Thoughts about learning

Note: This article was originally written on Medium. If you don't know what is Medium, read this piece. 

Every time I hear someone says “Learning is a lifelong process”, I think to myself, isn't that obvious? Then I realized it depends on what you define as learning.

To many, learning happens when you go to school, college, university or anywhere you are taught. The common route is that you spend 2 decades of your life learning from these institutions and if you do well, you graduate and earn a piece of paper that proves it.

Learning is NOT what you do at a particular place

The first problem with this model is as if learning can only happen at a certain venue. So what happens when you leave those places? Do you stop learning?

Of course, the environment is important to encourage learning but you can learn anywhere at anytime. The environment only affects how well you learn, not whether you learn or not.

Learning is NOT being taught

I don’t believe that in order to learn something, you have to be taught. A teacher can teach very well but that doesn't mean the students are learning.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear - Buddhist Proverb

You can learn from anyone, from anything, at anytime and in anyway you like.The decision to learn does not rely on the availability of someone or something to teach you. It is simply whether or not you want to learn.

Learning is NOT a means to an end

You learn to gain understanding and knowledge. And with these new insights, you can then use it to learn things that are more advanced.

Everything that you have learned serves as a foundation for future learning. That’s why we go from primary school to high school then to college, university and beyond. The goal of learning is to be able to learn more.

Learning is a choice

It is your choice to learn from the experience you went through or from the mistakes you did. The opportunity to learn is always there. It is up to you to choose if you want to take up the challenge or ignore it.

With the Internet, you can learn about anything at your own pace. You even get to decide on your own syllabus. Get on Khan Academy to learn about differential equations or how to code in Ruby at Codecademy. Learning is an option available to everyone.

Learning is living

To live is to learn. We begin our lives by first learning how to breathe on our own. Then we learn to walk, to read, to count, to love and to stand up after a fall.

Learning is so entwined with our lives that it is part of being alive. To stop learning is like saying you want to stop breathing.Learning can happen anywhere as long as you allow it. You can learn from anyone or anything and everything you learn leads you to a path of more learning.

Learning isn't just a lifelong process. It is the process of life itself. Life becomes far more meaningful and fulfilling when you never stop learning.

Getting it done

​As the saying goes, if you want something done, do it yourself. This is true especially when you are working solo. Who else is going to do it? The best person to rely on is yourself.

But this also applies in a team setting where it is always better to do it yourself first. Everyone in the team has their own responsibility and you should hold up your end of the bargain.

​Of course, it is okay to seek assistance. That is why we work in teams. We need the strength of others to overcome ever greater challenges. We should never be afraid to ask for help. It is not a sign of weakness but a sign of humility.

​It might seem paradoxical to be self-reliance and seek assistance of others at the same time. The first lesson is to realize that you need to do your very best if you want something done well. The other is to admit that you can't do everything yourself and it's okay to get some help in achieving your goals.

,

Inspiring Action

,

For our last Webcamp KK of the year, we decided to round up a bunch of local talents to showcase their work. We had a film-maker, an animator, 2 web developers, a sound engineer and even a prop-maker showing their work and made it the best Webcamp KK, bar none.

Once again, it shows how passion is contagious, inspiring and universal. Seeing others working hard on their passion inspires all of us to do the same. We plan to keep showcasing and featuring local talents from all over Sabah regardless of what industry they are in. There are always something we can learn from each other.

But we wanted something more. A way to inspire more people to take action and do great things. So we created INit.my, a platform to inspire others with passion of our local talents. We plan to do monthly webpisodes that features the awesome work of Sabahan. If all goes well, we will have our first episode by the end of January 2013. 

Exciting times are ahead of us. There are a lot work left to be done but this is a start. And of course, as always, this is an effort from the community. We hope you can come check it out and support INit. Let us know if you know of anyone who is doing great things. We would love to feature and promote them.

Nothing inspires us more than seeing local Sabahan making it big. Of course, if you want to meet some of them, join us at our next Webcamp KK and be inspired!

,

From passion to action

,

Every month, we organize Webcamp KK where a group of web professionals, designers, developers, photographers, film-makers, animators, entrepreneurs and people who are passionate about web get together to share and learn from each other.

Over the past 15 months, we have a small but passionate core group of members who would meet up despite their busy schedules. We are very grateful to have people who share their knowledge and insights, who volunteer to help organize events and those who show up to give their support.

When asked what is Webcamp KK all about, some would say it's a gathering where people share and learn from one another. Some would see it as a networking platform where you get to meet passionate people from different industry. At times, it might look like a techie meetup or when the stars aligned, a session filled with creative passion and entrepreneurial spirit.

I would instead like to think that Webcamp KK is where people who have passion in their craft come together to share, learn and ultimately collaborate to create awesome work together. A place to nurture raw passion into effective action that impacts everyone.

creating_trouble.gif

This isn't a change in vision or direction for Webcamp KK but rather a confirmation that we are heading towards the right goal. In our last gathering, Team Sprocket and Asgardian School of Art showed us what is possible when your work is driven by passion.

So for the final Webcamp of the year, we will be getting action-takers to showcase their work to inspire us to also act on our passion and work on something great.

Chasing Success

It is natural for everyone to want to be successful. Success can be about making a lot of money, climbing the corporate ladder, buying your dream house or marrying your high school sweetheart. 

Even though our definition of success may vary, it seems like we are all learning from the same source. Others' success stories and traits of successful people are the usual suspects. 

Since everyone's aspiration is different shouldn't we all seek our own way? There are definitely lessons to be learned from successful people but unless your life is absolutely identical to theirs, those can only serve as a guide for us. There's no silver bullet.  

And what about happiness? Most people think that success equal happiness. Earning lots of money would make them happy. Getting that promotion would make them happy. 

I personally think there's more to life than being successful. It's about living the life you truly want. Yes, money and career might be part of it but they can't be all of it. 

If you have been chasing success all this while, maybe it's time to chase happiness instead. In fact, figuring what actually makes you happy is worth the effort. 

​

Busy busy busy

In this age of constant connectivit, everyone is busy with something. It is probably the most common excuse you use when you forgot about an appointment or don't want to deal with something at the moment.

It is an excuse we all give and accept not just because most of us are really busy but also one that we can understand and grants at least some benefit of doubt.

When someone tell you that he/she can't make it because they are busy, we get it. Maybe something important came up or there's a deadline they got to meet.

But there are some of us (including myself) who like to keep ourselves busy in order to not do something else. We tell ourselves that we don't have the time for it now and we'll get to it later. The scary thing is sometimes we actually make up stuff to do to keep ourselves busy.

I'm not talking about people who look busy to get away with doing less. I'm talking about people who are genuinely busy but they are busy with the wrong things.

This happens when we mistakenly think that being busy means we are having progress. You tell yourself that, all these things I'm doing got to mean something right? Well yes and no. 

If what you are doing is moving you toward your intended goal then that's great. But too often, a lot of stuff that we do ​are just distractions. We conjure up tasks to fit into our schedules. We hold meetings to decide if we should decide on something.

​So the next time you tell yourself or someone else that you are busy, think about it for a moment. Are you really busy or you just needed an excuse? And if you are busy, are you busy with the right things?

How will you measure your life?

Recently I read a post by Jason Fried on 37Signals blog explaining why we can only teach someone who are willing to learn.

He met up with the author of Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen who said (paraphrased by Jason), "Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven't ask the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It his your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question - you have to want to know - in order to open up the space for the answer to fit."

Clayton's latest book (How will you measure your life?) is also full of insights on how we should approach our career, family and life in general. He provides interesting and insightful examples from the business world.

his book does not offer answers but rather tells you how to think about decision you make in your career, family and life. It tells you the type of question you should be ask when deciding your career path, what kind of family you want to raise and ultimately what kind of person you want to be.

It's a book I recommend EVERYONE to read. Go get it NOW!

, ,

I really really love building on the web

, ,

You probably have heard this a million times. Follow your passion. You should find out what you are passionate about and do that. I myself blogged about passion quite often.

But Mark Cuban have a different view on all this fuss about passion. He believes instead of following your passion (which you can have many), you should follow your effort, things that you spend most of your time on because time is a resource that you don't own.

by Hugh Macleod
by Hugh Macleod

This makes sense because if you are putting in a lot of time and effort into something, you are definitely passionate about it and most likely you are quite good at it too.  

I took a trip down memory lane and realized that besides sleeping, eating, being lazy and gaming, I've spent quite a significant amount of my life building stuff on the web.

​Here's a short summary on some of the fun, failed, lame and stupid stuff that I've built.

​Highschool years

  • ​A browser plugin review site. Back then, browser plugin was the craze.
  • Phrozz.com - Attempted to start a hardware review site with my classmates back then (John & Ed)​ hoping to get some free hardware.
  • Website for my school (KKHS). Also did a Flash intro (yuck) and interactive flash tutorials. Manage to win 1st for design, 2nd for content in the SabahNet Homepage Competition. ​First sign?

​At college/university

  • ​dx's playground - Personal site to mess around with PHP. 
  • ​Website for the college's student government so that I can stay in the hostel.
  • Mamak.phrozz.com - A site for my Warcraft 3 Guild (Mamak). Scraped Blizzard's site for guild members' rank to display on the site. I think it was on Postnuke.​
  • ​My thesis in university was basically building a 'better' CMS (Content Management System)

​Entering the workforce

  • ​My first job introduced me to Coldfusion. Built some HR system and CMS with it. I made a simple framework to make it more bearable.​
  • Managed to convince my boss to let me use PHP. Build CMS for clients.​
  • Also did some Visual Basic, C# and ASP.net. Decided to go freelance and quit my job.​

Flexnode

  • Eventnode - Web app to organize events/outings. My first app built with Ruby on Rails.​
  • Reservation system for a resort. My first paid gig for Flexnode.
  • Biznode - Failed attempt to build a project management app like Basecamp.​​
  • Ravejoint - Managed to convince John to join me and ​build a food/restaurant review site. Plan was to sell ads from restaurants. Didn't work out.
  • ​Switched to consulting and built yet another CMS for Freeform. (KLue, Junkonline & Tongue in Chic)
  • Showtimes.my - Our take on how movie showtimes site should be like. ​Probably our most popular site.
  • ​Zoecity - Joined a US start-up that is based mostly in Kuala Lumpur. Built a few products ranging from social network to news aggregator to social sharing service.
  • Startnow.com.my - Attempted to build a site for entrepreneurs and action-takers. Another failed attempt. No traction at all. 
  • ​2 months contract with Says.my. Awesome company and culture.

I left out a few projects here and there but I think it is safe to say that I'm following my effort and it's definitely my passion too.

I'm not a rockstar web developer by any standards but knowing that this is what I love to do and I'm good enough to make a living out of it, is all that I need to keep going. ​

​I really really love building stuff on the web. What about you? Is your effort inline with your passion?

​