain Angle. After all, many things are interlinked. For example, for the study of Docker, the three features of Docker are warehouse, image and container. If you are good at association, you will easily find that they correspond to our GitHub warehouse, source code and running service instances respectively. By storing the image in the repository, Docker can achieve the effect of one build and running everywhere, and we can upload the code to GitHub to achieve the same effect, right?

Also, if you have used Kafka before, you have a good understanding of the important features of Kafka, such as message repetition, message loss, message out-of-order, and message persistence. So with RocketMq, you’ll also get a quick start. Because RocketMq is a secondary technology that stands on the shoulders of RocketMq, using analogies is not only a quick way to learn RocketMq, but also a much deeper way to learn it

Here’s another real-life example of Jack Himself. One time, when we were working on a new project, I was asked to select a registry for Zookeeper, Nacos, and Eureka (the company’s main framework at the time only supported these three registries depending on the business scenario). Zookeeper and Eureka are two popular registries that I have used in the past. Cluster architecture, cluster role, election method, way to ensure consistency, mechanism and principle of information synchronization between cluster nodes, and Spring Boot integration of Zookeeper and Eureka, the way to truly realize service registration and discovery, and so on

Nacos had no idea. Therefore, I had to learn Nacos before exporting the selection solution. So I started Nacos with questions and guesses. For example, if it is also a registry, how does the key points of Zookeeper correspond to the implementation mechanism of Nacos, what are the differences between them, and what business scenarios are suitable for them, etc. In this way, I quickly mastered 80% of the theoretical learning of Nacos in one day. In the end, according to the business scenario, CAP theory, deployment scheme and other factors, a satisfactory answer was delivered within two days ~

Ok, so far, the first round of theoretical study has come to an end, and we have preliminarily grasped the macro basic knowledge of this new technology. Next, go a little closer: run a demo to deepen your understanding

Practice: Start with a demo

In front of the theory, has a preliminary concept, next run a demo, feel the way. After all, the first time is not as good as the actual practice. For example, WHEN I learned Docker, I read some blogs at the beginning and knew it was a software container platform. It always feels a little abstract, but by installing Docker and doing a Hello World demo, you’ll understand a little bit more about how it works

4. Retheory: Visit the official website

After the demo runs, come to the official website to see. On the official website, the content is often objective, accurate, comprehensive, but a little abstract, but at this time, you have some preliminary impression, with a few points summed up in front of the formal theoretical study, you will be easy to understand

Practice again: Practice

In fact, for the technology in IT, IT is recommended that you learn a technology with a purpose, that is, when a technology is being used recently, or will need to use a technology, then you can learn IT. In this way, I can not only solve the problems in the project and improve my work efficiency, but also have the opportunity to continue to learn in practice and spiral up

For example, I have already understood the general idea of Docker and run a Hello World demo. In practice, you will always encounter some problems or need to realize some more complex scenes, which will prompt you to continuously acquire more learning materials. Even in a passive situation, you can easily master more and more knowledge points of this technology. As time goes by, you will naturally become more familiar with Docker

At this point, you can try to achieve your original goal of learning the technology

6, focus

It is suggested that in the first two years or even years of work, they should only study one or two new technologies at a time. After all, people’s energy is limited, and learning too much at one time is likely to be broad but not good. A few months passed, although dabble in the technical point is still quite a lot, but in the use of it is often imprisoned, it seems that always can not put to good use, so that in the process of growing up, will be hindered by some, so that their career, gradually become not confident

On the contrary, if you focus on learning one or two new skills over a period of time, through a combination of theory and practice, and periodic reflection, you will master the underlying principles of the technology and gradually develop a learning method that suits you. Over the course of a year, you become an expert in a particular technique, and people ask you if they have any questions. Not only do you become more confident, but often because there are so many things in common, you learn other techniques and you become more efficient

7. Systematic learning

You can start by learning a new skill only for what you need to achieve: a specific function. But after studying for a while, be sure to go back and learn the basic concepts again in a systematic way. This time can be long or short, depending on your grasp of the situation, often can be a quick browse, let those knowledge points quickly from the brain over, focus on those more important and their own memory fuzzy or impression is not deep enough. In the past, the focus may be on local characteristics, and in this stage, not only is the knowledge of the review, but also on this technical point to re-learn, really will be the previous knowledge system to string together

Go to systematic study again, believe me, you will see a lot of different scenery, often there will be suddenly enlightened feeling

So what can be done to systematically learn new technologies?

Jack usually studied systematically by reading classic books. As for how to choose classic books, it is suggested to communicate with the big guys, or directly to douban search can be obtained. Basically according to oneself study stage to see a few relevant books commonly. Focus on ratings and catalogs and reviews from people who have read them to find the best book for you at this stage. For example, after using Docker for about a month, I have a little foundation. Take a look at the first Docker book.

8, output,

Moreover, it must be said that it is almost an accepted truth in the field that learning something is one thing entirely different from writing it or speaking it. This is Jacob himself a deep feelings, I also have the habit of learning before, but a real growth effect of a breakthrough, lies in the continuous output of public articles, this period of time, the continuous output of the experience, formed the good habit of learning, not only make himself more make I deeply in love with learning the matter itself, So I will keep the good habit of sharing

The essence of many things is the same. Start learning, the brain will always think it is simple, so broad, feel oneself seems to have about the same, but when you really want to share it, you will always have to take him as a product, want to own more image to understand the way, will be a lot more logical displayed correctly, and let the other side to accept. And in the process of preparation or sharing, you will often find some aspects that you did not notice before, or cognitive inaccurate aspects, in the case of searching materials, repeated practice verification, you have to learn again!

9, regular recheck

Although the new technology, through so many steps, should be almost mastered. However, there will always be a forgetting curve, so it is recommended that you review your skills regularly. The period can be a month or a quarter, which is also a periodic review of your own. Of course, it is better to have a clear learning goal before this, so periodical review can not only make you review your learning efficiency and effect again, but also allow you to constantly reflect and summarize according to the situation, and refine a more efficient learning or growth way, so as to get closer to the goal

conclusion

Well, this article focuses on how to learn a new skill effectively. Jie elder brother through their own practice, summed up the above points said

1. Quick understanding of macro knowledge

Learn from other skills you already have

3 to run the demo

4 Visit the official website

Five practice

In addition, the following points need to be noted

6 the focus

7 Systematic learning

8 output

9. Review regularly

Of course, it’s not necessary to go through all of them, but you can pick a few steps that are more appropriate for you based on your own experience. After all these steps, you’ll easily discover another truth: the more you learn, the faster you learn. Yes, learning by analogy has a big impact on learning new technology. It often allows you to quickly get to the core of the technology and then, effortlessly, master it. Output, the sharing of skills and constant practice, is also particularly important because it allows you to really learn more than twice as much

Therefore, effective learning is inseparable from continuous learning habits and constant summarization and practice