"Oh, look! A chicken!"? What the heck is THAT supposed to mean? Those who know me know I have ADHD. As I was only diagnosed a few years back, I've come to realize that I had been trying to make my essentially flawed brain fit models that are more suited to the general populace than me. For example, the vast majority of the population learns very well using the standard educational model of regurgiteachin': "teach, repeat, regurgitate".
While I generally did very well in school, it was very difficult for me as that's not how I learn. Finding that out was a great revelation for me, but it did leave one huge question: how DO I learn best? Figuring that out has been a personal quest for the last few years, and I have made some recent advances in my discoveries.
Like most people, I've found I do learn best when I'm immersed in a topic. This is the generally recommended way, for example, to learn a foreign language (not that I need to do that, I'm an American, dammit! We speak English and we do it poorly!). Learn the grammar and syntax, but also engage the cultural side: eat the native foods of that region, read their local news, their books. Learn their songs and art. This is great for those who are able to maintain focus on a topic for long periods of time, but what about the rest of us?
I won't mince words: I'm a technology expert. My primary expertise lies in the area of enterprise infrastructure. You want a major environment setup that generates hundreds of millions in revenue and needs 25/8 availability to do it? I'm your guy. While I primarily deal with the Windows Server world, I'm also quite competent with Linux and other Unix variants as well. I have a wide breadth of knowledge, and the way I've come to it is because of the ADHD. For a few months, I might be a on a Linux "kick" and will devote a ton of time and effort into delving further into that platform. Soon after, I might be full tilt in love with Citrix platforms or the new version of Windows that just came out. It's tough to say where my brain'll take me next and I've arbitrarily followed it over the years. Recently, though, I've decided to come up with a more formalized method of maximizing on this "negative" I live with.
The "A-HA!" moment came a couple of years ago when I was doing some remodeling work in our bathroom (I can do carpentry, plumbing and electrical work all due to the fact that I had a brief interest in learning how to do it at one point :) ) I had gotten everything back together and the sink re-mounted when I realized I hadn't tightened one of the screws for the shelf above the sink. The screw wasn't critical, it's a glass shelf and this was just a tension screw that kept it from flopping around. Where it was placed made the likelihood of that happening minimal, but I still wanted to do a thorough job. Unfortunately, I also didn't want to re-remove the sink to get at the screw. So, I compromised with myself. I taped a note to myself on the bottom of the sink that said "Don't forget to tighten that screw on the shelf! Love, you!" Yes, I always tell myself I love me in my notes to myself.
About a year later, the sink was clogged and I had to take it off the wall to get to the pipes to snake it (it's a VERY small bathroom) and I noticed the note which I'd actually forgotten about. So, I tightened the screw. My wife had thought the note was a bit silly, but had to admit it had been a good idea once she saw how well it worked.
The drawback to my previous "interest episodes" was that it might have taken me months or even years to get back into a particular topic. As such, I would spend a lot of time during the next one reacquainting myself with the basics. After percolating for a while in my head, that note under the sink lead to the idea of leaving myself notes when I'm interested in a topic. Basically, everything I learn, I document. When I do get back to a topic, I can quickly review to where I left off and just build on that. At the moment, I'm calling this informal framework "Breadcrumbs". Like leaving breadcrumbs to find your way back out of the dark forest, my goal is to start using the tools that are available for managing information and using that to create notes I can leave for myself to then build on to greater sums of knowledge.
I've tried this with a couple of topics and initial results look good. The big problem I did run into is how best to organize this knowledge? I have pages of notes that don't make a whole lot of sense at times to Current Me. I'm sure Past Me knew exactly what he was talking about, but I just see some weird ramblings. Since I'm in the process of migrating this blog, and I'm currently in a writing "episode", I figured what better way to provide myself clear, easy to follow notes than by providing clear, easy to follow notes to the whole world? There's a line of thinking that says "if you can't explain it to someone else, you don't understand it yourself". Another saying I'm fond of is "teaching others is the best way to learn".
So, going forward, I'll be writing a lot of technical articles on whatever topic I'm stuck on at the moment (current topic: Ubuntu Linux). I hope that someone out there might get some use out of some of this. But, if not, at least I know *I* will!
Future Me, I hope you appreciate this!
Oh, yes...the title of the blog.
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