Constant Random Change

There’s an old Chinese Proverb that everybody knows:

I hear and I forget;
I see and I remember;
I do and I understand.

I find that that proverb still lacks another item:

I teach and I master.

There are some reasons why teaching can help one in achieving mastery in one’s craft. First is that it requires a certain level of skill in the craft before you can even start teaching. Another is that students rarely follow the same lines of thought as the teacher, and in doing so exposes the teacher to scenarios that they never have experienced before.

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Of course this doesn’t mean that everyone who teaches are masters of their craft. There are teachers who continuously teach outdated or incorrect information to their students.

Don’t be like them; continuous learning should always be part of your lifestyle.

Finally decided to take the StrengthsFinder quiz after months of buying the book. My top 5 strengths according to the site below the cut:

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As you may have guessed from some of my posts a couple of months ago, physicist Dr. Richard Feynman is one of my favorite scientists. While it is true that I only came to know about him after graduating from college, his work in promoting proper scientific and engineering procedures, as shown by his cargo cult speech and his demonstration of the O-ring failure in the Challenger disaster, has inspired me to… well… put back the “science” back in “computer science” and “engineering” back in “software engineering”.

Beyond his contributions to physics and his storied biography, Dr. Feynman is also known for his teaching ability. During his years as a professor, he was able to explain clearly the complex concepts of physics to college students—an impressive feat during his time.

With the wonders of modern technology (and the size of Bill Gate’s wallet), the public can now watch some of Dr. Feynman’s lectures. According to Microsoft’s press release:

REDMOND, Wash. — July 14, 2009 — Microsoft Research, in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, today launched a Web site that makes an acclaimed lecture series by the iconic physicist Richard Feynman freely available to the general public for the first time. The lectures, which Feynman originally delivered at Cornell University in 1964, have been hugely influential for many people, including Gates. Gates privately purchased the rights to the seven lectures in the series, called “The Character of Physical Law,” to make them widely available to the public for free with the hope that they will help get kids excited about physics and science.

The historic lectures and related content can be seen at http://research.microsoft.com/tuva. The name “Tuva” was chosen because of Feynman’s lifelong fascination with the small Russian republic of Tuva, located in the heart of Asia.

Feynman was one of the most popular scientists of the 20th century, equally regarded for his scientific insights as well as his ability to convey his enthusiasm for science through his lectures and writings. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 and was also known for his quirky sense of humor and eccentric and wide-ranging interests.

I’ve only seen the first two videos and I can say that they are fun to watch. Dr. Feynman may have his awkward moments (he made a discussion flow mistake in the first video) but overall we can see how well he engages his audience as discusses the lesson. One thing to note in the video is how lectures were presented back then, namely, how Dr. Feynman relies on slides only as visual aids and not as some summary tool. (For the record, I hate it when people use PowerPoint slides with more than one line of text for teaching.)

You might be worried about the “freshness” of his lectures, especially considering that these lectures were made in 1964. Fortunately, unlike some other fields of science, the understanding of the fundamental laws of physics haven’t changed much in the past 45 years. A college student will find these lectures as informative as they were back then.

As you may have guessed from its title, the book First break all the rules is all about breaking conventions in managing people.

One of those widely held conventions is the belief that “Every employee should be treated equally”. The book explains that this should not be the case, especially after taking into consideration the individual talents of your people.

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Out of the many articles and blog posts I’ve read in 2008, none have been more moving as Jurgen Appelo’s (the SE list guy) Professionalism = Knowledge First, Experience Last.

Do you trust a doctor with diagnosing your mental problems if the doctor tells you he’s got 20 years of experience? Do you still trust that doctor when he picks up a knife and ice picks, and asks you to prepare for a lobotomy?

The article is quite direct when bringing its points forward. I would suggest you read not only the article, but also the rebuttals targeting the weaknesses of his arguments.

Short summary below the cut…

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Out of the many skills I’ve learned on my own, two stand out.

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Spent most of the day in UP for Komikon and basking in nostalgia. Acacias in full bloom bring back memories.

In other words, I’m going to cheat again today. For today’s “lesson”, please read Keis’s notes on the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition.

One important thing to note about this model is that it’s not only useful for teaching — it’s actually applicable to almost all phases in the “life cycle” of an employee. The model can affect recruitment, training/initial deployment, up to promotion to senior positions. I will be referencing the model in this context after I discuss the various aspects of Drucker’s “knowledge worker”.

One of the things I was glad to have experienced in my previous company was my stint as a technical instructor. It was there that I found out how fun teaching can be.

I’d admit, I like teaching for the usual reasons too. Being able to impart knowledge to other people is an inherently fulfilling experience; the interactions between your students are just icing on the cake. Teaching also allowed me to improve my craft — there were many instances where my students have asked questions that I wasn’t able to answer immediately, regardless of my experience on the topic itself.

But I guess the biggest reason I like teaching is because I want to prove my previous teachers wrong. Whether it’s about their flawed material or about their inefficient approaches to teaching, my main mission as a teacher was to strive to avoid making their mistakes.

Given the post-course feedback that I have received, I think I did pretty well for a novice trainer. I’ve avoided a lot of pitfalls but it was inevitable that I fell into some of them too.

My mistakes pointed out by my students were disheartening, but none of them affected me as much as a certain article hidden away in our intranet: Kathy Sierra’s “Ten Tips for New Trainers/Teachers“.

Just because you’ve used lots of software doesn’t mean you can write code. Just because you’ve been in lots of buildings doesn’t mean you can be an architect. And just because you’ve logged a million frequent flyer miles doesn’t mean you can fly a plane.

But if that’s all ridiculously obvious, why do some people believe that just because they’ve taken classes, they can teach? (Or just because they’ve read lots of books, they can write one?) The problem isn’t thinking that they can do it, the problem is thinking they can do it without having to learn, study, or practice.

That article showed me how wrong some of my teaching approaches were. To add insult to injury, I found that article after my final stint as a trainer. I never got to apply those tips before I resigned.

Still, if you’re expecting to be put in a training position anytime soon, those tips can be a good starting point, helping you avoid the common mistakes made by trainers.