learning

  • September 14, 2020

    Learning HTML and CSS (with My New Book, Out Now!)

    I’ve always been a learn-by-doing kind of guy. Maybe it’s because I’m thinking about other things when something is explained to me, or maybe people are bad at explaining things. But either way, a concept doesn’t really sink in until I do it, or until I see an immediate application for it. When I learned HTML and CSS, I learned it by doing it. I’d make a page in Microsoft Front Page one then see what the generated source looked like.

    Eventually, when I moved to using Notepad (or more accurately, Notepad++), I’d try something and see what happens, or copy someone else’s source and modify it. It wasn’t ideal, and today there are lots of great alternatives. I’m happy to add a new one to the fray: my new book, HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide.

    (more…)

  • July 29, 2019

    Announcing Memberships for Creator Courses

    A little over 3 years ago, I moved away from Scranton, PA. It was the right decision, of-course. I got married and my wife and I got a place closer to where she worked. After living there for over a decade (between college and post-graduate life), I can say I was ready.

    But there is something I still miss from those days: teaching inside of a classroom.

    (more…)

  • May 29, 2018

    Have an Inquisitive Mind

    If I had to pick one thing I knew for certain my wife likes about me, it would be my inquisitive nature. She says it regularly. It’s because we’ll be talking about something and I’ll blurt out, “I wonder how that started,” or “Who do you think the first person to try that was,” or “I wonder if that’s because of <X>.” One of the reasons I love going to Disney World is because I like figuring out the Disney Magic. They push the limits of technology and engineering and I want to know how they got to those limits. But being inquisitive isn’t just about picking up fun facts or things to file away for pub quiz (or quizzo, or whatever it’s call near you). There are lots of ways being inquisitive has helped me, both personally and professionally.

    (more…)

  • August 24, 2017

    Answer Questions that are Being Asked

    Perhaps you’ve heard of the Socratic Method? At The University of Scranton, we loved good old Socrates, so we studied him and his methods a lot. The general idea, derived from how he would debate people, is to ask a series of questions until you get to the truth of the matter. He would often question people until they backed themselves into corners. Another, similar method is the “5 Whys.” You keep asking why until you get to the real root of the issue. The idea here is that you want to solve the right problem, so you need to know what the real problem is.

    (more…)

  • August 14, 2017

    My 2017 Learning Plan: Javascript Edition

    So…I write about learning a lot. Turns out, I really love learning. I also like coming up with plans about learning, and telling you about them. The last one that went really well was the one I did in January 2014, when I learned Sass. But now that I’m no longer at an agency, I feel like pushing myself to learn is even more important because it’s not part of my daily routine; I don’t have amazing co-workers I can learn from anymore. So with that in mind, I came up with a learning plan for the next few months of 2017.

    (more…)

  • I’ve decided just this morning that I’m going to start each day with an educational video that’s less than 5 minutes long.

    A couple of years ago I spent a weekend with a group of friends when I realized they all knew way more than me about things not in their professional field. Since then, I’ve been listening to podcasts and reading non-tech related books and articles.

    One of my favorite video series, Don’t Be Dumb from Josh of Stuff You Should Know ended this week. That same organization puts out another series called Brain Stuff. I think I’ll start there.

    August 28, 2015

  • May 6, 2015

    Learning Binge 2: Design, Sketch, and Angular

    Around January of 2014, I wrote about a learning plan I came up with get me up to speed on several tools, including git and Sass. That worked out relatively well for me, seeing as I use both of those every day now. I’ve decided that while I’m not going to break it down by weeks this time around, I still have a plan in place to learn a couple of new things.

    (more…)

  • February 2, 2015

    Don’t Fear the Learning Curve

    One scene in a movie that I will always remember is from The Matrix. Neo, finally disconnected from the Matrix, is learning new skills by having them ‘uploaded’ to his brain. The culmination of the scene is when he famously says to Morpheus, “I know Kung-Fu,” and they fight. I think about how great it would be to learn this way; just plug in and have knowledge transferred directly to me. Of-course, we know that’s impossible (at least right now ;-)). We have to learn by reading, watching videos, attending class, and other tradition methods. It’s not always easy and it could be discouraging. That’s why we need to be mindful of the learning curve.

    (more…)