I've found myself in situations where I need to pick up new technologies quickly, like Angular, Vue, or TypeScript. I've tried various methods like speed-reading documentation, building small projects, and taking courses or reading books. What methods do you all use to get up to speed efficiently when learning something new? Any tips would be appreciated!
5 Answers
As a self-taught ML engineer, I prefer to thoroughly learn a technology before I start building something. I usually take a complete course on platforms like Udemy, focusing on hands-on code-alongs. I sometimes skip parts I already know, but I find facing and fixing the small bugs along the way is crucial for my growth. It makes a big difference to really know a tech well before diving into projects.
When I'm learning something new, I just dive in and do what interests me. I usually struggle with reading and often forget half of what I read. Lately, I've been using AI tools for guidance, although I only let them assist me—doing the actual coding myself to avoid ending up with a buggy mess. It’s great for getting started and answering specific questions!
If I need to learn something quickly, I start building immediately, often with a small test project. It's all about trial and error for me. I look at documentation and sometimes even ask ChatGPT for help, but ultimately, I rely on the docs to really grasp the concepts.
I find that the best way to learn is just to practice. I pick a small project and start building with the new tech right away. Just doing it helps me understand the concepts better.
I like to create a checklist of everything I want to learn and use a custom tool that I built to generate a detailed action plan. It gives me step-by-step instructions for implementation, including all the necessary governance and testing steps. I just follow the plan without needing tutorials or videos, which helps me produce solid results quickly.
That's a neat approach! I don't use AI much for learning myself, but I'd love to hear more about how others implement it into their learning process.