21 January 2019

My Learning - Part 2 - Me

Before we go into how I learn, let's look at who I am because that impacts what works for me when I'm trying to learn something.


My biggest strength and shortcoming is probably my impatience. I get bored very easily but thanks to that I don't stay with methods that aren't working or other things not helping me to progress fast.

Auditory learner... maybe

I'm a quite sociable person who loves to discuss and debate basically any topic with any person. One reason for that is probably because I take in a lot of information from listening and talking... Yes, I'm quite often surprised by things I say myself and actually learn this way.
For this to work I need... people. Due to this I spend a significant amount of time just improving, expanding and pruning my social network (which I'll come back to in later parts).

... that being said; the description of a visual learning style actually describes me better. So maybe I'm wrong... or maybe I'm a mix of the two.

Anyhow, what I do know is listening and talking is important to my learning...

Abstractions and visual thinking

My brain is pretty good at abstracting things making them easier for me to understand, summarize and apply to something else. I'm also a quite visual thinker (maybe that's true for everyone?) and adding visuals to something happens naturally. This has a few interesting implications:
  1. I'm good at writing summaries
  2. I'm good at abstracting something into a graph or simple visualization
  3. I'm good at taking a concept from one thing and applying it something else (e.g. retool heuristics created for software testing and apply them to my learning process)
  4. I'm good at making sense of really confusing things
  5. I'm good at explaining something complex by applying it to something easy that the receiver can better understand.
  6. I think this is a reason why I have quite a vivid imagination; I can create something visible and concrete in my head even from very loose thoughts.
  7. I'm good at pointing out what's missing in an explanation because when I abstract something in my head any lack of information creates a problem with my model. This also helps me come up with questions in various situations.
There are obviously drawbacks as well. Since I quickly try to create abstractions my response can end up too abstract for someone or at least too far away from where that person started. This is especially true when I talk to people who are very concrete and want to discuss the exact example they brought up.

On the end of the abstraction spectrum I kinda have to do the abstractions on my own for them to make sense, so speaking with someone who creates abstractions as well can be confusing as I have to reverse engineer that persons abstraction back to its original form to be able to start my own thinking process. This means I often "demand" actual examples from other people so that I can abstract them for myself... which can be weird... sometimes ("you must provide me real examples but I'll respond with abstractions because... reasons").

Implications when I learn:
  • I primarily look for core concepts. These concepts I can then start to apply to all sorts of imaginary things and situation to help me make sense of them.
  • Secondary I look for the actual scenarios or examples. I want them short and concise to make the abstractions more manageable and closer to the original. If I abstract a very big story I typically end up with something too generic.
  • Third I look for very skilled people's interpretations and abstractions of things simply because my experience is these are still worth trying to reverse engineer.
Implications when I socialize:
  • I have to consciously monitor what I say and the reaction it creates, to avoid becoming too vague or abstract.
  • I'm at my absolute best when the other person has a complicated thing they need help making sense of.


Let's just say discipline and "mental endurance" are not my biggest strengths... To counter this I need to monitor and nourish my motivation while avoiding distractions because my motivation is the tool I use to "fake endurance": I don't endure a long learning session, I marvel at the opportunity to learn something new and exciting.

I'll come back to this topic in great detail in a later post; but for now, just understand that my discipline is non-existent but I've learned to work around that challenge.


I have a strong competitive personality and can prepare myself for hours just to perform well in one particular situation. For instance when I play games (sports, computer or board games) I want to know everything about the game so I give myself the best possible chance to succeed... or rather minimal risk of failing, which seems to be the stronger motivation. This is a trait that can both help and hamper my learning efforts.

What I've learned is if I let this competitiveness run free I get bored quickly and start to jump from one project to the next; the reason being that I realize how far away I am from being the best and thus lose interest (remember what I said about my endurance just a couple of paragraphs ago).

So what I've deliberately done is decide to compete only with myself when it comes to the big, important areas in my life just to avoid frustration or losing interest: "I want to be the best coach I can be" or "I want to be the best father I can be". However, it takes energy to stop myself from comparing my progress to other's so to up my odds of not running out of energy I let my competitiveness wreck havoc in all the small things where it doesn't matter if I lose interest long before "I'm done".

Competing with myself

One thing I'm currently working on is to improve my ability to gain energy from competing with myself. Finding a way to monitor progress seems like a key factor here (seeing "proof" that I've outperformed myself from yesterday). Another, related journey is to better enjoy the activity itself and not just the end result. This is mostly to help me enjoy, and behave better, when participating in casual activities like board games or sports (I'm a pretty sore loser) but I think it could potentially improve my learning as well.

Limited motivation to finish things

I often start with grand plans and tons of energy. I then complete the first steps which typically teaches me the vast majority of what I want to learn... and finally I realize (or at least think I realize) that the rest of the trip is mostly repetition or would require enormous amounts of effort for quite limited learning results so I quit.

One example is the many unpublished drafts I have in this blog: I wrote the larger portion of them but got bored with the topic or the work to polish them and just left them there.

To some this might seem wasteful but to me it's not; I've learned what I wanted to learn, or realized that the learning I wanted wasn't there, at least not fast enough, so I'm done. Also when I feel the need to finish something; such as this blog post or most projects at work; I can but it requires energy and that's once again a precious resource so I need to carefully pick my battles.


Up until recently I thought I could multitask and I'm not kidding. For instance I use to watch TV while reading an article, I was listening to a recorded conference presentation while working or watching a YouTube video while writing a blog post. Turns out my ability to multitask is basically non-existent which I came to realize when doing the dishes one day...

I had been looking at some online presentations while doing the dishes every evening for about a week and every evening I was surprised by how long it took to get the dishes done. Finally I decided to monitor what was actually happening. Turns out a very small portion was me doing the dishes and a very large part was me standing still watching the presentation. The "funny" thing in all this is I couldn't recall basically anything from the presentation despite the time spent. So the next day I did the dishes as quickly as I could without any distractions and then sat in the sofa fully focused on the presentation... well, the difference was quite significant both in terms of personal satisfaction and in what I could recall from the presentation. A challenge here, for me, is I have no problem "allowing" myself to spend an hour "washing dishes" but to "allow" myself to do the dishes in 5 minutes and then sit in the sofa reading for 55 minutes is much harder...

Anyway, since this observation I've conducted more experiments and come to the conclusion that I can only do one learning action at a time and if I do anything else while trying to learn something things just won't "stick"... and I also do the other thing quite poorly. So for instance I can listen to podcasts, audio books or online presentations while e.g. doing the dishes or read while distracted by a TV but I can't have any intention to actually remember the stuff presented to me instead it's more of a passive filtering process: "Meh, this book was not great enough to actually read in a focused manner" or "Wow, I need to listen to this podcast while not distracted later". I'll talk about these learning modes in great detail in a later part but long story short: Being aware of them have had a big impact on my learning!


Related to multitasking is "stickiness". For things to stick in my head, I have three rules of thumb:
  1. Focus on only one thing
  2. Make it my own
  3. Apply it immediately
I've already talked about limiting distractions and focusing on one task at a time so let's focus on the other two.

"Make it my own" in this case means I need to use my own words and feelings to describe something, even if it somewhat distorts or modifies the original meaning/intent. Examples are:
  • Do something with it (action)
  • Say the thing out loud using my own words
  • Write down a summary/take notes using my own words
  • Deconstruct the thing and reassemble it in "my way"
  • Consciously modify my own (mental) models based on this information
  • Apply what I've just learned to a made up situation
The last three are best done on paper, not just in my head. If it's something physical, like a badminton stroke, I need to stop taking in information and do the thing myself while focusing on how my body feels while doing it.

Often when actively taking in new information (e.g. read a book) I'm content with just taking notes because if I start doing more I'll lose the flow and at that point any microscopic distraction will get me... so to help me stay focused I just take quick notes and move on. I then later go back and act on the notes I took, do the exercises from the book etc. (or at least I wish I did... more on that in a later part)

The last one is a work in progress. When I learned my way as a tester, practicing what I had learned came quite naturally. Now when my focus is to improve my ability to coach it's harder because I would prefer to coach other people even early on in my progress and to be fair, that scares the shit out of me and is not as flexible since I'm limited to when that person/those people are available. So I don't have too much to say about this yet but I know acting is important based on my previous learning adventures...

(while writing this I realize I could start with coaching myself using the various techniques I learn rather than on other people... just as an easy step one so I start doing it...)


One of the things I appreciate from having worked as a software tester for many years is the focused training and experience in asking questions. When I try making something my own, questions are typically my primary tool:
  • How does this fit my current model(s)?
  • If it doesn't, why?
  • What assumptions are required for my current model to work? Are they really true?
  • What assumptions are required for this new idea to work? Are they really true?
  • What does the author mean with...?
  • What's the author's intention by framing the idea this particular way?
  • In which context is this likely true?
  • In which context is this likely not true?
  • How can this idea be applied to other areas?
    (example: How could the concept of "critical distance" be applied to parenting?)
  • What if I knew this idea was universally true, how would that effect my actions and models?
  • ...
It's quite crowded in my head already so if I just took anything I read for granted and gave it a place to stay I'd be screwed, so questioning is an important tool not only to better understand an idea/concept but also to help filter out what's not relevant - right now - for me.

Goals and direction

I once attended a keynote about "how to become an amazing tester" from a well renowned expert in the field. She talked for 45 minutes and I saw all these people frantically take notes and afterwards there were plenty of questions from curious participants... but I was utterly disappointed! I felt like none of what she had talked about matched my experience...

What she was talking about was how to set goals and how important it was to commit to these goals. My strategy so far, and to this day, is to set a direction (call it goal if you want, but a vague one) and run in that direction... and it seems to have worked quite well for me.

After the keynote I met a few other participants and expressed my frustration, not that the keynote was bad but because everyone seemed super enthusiastic about it but I couldn't relate at all. A brilliant woman, Fiona Charles, looked at me and said:

"I look at it is a continuum. On one end is pure goal setting and for people far out on that side this was gold! On the other side I put the opportunists; I describe them as "having big ears", they're great at picking up various opportunities and are always ready to leave their current path if a new opportunity seems better. For them goals are more like prisons, impeding their creativity and energy. I would guess you're pretty far out on the opportunist side."

Since then I've altered my view a bit but Fiona's explanation is still the foundation I use.

So how have I managed to get anywhere with that attitude? Well, I need a clear direction. For instance my direction right now is to become an amazing coach and an expert in company culture. My approach to accomplish this is a mix of:
  • Find the important people
  • Find the existing networks
  • Find the often referenced resources
  • Find practice methods that work for me
I won't go into details on any of these right now but the important thing is I only have a vague idea on how to become great in this case but I'm confident I'll figure out various things to try if I just put enough effort into the four tracks above. So far I've connected with experienced coaches, I've realized a new local meetup/study group is needed so I've taken the first few steps to create one, I have a list of names of people who I want to learn more about/from, I've looked up and read several books some of which I'll read again and so on... I'm not following a clear path, I've not committed to complete any specific activities and I'm not sure what the next step is but I'm confident I have a strong forward motion (I trust my process because it has a great track record).

If you want more details on how I keep track of these various paths and opportunities you can read more in my old blog post about BOB. To be honest though; right now I'm not using BOB because I feel like my progression is too fast for BOB to keep up but he has been a trusted friend for a long time and I intend to get back to him when my progression starts to pan out a bit.

No comments:

Post a Comment