I believe that learning should never stop and it is especially true for us in the IT field where there are so many things to learn. I didn't learn Drupal, Jira or Linux because I had to, I learnt them because I enjoyed these technologies and I did all that in my free time and because of all the extra learning I now have a career in these areas. Now people usually say that they don't have enough time which I understand but I feel for majority of us we can definitely squeeze few hours every day if we want, it depends of course how desperate you are but I think a bit of desperation is not bad. If you really want to learn something and you can see yourself using that newly acquired skill 6, 1 year or 2 years from now then that is all you need. So a bit of day dreaming is always good. I always dream about what I want to be in near future. That's what keeps me aligned and motivated.
Coming back to the problem of time if you really want to do it you will find time. I find myself fortunate that I cannot sleep after 4 AM at all. I am conditioned to wake up automatically before 4 AM everyday. So these days every morning I spend couple of hours learning Node.js, I am quite late to join the party but I don't really dive into new technologies unless I am 100% sure. Node.js seems like a perfect match for my existing skills. I do web development using Drupal where Node.js can always be used to build a front end with headless Drupal. I also work as an Atlassian Consultant and with Atlassian focussing more and more on Cloud, where you can develop apps using Node.js so it seems like a win win situation for me if I acquire these skills.
I will come back to this page and update it with my progress on current projects I am working on.
Projects in Node.js
- I created an URL Shortener in few hours - DONE
- Add authentication
I believe that the best way to learn something is to get your hands dirty. I will be honest it is not easy to learn a totally new language or technology, that is why I do it in the morning when there is absolutely no distraction and I can train my mind to do difficult things. I think after few weeks it will be good.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Enjoy.
