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Gift Egwuenu✨
Gift Egwuenu✨

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[Keynote] One Rule to Rule Them All: Learning in Public

In this keynote for CodeLand 2021, we'll cover the idea that learning is an essential part of your career, and it's crucial to find the best learning method that fits you. We'll explore some learning techniques with a critical focus on the last - Learning In Public.

Takeaways:

  • Feynman's technique to learning anything
  • Spaced Repetition
  • Guided and Unguided Learning
  • Learning in Public

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Resources


About Gift Egwuenu

Gift Egwuenu is a frontend consultant at Passionate People and a content creator based in Haarlem, Netherlands, She loves engaging with and advocating for open and inclusive developer communities and loves sharing her knowledge and experience by creating tech content for developers.


This talk will be presented as part of CodeLand 2021 on September 24. After the talk is streamed as part of the conference, it will be added to this post as a recorded video.

Latest comments (57)

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noviicee profile image
Novice

That was an incredible talk. Thank you Gift 🎉

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kaj profile image
Kajah

I want to watch this one again, thank you Gift!

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rizzydc profile image
Ruzel Zakirov

I love that concept of sharing the process of learning and teaching others. And that the best thing you can do is sharing your mistakes actually resonates with me. One just can't get the feedback learning in private. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

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muditabaid profile image
Mudita Baid

Thanks Gift for sharing this, i really enjoyed this session. It was a perfect classification of learning techniques which all of us use without even realizing it.
Once if more and more people starts Learning in Public, i think there is no way to go back. Even, it might make other techniques to be the most difficult ones as there will be infinite posts regarding every topic as everyone starts discussing in public forums. And it will be difficult for everyone to find correct solution instantly without discussing.
So, I am just curious will it be beneficial everytime in long run? Definitely I agree with you that it will help in increasing our knowledge. But what if when we need solution instantly?
Thanks :)

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

I think in this case, anyone that shares publicly especially in a way to teach others needs to do their due diligence and if for some reason they find that what they shared isn't the right thing it's okay to take feedback and corrections and update what they already shared.

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sbstn profile image
sbstn98

Thanks for this nice keynote, i will definitely try to learn more about learning concepts and #learninpublic. When i started to code, my first project was: code-ressourcen.de to safe my learning ressources and sharing on the same time.

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stevenyholm profile image
Steve Nyholm

Your presentation got me thinking more deeply about learning in public, specifically how it represents what I know at a specific moment. It seems like a streaming service would be good for this, something like twitter. In this way, it seems like a historical record of what I was thinking at that time. What are some good platforms for developers to share their current thinking as learning in public?

I've been wanting to publish content that I could save as a reference and look back on it later. However, this gets problematic because I want to go back and edit it when I learn a topic better. This didn't seem to fit well for blogging, because it seems that blog posts should be mostly left as they were originally posted, not constantly edited. Saving my reference notes might be better hosted in a dedicated website or contributed to a wiki. What thoughts do you have about the difference between sharing current understanding (as a moment in time) vs. publishing material for teaching others or providing reference (which will be improved and edited)?

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

Great to hear! You already have good ideas for platforms that will fit - Twitter, Twitch or YouTube for streaming.

I have a good one for you. The solution you need is a DIgital Garden not a blog. The idea is that content you share remains in state where it can be edited at any time.

I like this concept so much i'm planning on migrating my blog to a digital garden.
Examples of blogs following this concept.

maggieappleton.com/garden
joelhooks.com/

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stevenyholm profile image
Steve Nyholm

Thanks for sharing the idea of Digital Gardens, what a great concept. I look forward to reading more about them.

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towers1209 profile image
Loreto E. Torres

Thank you for sharing! Thank you for teaching this “old dog” a new trick.

Your presentation helped me shed away a lot of old ideas. 👍🏻

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

Great to hear that @towers1209 ! 😊

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towers1209 profile image
Loreto E. Torres

Thanks for sharing your fount of good ideas — “Show Your Work”. 👍🏻

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arlesondak profile image
Andrew

Very inspiring and provoking keynote. Feeling motivated after that one!

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

Great to hear! Thank you.

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gadodds profile image
gadodds

Thank you Gift! I appreciate the topic and will delve into the resources you shared.

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austinxduong profile image
austinxduong

Egwuenu, I really loved this quote you shared with us:

"Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” - Annie Dillard.

Very inspiring 🕊️☀️

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

Thank you! 😁

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towers1209 profile image
Loreto E. Torres

Indeed the quote is a gold nugget. 👍🏻

Thank you @lauragift_

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ckn00b profile image
Christian New

These are fantastic tips to solidify knowledge or learning new things! Great talk @lauragift_ !

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fizzybuzzybeezy profile image
fizzybuzzybeezy

Love this idea of learning in public, Gift! It's been difficult for me to do this for mental health reasons, but I'm making progress.

If someone were to create a "today: I learned ..." feed, is it necessary to turn it into a tutorial or could they be summarized tweets or short takes? What works best for staying motivated? What about turning off comments or is the point to interact as well?

When I have tech issues and I ask question on a forum, I usually move on to solve my own issue while waiting on a response, creating sort of a log by posting multiple times. If no one has responded to the original question post, they will usually chime in after they see that I'm working towards a real solution in the thread. If nothing else, I have a record of my solution.

I need to try and use this to learn new things instead of just solve my current tech issues, I guess.

Thank you for sharing your ideas and encouragement!

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

Thanks @fizzybuzzybeezy , I understand that and how challenging it can be for you. But there are ways you can still do this. I like the idea of creating a Today I Learned section on your website. It's not necessary unless you want to do it. I think of it a library of knowledge for myself that I can always come back to and if it helps other people that find it then that's a plus.

I think keeping a log of things you learn and adding to your website (i see a good opportunity of automating this) is a good way to stay consistent and to stay motivated you have to keep in mind that this is your way of keeping a log of your knowledge so you don't forget.

Exactly the same way you follow up with questions you post on forums.

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srivera12 profile image
Sarah Rivera

Great info, thank you!

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mahyellaw profile image
MJ Torres

the keynote had me curious about learning styles and techniques and made me realize that i actually used them before without even realizing it. i love that you give the vibes that learning should be enjoyed and would be much better to be shared with a community. thank you for sharing this topic, learning to teaching is definitely an amazing cycle. <33

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lauragift_ profile image
Gift Egwuenu✨

Thank you :)

Same! It was until I stumbled on these ideas that I realized oh wait I do this already.

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luiscastillokc profile image
Luis Castillo

Thank for sharing Gift, this is one of my goal learn and teach.