icelava.net

Once in awhile, someone will ask me how it is I know so much (about Microsoft technology). I am requested to share my "secret" to gaining the wealth of knowledge i possess.

Answering (clearly) this other variant of the common "How does he do that?" question has always been an extremely difficult feat for me. This is because one has to go through my history, personality, psyche, perception, and life in convoluted relations to understand how i come to be my present self.

I will attempt to break down my explanation into a series of posts, each centred on a particular theme or subject. Hopefully this complicated mesh can be clarified for your easier consumption and understanding.

Perhaps the first thing I ought to have you take good note is: everything comes with a price.

In the japanese anime/manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the world is populated by practitioners skilled in alchemy - the science of transmutating an object (or matter) into another. Like physics, they have a Law of Conservation that states, "In order to gain a thing, something else of equal value has to be given."

You cannot obtain something for nothing.

Why i say this is because I am not a marketing or sales person; I won't paint a nice chief executive-optimism type of picture to lure you into thinking one can achieve anything without going through plenty of sacrifice and hard work. The reality is not a jolly happy scenario at all.

You do know that life is unfair, right? Not everybody is born with the same amount of resources and opportunities. But there is an item, an equaliser, that every single person has the same exact amount. This is something revealed to me in a book, and I'm sure half of you have figured that out already.

Time.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, time continues to pass. Time is limited, and time gone is lost forever, unrecoverable. What you do with the time you have now, especially in your youth and vigor, is paramount. Later on I will talk more about my attitude and habits in relation to time, but here I want to talk about it with respect to sacrifice.

I am not smart or intelligent, really. I only consider myself "decent and average". I am actually a poor reader, one whose mind veers off or loses focus with eyes on book, and regularly having to read repeatedly and thinking hard to get an idea in. I know little. I don't know enough. In order to know more I have to spent lengthy periods of time reading.

Time spent reading (and you have to concentrate on reading) or practising your trade is time not spent doing anything else. There is not enough time. And i have other interests. They consume time and energy too. Make your choice.

Because I have made a decision the pursuit of technological knowledge is crucial for me, other issues take secondary significance. Politics, housing, finance, sports, current events, world events, entertainment, my other interests (in fact i'm way too interested in too many things in this world), etc all become shallow knowledge for me. Time spent on those matters is not time spent on technology, and those matters do little to improve my knowledge. And knowledge is a direct factor to my capability. I need the capability yesterday. Sacrifice, remember.

The other crucial factor i haven't mention yet is energy. Sometimes I do have boats of idle time but don't have the energy. I've stopped playing games because the energy required to learn and be good at games was all sacrified for learning technology. I've heard this is called burn-out. My only form of entertainment (low-energy) to keep me sane is anime.

In perspective that I should maximise reading and learning, while I do meet up family and friends, time spent with them is greatly minimised. I don't have time to party like they do. (Hint: celebrity gossip is in my opinion an incredible waste of devoted attention and time people spend on. Research has it that over 66% of people's conversations are simply useless gossip. I find such behaviour unacceptable.)

So in this chapter, what I want to communicate is there's no amazing secret manoeuvre that can gain you volumes of knowledge without you dedicating the time to slowly (repeatedly) pound details into your brain. You have to make a choice about the time ahead - know the importance each aspect of your life takes, and slice the time accordingly to your priorities. I will never recommend you follow my example for i have my own circumstantial problems and responsibilities (more on that in another post) that force me to accelerate my progression as hard as i can. (Remember that I said I need it yesterday)

I pray few people have to sacrifice as i did, and spend good time balancing other aspects of their lives.

Now let me give a mini answer to the "how do you know so much?" question.

"Because I don't know."

I believe it was Confuscious who first brought up the saying, "The first step to gaining knowledge is to acknowledge ignorance." Somewhere along those lines. You go find the more accurate translation. Believe it or not, I actually realised this truth by my own thinking.

Knowledge allows you to perform an activity, and succeed at it. You are likely reading this because you want to gain knowledge. But you must want to do something that requires the knowledge you lack, thus your desire. So the goal, the target is important. Identify what you want to accomplish, and the requirements to that achievement. The natural next step is to identify, and acknowledge, where you are lacking that prevents you from satisfying those requirements.

Know what you don't know.

By knowing where your ignorance or weaknesses lie, you should then be able to ask the question, "what must I do to know that?"

This is my starting philosophy in the path to knowledge, no matter the level.

This section may surprise and confuse you. Take your time to slowly think through what I write.

I do not feel flattered or honoured when somebody praises me or tells me s/he is impressed by my performance.

Nope, it's not lofty arrogance. It's a personality trait that makes me a unusual, unique individual. Read on.

In a long lost article, I have explained previously that I do not have the pride-humility continuum in my system. What does that mean? In short, I cannot be exalted, neither can i be humiliated. (I have to rewrite another article on that later). I take insults or praises for their technical value, and not emotional ones. So if either possesses nothing valid for consideration and action, my "firewall" drops the packets.

Why i bring this up is to point that somebody saying something "very good" of me has zero effect, because i don't rate myself by the terms of others. My self-rating is always - not good enough.

Why not good enough? Because "good enough" means satisfaction. Satisfaction stops you in your tracks. You stop eating when you're full, you continue eating when still hungry. You're satisfied in the former. "Good enough" is the enemy to the desire for improvement. And I'm not talking about the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy here.

When you're satisfied in your own level of performance, you cease to improve. There is no desire since it's good enough already. Many people are thoroughly satisfied with their performance and environment that leaves them incapable of forging new ways to do things better. They are stuck, forever.

I can't possibly be good enough. I'm not perfect. There're always things that can be researched and improved upon. Yes, there are sometimes constraints to just how much I can improve, and things have to be forced out in stages. But never good enough.

From what i gather people read for two purposes - informational (and to a further extend, educational), or entertainment.

In line with my theme above, I read as I declare myself ignorant of the subject matter. I have identified what I do not know and identified the books or articles that possess the information, thanks be to the authors, that when absorbed and considered by my mind will provide me with the knowledge to move on, having filled the gaps.

I do not know. Therefore I read.

Don't be stingy with your money. You've probably learnt about financial investments. Invest in knowledge! I don't hesitate in buying books that will empower me.

(i know this is small relative to others, and I don't think i've even completed 50% of the material) Even voluminous digital books should not be spared. All must be consumed in the manner most comfortable to you (like printing and binding them personally).

If you're like me who cannot read lengthy material on a monitor screen and prints out articles and documentation, follow the advice of David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and archive your materials in alphabetically sorted folders or cabinets so you can retrieve them for reference easily.

(this is a poor example of his suggestion, really. But i can't afford a file cabinet in my room)

On top of that, subscribe to the newsletter services of just about every relevant technology web site you come across. Frequent article updates are constant gems that drop off the sky.

Do not hesitate. Read. Know what you wish to know, search and grab the relevant books or documentation that will set your mind ablaze new knowledge empowers you to greater capabilities.

PS - It may interest you to know that I actually dislike reading. I only read solely out of the responsibility i owe myself to build the "castle" in my brain. It will be very long before my castle is strong and impenetrable. In fact, that may most likely never happen.

So how does one find all the time to read so much? I wish i had the answer when i look at some of the industry persona dishing out book reviews like water.

Remember that time is precious and scarce. There are many scenarios when you are doing brainless activity which you can devote your energy and focus into the reading of books (that's an advantage to printing out articles). The most obvious is commute time.

Whenever i'm not driving car, riding bike, or skating, my friends can attest that I always have at least one book or document by my hand as i commute in public transport or walk around anywhere. Yes, i read while I walk. Even to the hawker centre to buy food and queuing. All that is time. Well spent performing survival chores while absorbing knowledge simultaneously.

Of course, please rely on peripheral vision and occasional head checks when crossing roads, please.

Identify your pockets of time, and pick your choice material. Don't waste these precious moments.

In line with my sacrifice, I've been known to read and ignore family and friends by my side. I don't do it all the time, since it's not always easy to concentrate and there're times when you just have to communicate ideas with peers. You have to make your own decision on this "moral and social matter" and find your own nice balance.

Ok, I just woke up with no meal and this thought sparkled through and I decided to make a quick note before i forget it.

I'm sure all of you know a significant population of people do not seek to improve themselves (in whatever matter) unless something/body presents a threat to their status quo and promises to cause disruption, if not chaos, to their way of life.

Competition. Challenge.

Very often we push ourselves ahead and fight hard because somebody else has the capability to top us, in the hope that is it ourselves who can top over them and emerge the winner. Sports and war have that inherent nature. Businesses have this constant struggle. Academic and political and career races. Nearly all of life, competition abounds.

Well, I don't truly follow that principle. While i do gauge myself against others (how else would you make comparisons then?), I don't pit myself against them, with intention and fervour to ensure I arise greater, making them out as opponents. I am not competitive by nature. I quite do things by my own pace.

But, why do i push myself ahead? You've already read from above my "not good enough" principle. In the most technical sense I do want to compete and defeat somebody.

Yea.... myself. Defeat myself. Topple myself.

What am i able to do today that excels over my yesterday's self? What new knowledge or skill have i gained today?

Of course, I don't literally stipulate one must practise this discipline daily - go and have your fun , entertainment, and rest by all means. But the philosophy remains - i don't look to anybody else to fight with. I merely ensure i can better myself. Then I know I've won.

More often than not, you gain new experience and insight into a matter only because you ran into a roadblock that forces you to study and investigate to emerge with enough understanding to produce a solution (or at the very least a workaround) for the problem.

I know this to be true because my original personality is lazy and uninterested - i just want to get things done, and be done with it. But, my life's been cluttered with problems in and out, which i attribute to me having more experience in several technical matters than most people - simply because I hit disproportionately more problems than the average person. I don't mention this with one bit of happiness about it.

Nonetheless, the truth doesn't change - we can learn (heck) alot from these adhoc problem-solving routines, which we'd otherwise never think about. A great example is suddenly having to deal with security issues when your web site or server gets hacked and 0wn3d, you know that rotten feeling. Whatever the event, it pays well if you can systemise the way you look at the problem and search for answers.

I have previously written on this in SgDotNet forums. Check out the post at
http://sgdotnet.org/forums/4926/ShowThread.aspx#4926