[[!meta title="Survival of the Skillest: Thriving in the Learning Jungle"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2024 Bala Ramadurai"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/learning-nav)" raw="yes"]] # Survival of the Skillest: Thriving in the Learning Jungle Bala Ramadurai (his/him) - https://balaramadurai.net [[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/learning-before)" raw="yes"]] In today's fast-paced world, the need to learn new skills is more crucial than ever. The ability to adapt and evolve not only enhances your employability but also empowers you to navigate life's challenges more effectively. By acquiring new skills, you stay relevant, innovative, and capable of seizing opportunities that come your way. The session will begin with an engaging discussion on the necessity of learning new skills, emphasizing that the ability to adapt and evolve is crucial. Using the metaphor of "emptying your teacup," you will explore the concept of approaching learning with an open mind, ready to absorb new knowledge and skills. Next, you'll dive into actionable techniques for managing your tasks and projects efficiently. Bala will introduce the PARA method—Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives—a structured approach to organizing your work and life. You will learn how to categorize your tasks, set clear goals, and maintain a balanced workflow. Furthermore, the talk will highlight the importance of regular reviews. Weekly, quarterly, and yearly reviews will help you stay on track, reflect on your progress, and plan for the future. Through these reviews, you'll be encouraged to ask big life questions, such as your financial goals, the impact you've had on others, and your work-life balance. Finally, you'll be introduced to the 9-windows framework, a powerful tool for future career planning. Join us and take the first step towards mastering the art and developing the mindset of skillful survival in the fast-paced ever changing learning jungle. About the speaker: Dr. Bala Ramadurai is an author, coach, consultant, podcaster and professor. He has authored a book on Design Thinking called Karmic Design Thinking (). He has 3 patents to his credit and 10+ publications in international research journals. He co-founded TRIZ Innovation India () and is an Adjunct Professor at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (India), Universidad Panamericana (Mexico), Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). He is also a board member in the Board of Studies for Symbiosis International University. In this talk, you'll discover the importance of continuous skill development and learn practical strategies to manage your personal and professional growth effectively using Emacs org-mode, Getting Things Done (David Allen's GTD), PARA (Tiego Forte's Projects-Areas-Resources-Archives) and system operator (or 9-windows). Bala will guide you through a transformative journey of self-improvement and productivity. See also: # Discussion ## Questions and answers - Q:What is TRIZ? - A: Russian methodology (documented in books) - Translates to "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving" - Q: Thank you for this talk, very interesting. One of the things that frustrates me about modern webdev is the rate of churn when it comes to useful knowledge. I think Emacs can help to counteract against this by building lasting tools where mastery can be built. Do you agree that learning similar but different things again and again is ultimately wasted bandwidth? What can we do as technologists to push back against this? - A: New things are always coming up, and we "have" to learn that new things. We also have to be aware that there are so many projects, hobbies, and Life™ waiting for you. It's not a balancing act, but if you pay attention and are present in the moment (fully present), then **look back** and **connect**. Something that appears to be a waste of time at first could potentially tie back to something else and be really helpful. - EX: Experimenting with CSS, and how it could be used to customize an org-mode export. - Then, a student mentioned that the slides were too bulky to be scrolled through. - ...But because I'd looked already at CSS, I could play with weasy-print (?) to make the slides. - Q (reworded as a question): \ Why add an "Abandoned" project to the "Resources" folder instead of the "Archives" folder? - A: Many a time, when the projects are abandoned, given some time, some projects revive and you could restart. Also, these abandoned projects could serve as useful resources for some other related projects. I tend to move Archives to another filing system to conserve space at the end of the year. - Q: How would you avoid the blind spots in your personal review, e.g. problems you cannot see with yourself because of unconscious hinderances? - A: I feel that when you are reviewed by others, those blind spots become apparent. Otherwise, it can be tricky to get to know this in personal reviews alone, in my opinion - Q: What tool are you using to sync your todos and notes in multiple hosts? - A: The only other tool I use, apart from emacs on my computer is Google calendar. I use org-gcal to sync the events from Google Calendar. If I am on the move and away from my computer, I mark an event for monday morning, 09:30am with the task that I just thought about. In that event, I prefix it with TODO, so that when it shows up in my org agenda, it shows up as a TODO task and I am able to process it. Org-gcal syncs to my 0Inbox/TODO.org - Q:Emptying your teacup is something interesting you had in your talk. Sometimes my thinking is sluggish until i write down the thoughts that refuse to leave my head "generally in journaling or gtd". I am also pleasantly surprised about what comes out. You brought this up multiple times other reasons for this? - A: Emptying your teacup is just the start, in my opinion. When you finish processing all your thoughts is when the thought actually leaves your head for good. Since, there is no reason for your head to hold on to those thoughts. GTD suggests using a someday-maybe folder or file for parking thoughts that are not going to work out now, but you would like to keep to them look up later. I look at the someday/maybe once a quarter. - people can join BBB:  [https://media.emacsconf.org/2024/current/bbb-learning.html](https://media.emacsconf.org/2024/current/bbb-learning.html){rel="noreferrer noopener"} ## Notes - \ i want to learn new skills because it is annoying not being able to do something - \ I like learning because it feels good for me, like it grants some dopamine. And the more one learns, the more one is able to do. - \ By analogy, the email inbox is for receiving mail, not for holding it - Article on e-mail organization: [https://pointieststick.com/2024/07/09/how-i-manage-my-kde-email/](https://pointieststick.com/2024/07/09/how-i-manage-my-kde-email/){rel="noreferrer noopener"} - Thunderbird enables automatic tagging. - For adding files to the agenda, I have an updated version of the System Crafters setup. - System Crafters Set-up: [https://codeberg.org/SystemCrafters/systemcrafters-site/src/branch/master/content/videos/build-a-second-brain-in-emacs/5-org-roam-hacks.org#headline-5](https://codeberg.org/SystemCrafters/systemcrafters-site/src/branch/master/content/videos/build-a-second-brain-in-emacs/5-org-roam-hacks.org#headline-5){rel="noreferrer noopener"} - Updated Set-up: [https://github.com/gs-101/.emacs.d/blob/17c04c0ef1c5fb4083c8d94a5240ed8ef7d4a841/modules/gs-org-roam.el#L96](https://github.com/gs-101/.emacs.d/blob/17c04c0ef1c5fb4083c8d94a5240ed8ef7d4a841/modules/gs-org-roam.el#L96){rel="noreferrer noopener"} - Just add a ":agenda:" tag to the file and call "dw/org-roam-refresh-agenda-list" - I plan to add an "Archive" file to my Roam set-up, I don't have one currently. Usually I just leave the finished task in the file. Not sure if it's effective. - \ \@chum-cha: perhaps "abandoned" means in PARA not definitive for all time, and could be useful in the future again. but that's just a guess, not being familiar enough with PARA. - \ kswiss: sctb: Thanks! That makes sense and I think that's probably the correct answer. I guess my interpretation of the "Archive" folder is that it's there so that you can pull stuff out if you change your mind, whereas Resources is more for things that are "Active" and I wouldn't personally see an "Abandoned" project as active. - \ \@chum-cha, personally i would also pull out from any folder, may it be named "archives" or not :) but maybe archive implies in PARA for completed projects only - however, pls double check with the presenter Bala - I was doing some of these already but not in a formal way. This gives me a lot of structure to do it. Thank you so much. I like the "emptying the teacup" idea a lot. - I will probably add the regular reviews to my workflow. I also think it is the hardest concept in your talk, isn't it?  - Personally, I use Syncthing ([https://syncthing.net/](https://syncthing.net/){rel="noreferrer noopener"}) to sync files. - I'm using Nextcloud for syncing files. It also has WebDAV interface which can be used by the Phone Apps. - I'd use NextCloud too, but I don't have a server set-up (a NAS, for example) at home. I'm waiting until I buy one to get into self-hosting. - people can join BBB:  [https://media.emacsconf.org/2024/current/bbb-learning.html](https://media.emacsconf.org/2024/current/bbb-learning.html){rel="noreferrer noopener"} [[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/learning-after)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/learning-nav)" raw="yes"]]