Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 205. The 5-Step Process to Improve at Anything

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205. The 5-Step Process to Improve at Anything · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: How do I get better at user interface design?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: How do I improve my presentation skills?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: How do I grow my skills working with a database?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: How do I get better at learning on my own?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: These questions may seem totally separate, but at the same time, they all have the same answer.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: But let's talk specifics on each so you can better understand how to apply these principles to any similar question you might have.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the answer to each of these questions that has been asked is the same.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Practice.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Practice is the most important activity to determine how good you'll be at something.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: But let's talk about each situation to determine how specifically to practice, because those principles will then apply to any other situation.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: So let's go through all four, and I think you'll see the repeating pattern starting to emerge.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: And from that, you can take that same repeating pattern and use it in other places.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Let's start with user interface design.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: The best way to get better at UI design is to practice building user interfaces.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: So what do you build?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so here are the five steps that it takes to practice this.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Number one is pick a simple UI that already exists.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: So for example, a task list.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you say I'm going to build a task list UI.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's a really simple one.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people have done it, which is great.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Without, design the UI, but don't look at any existing examples beforehand.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: So design and build that UI as step two.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: So first, you identify the UI you want to build or the example you want to build.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Then number two, you build it, but don't use any other reference material beforehand to kind of bias your understanding of how that should be built.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: After you do that, number three, look at some examples of existing user interfaces.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Study them and how they work.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you'll find that you missed something.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, okay, you built this task list, but you you missed something, where you said, oh, you know what, I'm going to create to-dos, but I'm going to do it that in a way that you know doesn't have any dates.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, whoops, a task list should have a date probably assigned to it as well as maybe a date completed.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So how's a UI look for that?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe you had a way to complete tasks, but you forgot about the idea of uncompleting something.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you bumped the button once too many times.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so look at other examples to see how other people accomplish that same goal.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you can say, oh, you know what?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I can learn from that, I can do something different.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Now, step number four is rebuild your user interface using these techniques that you've learned to improve on your design and even improve on designs you've seen.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now, step number five is pick another UI, for example, a library catalog, an email client, a chat app, etc., and do this all over again.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: So start back at step one.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the five-step process for learning UI design.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Now let's cover presentation skills, which is a whole totally different thing than UI design.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: You still need to practice, but how do you do that?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, pick a simple topic that you can present on.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: For example, how to use dependency injection.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Create a short presentation and record yourself doing it.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Then watch the presentations of others on the same topic, which again you didn't do until after you did yours.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Study how other people covered that same topic.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: Redo your presentation based upon the techniques and other ideas you learned.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about learning about depends on the injection as much as it is learning how people presented it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you skipped steps, or maybe you didn't have clear examples, or maybe you weren't as clear on what you wanted to communicate to the audience.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: So learn those things from those presentations and then redo your presentation based upon what you learned and even improve on other people's techniques.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Then, step number five, pick another topic.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's minimal API, Blazor, Async, whatever you know, and do it again.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so those are the five steps you would do to improve your presentation skills.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now, let's talk about improving your database skills.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: And by now you should see a pattern emerging.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: So think about how you might approach this.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe even pause this, think about it, answer, and then see how I'd answer.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, number one, pick a simple database structure you would like to build.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe go back to that task list idea.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so build a task list in a database.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Step two, design and build that database structure without looking at any other examples.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: After you've done that and after you built it, then number three, find examples of how others built that database structure.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Step four is redesign the database structure that you built based upon what you learned and how you could further improve even off of what you learned from others.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then step number five, pick another database task, such as a library database, a vehicle database, or et cetera, and do this whole process over again.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so by now you should see the pattern.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do it one last time when it comes to learning on your own.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so pick a topic you want to learn, maybe the Uno platform.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then step number two, head over to the documentation on their site and create a practice app.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so don't just go to watch a video, go to their site, go to the documentation, learn from the documentation and build a practice app.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Then step number three, watch a video on how to build that same practice application and see what they did differently.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: So go build the, you know, an intro app and then go watch a video afterwards to see how somebody else figured out how to build that same intro app.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: But you've learned from the documentation, see if what you learned is as good or better or not from that video.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then number four, redo your practice app based upon what you've learned from that video.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Step number five, pick another topic, maybe async, MongoDB, Azure Web Apps, et cetera, and do it again.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that same cycle applies all over again.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: So these are the five steps that you do.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: You identify how you're going to practice or how you're going to learn something.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: You then do the task on your own.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get help from somebody else, do it on your own.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then watch how somebody else would do it.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: This is why the internet is great.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: There's a YouTube video for practically everything.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: So watch somebody else do it or read the documentation.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever it takes, figure out how somebody else would do it.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then four, redo what you did in order to apply what you've learned and then start over again with a new topic.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: This is that five-step cycle will really help you in all these different areas and more whenever it comes to going deeper, whenever it comes to learning more.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: When I say practice, and people say, I don't know how to practice, what do I practice?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: You've got so much out there to practice.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: The key is don't try and think I have to create something unique.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, just the opposite.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: Create something that somebody else has already done.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: That way, you can have an example to then compare yours against to see how the what the differences were.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so that's the five-step process I'd recommend for going deeper, for practicing pretty much anything in life, not even just tech.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: All right?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you would like to help make more content like this possible, please like, subscribe, rate, and share Dev Questions.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can also send your questions to questions at IamTimcorey.com.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to imtimcore.com and enroll in a course.