Learning in Public
For a non-programmer, writing codes is the problem. For a programmer, writing codes is never the problem.
It's the people skills. How to network (on LinkedIn). How to market (on LinkedIn). How to cold email (on LinkedIn). Seriously, typing "lin..." is enough to fill me with dread and give me a headache. More than once I have the urge to scream in the dedicated subReddit.
I know I need a professional network. Yet I long for a way to do all this networking sustainably and passively. If the hustling influencers side is the active, high-fee hedge fund and mutual fund, then I want the low-fee, passive index fund option.
There is, for programmers. It's called "Learn in Public". Similar to how developers leave behind documentation while program, you leave behind documentation while you learn. Blog. Videos. Livestream. Repos, of course. To make it more public, promote it on social media. A short post on LinkedIn would do. It's sometimes even incentivized in the course you enrol in e.g., DataTalks.Club Zoomcamp series.
How it works
Okay, but how do you know that this is not an elaborated bluff, devised by people too lazy to network? Arguments how it works are presented most comprehensively and loudly by swyx. For me, the one I believe in is "Availability Bias + 1% Rule".
People confuse "1st to mind" with "the best". So to become the best, you need to show up in front of people more. And when it comes to showing up on the Internet, remember that "90% of Internet participants only consume, 9% contribute existing knowledge, while only 1% truly create something new". Simply by showing up, you stand out from the 90%. If you can move from "just summarizing my study notes" to "distilling my knowledge into something actionable or useful cheatsheet/concept/model", then you are, dare I say, shiny and chrome.
The 1% Rule belief also dispels the myth of competition. Again, every time I open LinkedIn, I am served content up to my wise teeth by LinkedIn recommendation, but altogether there's not that many creators comparing to the number of open jobs (and quadruple that amount for private jobs) so the low-hanging fruits are still there. Simply by showing up consistently, benefits are plenty.
How to do it?
Similar to Productize Yourself having "Productize" and "Yourself", Learn in Public has "Learn" and "Public".
First, you have to learn in something, maybe constantly. It's a requirement and the best feature of working in software anyway.
Second, "public", so you have to "publish" proof of your learning. Notes are the most basic, but frankly, however beautiful it is, nobody care. You need to move up the Bloom's Ladder, up until create. It must also be useful and actionable. Copy-pasta-ble README in a GitHub repo cheatsheet, tutorial (can be based on another tutorial!), etc. Medium does not matter, but reading (blog/ebook) is faster than listening (podcast/video), and doing is better than watching (reiterate actionable point). The exception is cartoon, sketch, visual, etc. Nobody cares about handwritten texts in 7 colors and highlights, but everybody loves the same ideas expressed and organized into textboxes, especially if it's hilarious. See here, here, and here.
I wasn’t the first to benefit from this, and I won’t be the last. The idea is now as much yours as it is mine. Take it. Run with it. Go build an exceptional career in public!
- swyx
P/s: Check out here, too. Last one, I promise🙂.