Journey from Novice to Expert by Becoming a Better Learner

In my last post, I talked about how adaptability, domain knowledge and the ability to quickly ramp up from project to project are some of the major factors that contribute to being a senior developer. These are all skills that can be learnt over time and with practice.

I’ve since then been looking at new and innovative ways to become a better learner, and was referred to Andy Hunt’s book: Pragmatic Thinking & Learning: Refactor Your Wetware. The book basically talks about how to harness intuition and get better at recognizing and applying patterns. It was filled with so much useful content that I ended up creating a Mind Map to represent my overall view of the valuable information, guides, and advice. 

Among the plethora of information, Andy Hunt gave me new insight regarding what it means to be an expert and an approach to learning in the form of an investment portfolio that will definitely boost one’s adaptability and level of productivity.

 

Novice vs. Expert

There has been much debate on the topic of Novices vs. Experts and what defines the two; especially experts. To gain better insight, we look to the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquiction, coined by Hubert & Stuart Dreyfus (Dreyfus Brother). The model highlights five stages of skill levels, namely:

Novice: Has little or no experience, can be effective when relying on context free rule & don’t particularly want to learn; they just want to accomplish an immediate goal.

Advance Beginner: Can start to break away from the fixed set of rules and try tasks on their own. They want information fast and still have difficulty troubleshooting.

Competent: They can troubleshoot problems on their own, and begin to figure out how to solve novel problems—ones that they haven’t faced before. They can begin to seek out and apply advice from experts, and use it effectively.

Proficient: They can reflect on how they’ve done, and revise their approach to perform better the next time. They can learn from the experience of others, and know where to stop following the rules. In addition, they need a big picture.

Expert: Are the primary sources of knowledge and information in any field. They are the ones who continually look for better methods, better ways of doing things. They tend to have problems to articulate expertise and are surprisingly  thrown off by the rules.

The sad fact is that most people never get any higher than the second stage, Advance Beginner. In addition, people at lower skill levels tend to overestimate their own abilities – by as much as 50%.

Moving through the different levels, aiming for expertises, requires a change in perspective. One way to acquire that mental shift is through the Shu-Ha-Ri, a Japanese martial art concept, that describes the stages of learning to mastery.  It is broken down into three stages:

Shu – Learn the rules: In this first stage of the process, you’re basically learning the rules or following the step by step guide in that video tutorial. You concentration on following it precisely without worrying too much about the underlying theory.

Ha – Bend the rules: At this point, you’ve completed the tutorial and you’re beginning to branch out and look at other methods/guides as you start to understand the underlying principles and theory behind complete the task and how to put them into practice.

Ri – Break the rules: Now you’ve stopped learning from tutorials and guides, but from your own experience. You’re now starting to create your own approach and applying what you’ve learned to your own particular circumstances.

Another way to sum it up would be Imitate, Assimilate and Innovate. Reaching a level of expertise in a particular field is one thing, but you have to keep practicing in order to remain an expert.

Another way to simulate cognitive shifts in perspective to move towards mastery is through Deliberate Practice. Simply put, deliberate practice is not just trying something out. It involves specifically identifying what you’re going to work on and your areas of weakness, that when bettered will have the greatest impact. Effective deliberate practice should have well defined tasks that are appropriately difficult or challenging but doable. In addition, it needs to be supported by an environment that supplies informative feedback that one can act on. Lastly, it should provide opportunities for repetition and correction of errors.

Satisfying these conditions will provide accelerating growth in any particular field due to the fact that a random approach, without goals and feedback, tends to give random results. Also, keep in mind that leaving or regulating learning activities in your spare/free time is a recipe for failure. That’s why these practice sessions need to go along with a specific routing or regiment.

Furthermore, you can cement what you’ve learned by teaching others. Even if you have to start with a rubber duck as your protégé. Being able to regurgitate and put into your own words, thoughts, ideas and concepts is one of the best ways to prove to yourself that you have a firm grasp on a subject matter.

 

The Pragmatic Investment Portfolio: Creating a Knowledge Portfolio

Being able to move from Novice to Expert in a particular field is worth great recognition. However, most people, including myself, struggle with deciding which technology stack or skill to invest one’s time. In addition, there is also the fear that the chosen field may not have any longevity in the tech industry. Hence, it is necessary to have a diverse knowledge portfolio also referred to as a Pragmatic Investment Plan (PIP).

Similar to one’s financial investment portfolio, a PIP is a diversification of one’s knowledge and skill. The goal is to model and manage your knowledge portfolio with the same care as you would manage a financial investment portfolio. You’ll need to routinely review them to ensure that there is still value in its returns. Or there are greater returns that can be had if time is invested elsewhere. When picking up something new to invest time in, it’s important to approach/explore potential investments with a holistic and experimental approach and then shift to the more routine drills and skill to “PRODUCTIZE” learning.

Key to a successful portfolio 

1. Have a concrete plan:  Any subject area that you decide to invest your time in should reference goals and upcoming tasks. These goals can have a due day for next year or as far as five years out.
2. Diversify: Never put all your eggs in one basket. Consider the risk vs. return on investment ratio (more information below).
3. Active, not passive investment: “A random approach, without goals and feedback, tends to give random results.” Deliberate practice should be applied here.
4. Regular Investment: You’ll need to create a ritual and commit to the minimum amount of time needed per investment. Once you’ve created that ritual, stick to it. Even if it means you have to escape to a coffee shop, do it. Keep in mind that not all your planned sessions will be equally productive, but by scheduling them regularly enables you to win out in the long run cause you’re building a habit around it.

Risk vs. Return Ratio

With Any new technology or skill set that you invest time in, you always have to evaluate the Risk and Returns. For example, choosing to spend some time learning .NET will have minimum risk because it’s a popular stack that’s being used in the industry and has numerous books and articles surrounding it. However, it also has minimum returns due to the fact that it’s already a fully saturated and competitive field. Compared to a fairly new language or stack, that doesn’t have much supporting articles and book it can be viewed as a high risk, but can have high returns because not many people are on that bandwagon.

One should also keep in mind that Risk vs. Return can also be based on context. For Example: Are you looking for a new job or are you aiming to become the local expert within the office. On top of that, even if you never use a particular technology on the job, it will impact the way you think and solve problems. So anything you learn will have value, it just may not be direct, commercial, on-the-job value.

All knowledge investments have some value. That’s where the line is drawn between the investment portfolio analogy. If a financial investment goes bad, you lose money. However, with a Knowledge Portfolio you still get to keep the knowledge.

 

Moving Forward

“You can improve your performance—whether you’re playing a violin, debugging code, or designing a new architecture—by imagining that you’ve already done so successfully”. Overall, the book was a great read, and I’ve already blocked off time to review my Smart Goals and create my initial investment portfolio. The PIP was the solution to my concern about what technology or language I should invest my time in. The answer is, ANYTHING, once it fits into my overall goals.

With the Shi-Ha-Ri, deliberate practice and a knowledge portfolio, I’ll be able to boost my learning potential, make my learning experience more meaning full and on top of that, leveling up my productivity.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, pointed out that you need to spend at least 10,000 hours on a particular subject matter to become a master in that field. However, one thing that I have to keep in mind is that Time != Value. Just because you spend a lot of time doing something, doesn’t mean it’s adding or providing value.