The Thumb Rule of learning a new technology Or acquiring a new skill.

Here we talk about software technologies and skills, but this thumb rule can be applied to any of the day-to-day life scenarios. 

Thumb rule is nothing but the set of questions we can ask ourselves.

The questions are:-

1) What? – What the technology/service is about.

2) Where/When? – When and where it can be used.
3) Why? – Why it should be used over its alternatives (alternate technologies, services)
4) How? – How to do it (here comes the developer’s job).

Without these questions be answered, your learning curve will never end.

As a developer, most of the time, we jump into working on new technology without knowing much about it. It can be due to, someone rushing out to you for fixing a bug, or a sudden shift into a new project, or a shift to a new company, or some sort of a chance that you do not want to say NO to it. These questions help us to rate ourselves, on how familiar we are with that particular technology.

What? – What the technology/service is about.

   We MUST spend some time on this basic and essential thing to know what the technology is about. Once again underlining it - MUST! You can be a Tech master but you should spend some time on documentation of that particular tech or else you would end-up in misjudging the way it works and could cost you your valuable time.

Where/When? – When and where it can be used.

   Purposeful development. Everything we do in creating a piece of software should have a meaning. We should not take a flight if our destination can be reached by cycle (a shorter distance). Again, we can put the same sentence in a reverse way (I can take a cycle to travel 1000 miles, but still taking flight is the easiest and the faster one). Therefore, it is very much important in choosing when and where to use that particular technology.  

Why? – Why it should be used over its alternatives (alternate technologies, services)

   Today, there are a lot of software products, which are being released every day. However, the underlying operation is still the same. (CRUD a piece of data includes transferring). Each time we did witness – a new layer, a new UI, a step easy process to achieve it. (Remember how we came across from DOS to UI and to modern software’s we use). We should do a comparison of different technologies to find the best fit. The comparison can be on the capability it provides; the developer’s freedom over it (the level of development capability), the pricing factor and it goes on.

How? – How to do it (here comes the developer’s job).

   How to create programs (basically how to work with the system), developers always have the joy in hitting the keyboard for bringing the result they want to see on the screen. It comprises of knowing the syntax, the limits and the golden rules in working with the technology. Out of all the stages in SDLC, the development acts like the heart of the whole project and developers play a crucial role to transform the texts written in a document (soft copy) to a software.  

And finally, knowing What and How itself is superfine to getting started with any technology but concentrating on When/Where and Why part will make you to the next level in your career. It can help you to propose a new technology solution to your client or to adopt the new technology to your team by convincing your boss. I would strongly recommend everyone to apply this thumb rule in technologies whatever you are learning/learned/working/worked to know where you are.

Keep Learning! 

Regards 

– Balaji.