#2/111: The Art of Non-Conformity

What is it about?

In my opinion it is about questioning existing behavior. Do we have to go the graduate school? Do we have to get a real job? Do we have to stay in the same country we were born?

Key points?

It is not bad to do things for yourself. It is also not bad to do things for others. Try to leave an imprint. Don’t ask for permission!

Conclusion

I really love this book. Firstly, it is very well written and it doesn’t sound like one of this “LOOK! I will change everything, and you Sir! You will be a billionaire tomorrow!” books. Although I wouldn’t recommend everyone to reading this. Some will be disturbed or thinking that he is a lunatic. Read it if your are really open for new ideas.

For a short introduction in his idea, read A Brief Guide to World Domination. (free)

connecting neutrons

learning to ride a bike - _MG_2933 by sean dreilinger

What have lions, birds and apes in common? Beside of being creatures they are able to learn. They have to learn otherwise they won’t survive.
For students it’s often an exhausting task. “Studying is hard, let’s go shopping“. If you just read your text books over and over then it is hard. You should acquire some knowledge about learning.

The key is summary. You have to understand your topic to shorten it to its essence. In addition you should have at least once read through your notices and books.
There are various approaches for displaying your shortened stuff. One famous approach is mind maps. Sometimes I find it very useful. Other times I prefer simple drawings or tables. I think everyone should choose its own ways depending on the specific information.

Now the information that you need to learn is shortened. You can begin to “learn” it. I prefer explaining it to someone. Otherwise I repeat it as long as I know it and try to apply it.

Employees

“So next time I hear the “you can’t get the programmers” line I’m going to respond with something like this:

“If you post an advert for a Haskell developer you will get 20
applicants. All of those people will be the kind of developer who
learns new programming languages to improve their own abilities and
stretch themselves, because nobody yet learns Haskell just to get a job.”

“If you post an advert for a Java developer you will get 200
applicants. Most of them will be the kind of developer who learned
Java because there are lots of Java jobs out there, and as long as
they know enough to hold down a job then they see no reason to learn
anything.”” —haskell.org

Do what you like, enjoy and makes you happy

joy !enjoy! by Naomi Ibuki

I talked with a lot of people about what to do after grammar school. We talked about the pros and contras of going to a university or doing an apprenticeship. It depends on your strengths and interests.

I always had a simple method to determine your further profession:

Do what you like, enjoy and makes you happy.

Sometimes it’s called the one billion dollars question: “What job would you do if you had one billion dollars?”.

“1. Unless you truly enjoy programming you should seek another profession. […]
2. […] I’m not saying you should spend every waking moment in front of a computer like I do– it’s unhealthy– but the only way to keep our jobs is to actively keep improving. […]” — codinghorror.com

These aspects perfectly fit on software developing but they also fit on medical science, physics or cooking.