Learning in spirals

I'm not the only geek who learns like this. It's a pretty common pattern, apparently. Here are Sadique Ali's thoughts on going through the spiral of learning. =) Good to see how other people deal with it! See HackerNews for interesting comments.

So what are the different areas I'm currently learning about? I started by listing the categories that came to mind. Then I wrote down what I was already comfortable with (celebrate your successes and starting point!). I wrote down the next things I wanted to explore. Then I picked ONE of those things and filled in more details for my current focus (or at least, what I'm likely to focus on the next time I come back to the topic).

This is great. It gives me “next actions” to focus on when I feel the urge to explore a particular category. Leaving myself a note about what's next makes it easier for me to hit the ground running instead of spending time trying to figure out what to do. I can still change it, of course, but at least I have a reasonable default.

I have the freedom to follow my interests. I also nudge myself to explore specific topics further, because sometimes all you need is to sit down and start, and then you're motivated to continue. The themes I've picked for each day influence me a lot. I don't set aside each day exclusively for one topic, but I notice where the holes are when I haven't thought about something in a while. My blog post calendar makes those holes visible, and that encourages me to pick either something I'm comfortable explaining or a question I'm curious about exploring.

What's a good way for me to keep this table convenient and up to date? Hmm… Adding it to my mindmap or outline, maybe? That way, I can stash resources related to future topics. An Org Mode outline might be easiest to manage as it grows in size, since I can track status and export my notes. Here it is: http://sach.ac/my-learning

Do you learn in a spiral too? How do you make the most of it?

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