Once you come to the realization that learning holds the potential for dramatic organizational improvement and that it should be a part of what people do with the first 40 hours of their week, you might wonder how to get the most out of it. First, let’s differentiate spontaneous learning from intentional learning. Every day you have to look things…
Category: Seven Figure Software
Make it second nature
A natural extension of using mental resets is to establish a mechanism to revisit really important things on a basis appropriate to help make them second nature. Even if retain something after a month, we still risk losing it. If it’s not that important, that’s not a big deal. But if it is, then we need to revisit it. This…
Mental reset
When you’re engaged in learning, you’re actively cramming information into your short term memory. Whether you intend to or not. As you study you build mental models and understandings of what you’re exposing yourself to. You use this to build relationships and hopefully to align what you’re learning with what you’re trying to accomplish. As you move from study to…
Sleep on it
Stewing on it is a useful mental technique to enhance learning. But sometimes doing something physical in the hopes that things will bubble up from your subconscious isn’t the only way to elicit learning. Another simple way is to put down the books. Learn for a while and then stop. Stop at least for a day. Enough time to sleep…
Stew on it
One way to solidify learning is to give yourself an opportunity to stew on it. Learning leads to forgetting if we don’t find ways to revisit what we’ve learned. Sometimes we don’t have an immediate use for the knowledge. Or an immediate way we can experiment with the knowledge. In these situations you can still find solace in your mind.…
Find a project
No doubt you have a list of things you hope to get the chance to learn. Perhaps sooner rather than later. But one of the biggest mistakes, and perhaps why you haven’t got to the list yet, is learning without a purpose. Learning for learning’s sake is only followed by forgetting. One of the best purposes for learning is to…
The primary cause of defects in software
Defects in software have always been and will always be a subject of interest. And it’s not just software. Every industry is obsessed in some way with defects. Software development has evolved a plethora of techniques to identify and eliminate defects. Practices to find out about defects quickly. And practices to hopefully avoid introducing defects. Unfortunately many of the practices…
Investing in seven figure software, tip #2
So you have an idea for creating your own seven figure software. Or you’d just like to know what comes next. Maybe you have a vague idea of what you’d like to create. Perhaps you’ve taken a few steps down the path of what may be involved to make the idea a reality. You might even have some requirements or…
“While we’re at it”
Occasionally an opportunity will arise to make an investment with the potential for an astronomical return. Sometimes these investments will literally fall into your lap. Usually it takes work to carve out a worthwhile investment. However you arrive at a potential investment, so long as the potential return is significant (10 to 1), avoid the temptation to posit “while we’re…
Obsessing over details is a sign
When approaching software development from a focus on outcomes and results, instead of efforts and billable minutes, I’ve noticed an early indicator. When conversations digress into nuances of what will be accomplished, it’s usually a sign of a lack of value. Although the outcome appears lofty, in reality it isn’t. When investments are extremely valuable, people tend not to obsess…