Keep on Learning
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a large IT conference in Belgium (IT is another passion of mine). And while the various technological tidbits would probably bore most of you, I did want to share some of the more general ideas that stuck with me.
Simple yet powerful, they all revolve around one core concept: that of learning. A concept that we often tend to forget about but one that has a huge impact on our professional lives. So here are some of the lightbulb moments for me from the conference.
Learning New Things is a Lot of Fun
This is as true in photography as it is in IT, or any other industry for that matter. After doing something for a while, we often start feeling as if we know everything. We stick to our habits and ways of doing things and eventually, these become a routine.
But of course, the world around us never stops evolving and moving forward. New ideas and technologies emerge, and a lot of what was fresh and novel becomes obsolete in just a few years.
So purely from the practical standpoint, we need to keep learning not even to progress but just to stay relevant. But more importantly, it’s actually a lot of fun to discover new things and practices you had no idea even existed.
I had an incredible time roaming the conference halls for several days listening to presenters, and talking to people and companies to find out where the industry is heading and what’s coming in the future.
But it doesn’t even have to be something as big and expensive as a conference or a workshop. There are a lot of affordable courses and tutorials on just about any topic these days, so make a habit of occasionally picking up something that interests you and diving right in.
Practice Makes a Master
Learning is just the first step. It won’t amount to much if you don’t practice what you learned. The only way for us humans to truly remember something is to repeat it a few times making mistakes and adjustments as we go.
I usually start with writing things down. Putting new ideas on paper while they’re still fresh makes it much easier to come back to them later on. Always note whatever you thought was interesting from the course, a conference, or even a YouTube video you’ve watched.
And then, try things out, experiment, and see what comes out of it. Maybe you’ll love the results, maybe you’ll hate them. Or better still, you might develop your own unique approach, adopting some of the elements and ideas and abandoning the others.
Don’t Overexert Yourself
Whether you’re trying something new for fun, learning a new skill, or training to raise your competitive advantage, an important thing to remember is to be smart about it and not overexert yourself.
This was a topic of a great talk by Tom Cools at the conference I visited, and he did an incredible job breaking it down. I actually recommend watching it even if you have nothing to do with IT because it’s one of those talks everybody can benefit from, not only IT people.
There are a few noteworthy concepts in it, but some I thought were the most interesting are these:
Pick what you learn carefully. Small incremental steps are the key, if you dive into a topic that is too complex, you’ll quickly get discouraged and stop.
Always focus on a single idea. Doing multiple things at once drains energy and doesn’t produce the intended results. Intentionally limit yourself.
Learn concepts before concrete practices.
Be conscious of your goals and keep it simple.
Watch the talk if you want, but the basic idea is to have fun and enjoy. We’re not at school anymore, so we’re free to design the process the way we prefer. Then learning will come effortlessly.
Cheers,
- Alex
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