path: root/2024/captions/emacsconf-2024-learning--survival-of-the-skillest-thriving-in-the-learning-jungle--bala-ramadurai--main.vtt

WEBVTT captioned by rodrigo, checked by sachac and bhavin

NOTE Introduction

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Oh, wow!

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I'm gonna tell you about how I'm learning this new thing…

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Okay…

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Hey dude, I am recording, okay? So, I'll call you back

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yeah yeah I'm doing learning the new thing.

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Yeah yeah yeah later later later

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not right now later later later later.

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Sorry about that.

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Okay, as I was saying, I'm going to tell you all about

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how I'm learning this new thing.

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Ooh, Sacha Chua's Emacs newsletter is out.

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Maybe I should spend some time…

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Oh, wait a second. I have to learn this new thing.

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Haha. Okay, so I'm going to tell you

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how we can learn new skills in the middle of

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so many other wonderful things that you want to do

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and to speak to wonderful people that you have to speak to.

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My name is Bala Ramadurai and I'm going to be talking about

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the Survival of The Skillest, that's what I call it, okay?

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Survival of The Skillest. Thriving in the Learning Jungle.

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Here I'm going to give you some tips and techniques

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as to how you can learn skills, new skills.

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I'm going to give you a quote from a multi-talented teacher.

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He was the second president of my country, India.

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S. Radhakrishnan, he says,

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“When we think we know, we cease to learn.”

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That was his quote.

NOTE What is a skill?

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What is a skill?

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A skill is the knowledge and the ability

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that enables you to do something well.

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There's the knowledge first and the ability

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and you have to do it well.

NOTE Why should you learn a new skill?

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Right. So why should you learn a new skill?

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Now if you can pause this video,

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watching streaming part of the video,

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then come up with your own reasons.

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I'm going to give you my top three reasons

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that you might want to learn a new skill.

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Get ahead in your career.

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Look good or cool in your community or peer group

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or someone forced you to.

NOTE What skills should you learn?

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Now, what skills should you learn?

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Ok, there could be a whole list.

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Let me take a stab at some of the ones

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that I think could be cool: bungee jumping,

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teaching your pet to pick up the newspaper

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without tearing it to shreds.

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Perhaps with Python rearing, I meant coding, coding,

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you can do learning coding.

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So you could list your own skills that you have to learn,

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you want to learn.

NOTE What stops you from learning new skills?

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But what stops you from learning new skills?

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The most common reason that I've heard

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in the past is lack of time.

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“Oh Bala, I have to do so many things.”

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“I don't have the time to learn any new skills.”

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Lack of motivation could be another reason.

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Or you're just a rebel.

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Who is he or who is she to tell me what I should learn?

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I'm going to learn things like that.

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So then it stops you from learning a new skill.

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But there's even more fundamental reason

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for why we don't learn a new skill so easily.

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And this comes from the story of scholar in the teacup.

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I can pass on the link later to you.

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You can watch this, my own version of the story.

NOTE Empty your teacup

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The ultimate truth in this story

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or the moral in this story is that

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we are filled with preconceived ideas

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and the Zen master in the story says,

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it's like a full teacup.

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In order to learn new skills, you have to empty your teacup.

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Now, how do you empty your teacup?

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You just can't pour everything out of your head, right?

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So how do you really empty your teacup?

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So the way to empty your teacup,

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simplest way to do it is write down your thoughts.

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As simple as that.

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Just take a piece of paper and write it down.

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Or if you are on electronic means,

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use Emacs Org Mode and type out your thoughts, okay?

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There is a task for you right now.

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What you have to do is to create a folder

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in your documents folder called Inbox.

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Create one and create a new file called todo.org.

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If you are paper based,

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you can use a notebook or any other forms of the same file.

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In that, write down all your unfinished tasks

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personal and professional.

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Write down some things that have been worrying you,

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whatever worries you right now.

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just write it down, the whole thing, okay?

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Write down some tasks or actions that

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you are waiting for somebody else

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that could also be part of your list here.

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Great. Now that you have emptied your tea cup,

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I'm going to tell you the origin of these ideas.

NOTE Getting Things Done

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These come from “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.

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It's a great book. I've read it multiple times. Fantastic.

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And he says, your mind is for having ideas,

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not holding them.

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You have to hold on to this idea in your mind.

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Keep it in your mind.

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saying it's for having ideas, not holding them.

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Alright, perform one of four actions on your task list.

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Okay? The one that you just wrote down.

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You delete them, okay? As simple as that.

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Strikethrough the task, hit the delete

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or change the state to cancel, okay?

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Alright, If you don't want to delete it,

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you want to defer it, do it later.

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Add it to your calendar.

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Add a reminder to it if you want.

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Or in Emacs Org Mode use C-c C-s to

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schedule it to a different time that you feel

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you would be able to do that task.

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Or just delegate it to somebody else.

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Maybe you are not the best person to do it

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or you probably won't find time to do this.

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Send it to your colleague, student, assistant,

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maybe even your favorite LLM to do this.

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LLM being large language model.

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Or just do it, right? As they say, just do it.

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Set a timer for two minutes and do the task.

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Finish the task, right here right now.

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Nothing is stopping you.

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Finish it. Oh, great, I'm going to do this

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but set yourself two minutes

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because sometimes it may spill over to half an hour

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and you still haven't processed through your list.

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That's why the timer for two minutes.

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One tip I'm going to give you is:

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Don't skip any of the items from your list

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because it's tough work you've been trying to avoid it,

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don't do that.

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Be rigorous and finish it off, processing at least, okay?

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Now you can do the absolute same process

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on your email inbox.

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I know, I know some of you have 55,000 emails in your inbox.

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How am I going to process all of them?

NOTE Archive

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Well, Tiago Forte, whose method

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I'm going to be also talking about, says:

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Archive them all and pull out the top 100, okay?

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The last latest 100 and process that.

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That's a cool way to do it, okay?

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So you're not stuck to those 55,000,

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but just the top 100 of those.

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You can do the same,

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absolutely the same thing

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to any of your messaging apps as well:

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WhatsApp, Matrix, Slack, whatever you choose.

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Even to your physical inbox,

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you can do the absolute same things.

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You lift your items and

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see if you can need to process them, okay?

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What if the email or message or task is something

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that you might need in the future?

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Great! Archive them

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or move it to a place you may refer to later.

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So, you have plenty of storage in your cloud space,

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in your email space, in your computer space.

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Use that. Archive it.

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You can refer to it later. Not a worry.

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Don't want it right in front of you.

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That's the only thing here, right?

NOTE Multiple steps

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Now another question that pops in your head is:

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What if something that requires multiple steps, right?

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not all steps are created… not all tasks are created alike,

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There are multiple steps to a task.

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That's when a task becomes a project, ok?

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An example or few examples of those

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are finishing a course on say Coursera or NPTEL or Udemy,

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teaching a course if you are a teacher

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in your college or school.

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If you are organizing a conference

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such as the Emacs conference, it's a huge project,

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you will need to use… it's a project.

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Arranging a birthday party for your spouse, that's sweet,

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but it's still a project, you will have many tasks in it.

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So these are examples of projects.

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Here's how one can handle projects.

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Create a folder for each project.

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Create a text or word doc or title it as todo.txt

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or todo.docx or todo.org.

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I prefer .org and you can do it.

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And in that, write down the success criteria,

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the goal or the deadline of the project.

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Write down all the tasks that need to be done.

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You don't have to think about all of it,

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but whatever comes to your mind,

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just put it in there

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as some tasks that you need to get done inside this project.

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Now, identify the immediate action that needs to be done

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for the project to move forward.

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That's usually something that's stopping the project

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from progressing.

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So identify that and say:

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“That's the next thing I'm going to do.”

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An example of a project is right here.

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Goal of the project is to deliver a talk

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about my organization system,

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make it like a workshop with pauses for activities.

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You can see that this is the talk

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that I am delivering right now.

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And right now if you see recording the talk, okay?

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Of course, the next one I'm going to do after this

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is going to be sending the recorded talk,

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the file and the PDF for the talk.

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Now, if you want, you can add some sub steps and all that

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also into this.

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Of course, I'd like to thank the coordinators for their

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absolutely wonderful work that they're doing

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throughout this, okay?

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Now, tasks for you.

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You can take your time.

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And first of all, think of a project

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that you have to absolutely get done.

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Create a folder on your computer or phone

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with the name of the project.

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Create a todo.org.

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If you want to use a notebook, you can use a fresh leaf.

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Write down all the tasks associated with this project.

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That's going to be how you handle it, right?

NOTE Multiple projects

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Now, what if you have multiple projects?

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Not many of us have only one project.

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In fact, many of us have multiple projects.

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What do we do in that situation?

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Well, the answer is simple.

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Create a folder for each project.

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Add this Org file called todo into each of those folders

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and write down the task for all of these projects as well.

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Write down all of these tasks and mark one of them as next.

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There can be only one next action.

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It can't be multiple next actions.

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That's the immediate thing that has to be done

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to take this project forward, okay?

NOTE What if the project stops before completion?

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What if the project stops before completion?

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There are possibilities sometimes you lose interest,

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sometimes your collaborator loses interest.

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What do you do in those situations?

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Have a folder in your computer or phone

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for abandoned projects called resources.

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Oh, by the way,

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for your projects folder, create an

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overarching projects folder and inside that are

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all the project folders.

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I forgot to tell you that.

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Same way, on the same level, create a resources folder.

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That's for all your abandoned projects

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or even could be on your research material as well,

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which you are not currently working on.

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Move this particular project that's abandoned or stopped

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somewhere in between to that folder.

NOTE What if you successfully complete the project?

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Now, there's a possibility you might successfully complete.

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I hope all your projects end up being successful.

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But there are quite a few which will end up in this,

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quite a few which will end up abandoned as well.

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Now, I write an end report so that I can learn from this.

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What did I enjoy most in the project?

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What could have been better?

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What did I learn from this particular project?

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Now, you will need to move that folder

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to a folder called archives.

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This is the final resting place for the project,

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completed projects because if you come up

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with another project which sounds similar

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to the archives one,

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you can pick that out and create that as a template,

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use that as a template.

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Now, why would I have one folder per project

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when there's only one file sitting in it called todo.org?

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Well, most projects also have some project files

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and this folder can be a storehouse of all of that

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and you can access all of them at one shot.

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That's the advantage.

NOTE What if the project is ongoing and doesn't really end?

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What if the project is ongoing and doesn't really end?

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That doesn't seem to have a deadline or an ending point.

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That's called an Area. This is now an Area.

00:12:27.157 --> 00:12:31.674
Examples of Areas: gardening, paying bills, never stops,

00:12:32.024 --> 00:12:34.574
bills never don't stop, blogging.

00:12:34.624 --> 00:12:36.974
These are all some examples of Areas that really

00:12:37.024 --> 00:12:39.474
don't have a definite deadline.

00:12:40.374 --> 00:12:44.559
For Areas also, create a folder for each of them, right?

00:12:44.710 --> 00:12:47.274
You can create a parent folder called Areas

00:12:47.324 --> 00:12:50.540
and under them you can have those areas, okay,

00:12:50.990 --> 00:12:53.519
and have a todo [file] in each of those folders.

NOTE What if you forget to visit the TODO files?

00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.724
Now what if we forget to visit the todo files

00:12:57.024 --> 00:12:58.824
which in my case often happens?

00:12:58.974 --> 00:13:00.790
I forget to visit those todo files

00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:03.540
and see what the task net needs to be done.

00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:08.174
You can of course add all of this todo.org

00:13:08.224 --> 00:13:11.110
and into your org-agenda-files variable

00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.014
so that when you pull up your Org Agenda,

00:13:14.015 --> 00:13:14.729
all of them show up.

00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:15.790
That's a good idea.

00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:18.574
You need to have a weekly review with yourself.

00:13:19.624 --> 00:13:22.090
Weekly review is essentially a weekly appointment

00:13:22.140 --> 00:13:24.207
with yourself for you to stay

00:13:24.357 --> 00:13:28.674
in control of your life or career. To keep things on track.

00:13:29.524 --> 00:13:32.474
In the weekly review, you need to empty your teacup.

00:13:32.724 --> 00:13:34.974
That's the first and foremost, okay?

00:13:35.274 --> 00:13:38.539
Then process all your items in the TODO file.

00:13:39.239 --> 00:13:42.007
Process all your emails from the last week.

00:13:42.057 --> 00:13:45.340
Use the exact same structure of do, delete, defer, delegate.

00:13:45.390 --> 00:13:47.074
These are the four D's that you can use.

00:13:47.474 --> 00:13:51.740
Process all your messaging app messages from the last week.

00:13:51.890 --> 00:13:54.024
So last one whole week, whatever has come up,

00:13:54.074 --> 00:13:56.824
you need to process all of them, okay?

00:13:57.174 --> 00:13:58.174
In the weekly review,

00:13:58.224 --> 00:14:01.439
you also need to archive all your emails and

00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.839
messaging app messages that you have processed.

00:14:03.990 --> 00:14:05.707
You've already taken care of it.

00:14:05.857 --> 00:14:07.690
You don't need to have it right in front of you.

00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:09.707
You can move them all into archive.

00:14:09.957 --> 00:14:12.240
Most messaging apps and email systems

00:14:12.290 --> 00:14:14.774
have archives as part of their features.

00:14:15.524 --> 00:14:17.124
Look through the project TODO files

00:14:17.174 --> 00:14:20.290
to see if the next action is marked, okay?

00:14:20.690 --> 00:14:22.374
Now look through the project folder list

00:14:22.424 --> 00:14:24.157
to see if some of them need to be archived

00:14:24.307 --> 00:14:26.274
or moved to resources.

00:14:26.474 --> 00:14:28.390
Some may be abandoned, some may be done.

00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:30.490
You can move them successfully to

00:14:30.540 --> 00:14:32.407
all of where it needs to belong.

00:14:33.257 --> 00:14:34.942
Now task for you, you can pause this,

00:14:34.943 --> 00:14:36.290
of course, and do this.

00:14:36.540 --> 00:14:39.679
Set an appointment with yourself, sacrosanct time,

00:14:39.730 --> 00:14:42.124
only with yourself and title it weekly review.

00:14:42.324 --> 00:14:43.674
Start with half an hour,

00:14:43.924 --> 00:14:45.907
perhaps you can have it longer later on.

00:14:46.057 --> 00:14:47.712
As you need more time,

00:14:47.713 --> 00:14:49.096
you can have more time with yourself.

00:14:49.846 --> 00:14:51.907
And make it repeating every week.

00:14:53.607 --> 00:14:56.307
Now you can complain, I can hear you some of you complain

00:14:56.357 --> 00:14:58.507
“Oh, this is such a microscopic view of my life.

00:14:58.557 --> 00:14:59.707
What about the big picture?”

00:14:59.857 --> 00:15:03.674
Well, there is quarterly review, once every 13 weeks

00:15:03.724 --> 00:15:06.107
you can mark an appointment with yourself.

00:15:06.357 --> 00:15:08.274
Right after your weekly review

00:15:08.324 --> 00:15:11.240
to do your quarterly review, okay?

00:15:11.290 --> 00:15:14.116
And also every year, mark yourself--

00:15:14.117 --> 00:15:15.174
it could be at the start

00:15:15.224 --> 00:15:18.840
or the end of an academic year or a calendar year--

00:15:18.990 --> 00:15:21.840
mark yourself an appointment again with yourself

00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:22.890
called yearly review.

00:15:23.790 --> 00:15:26.474
And these contain some big life questions, okay?

00:15:27.074 --> 00:15:31.157
Now I'll give you some examples but feel free to modify it,

00:15:31.207 --> 00:15:32.274
have it as your own.

00:15:33.324 --> 00:15:34.799
How much money did I make?

00:15:34.850 --> 00:15:36.540
How much money did I save?

00:15:36.640 --> 00:15:38.440
How many people did I help?

00:15:39.040 --> 00:15:42.307
How many do I plan to help in the future?

00:15:43.457 --> 00:15:44.690
What projects did I enjoy?

00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:47.707
Look through your archives and resources.

00:15:47.907 --> 00:15:49.840
Which one are best avoided?

00:15:49.890 --> 00:15:52.440
I don't want to get on to this, okay?

00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:55.359
You can look through a personal and private… I'm sorry…

00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:56.707
personal and professional and

00:15:56.757 --> 00:15:59.324
see how much is there a balance between all of these.

00:15:59.724 --> 00:16:01.640
These are some questions you can answer.

NOTE Planning for the future

00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:04.840
Now that you know how to manage them now...

00:16:04.890 --> 00:16:06.590
So far we have looked at the now,

00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:08.240
how do you plan for the future?

00:16:08.290 --> 00:16:09.674
like really into the future?

00:16:10.224 --> 00:16:13.174
Well, I have a trick called nine windows for you.

00:16:13.474 --> 00:16:15.340
Nine windows are essentially,

00:16:15.640 --> 00:16:18.257
it's like a tic-tac-toe grid

00:16:18.507 --> 00:16:25.174
and the left column is your past,

00:16:25.574 --> 00:16:27.740
the middle column is your present

00:16:28.090 --> 00:16:31.740
and the right column is your future, okay?

00:16:31.940 --> 00:16:37.590
and the bottom row is your skill set,

00:16:37.940 --> 00:16:40.519
the middle row is what you do

00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:44.607
and the top row is whom do you work for

00:16:44.657 --> 00:16:46.674
or whom do you serve, right?

00:16:46.724 --> 00:16:50.349
So you are doing something for an organization

00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:51.869
so those could be in your top row.

00:16:52.570 --> 00:16:54.974
Let me give you an example from my own life.

00:16:55.424 --> 00:16:58.874
This I made about 10 years ago, okay?

00:16:59.024 --> 00:17:05.674
So the middle column is the what I did 10 years ago.

00:17:05.724 --> 00:17:09.207
So that is the now let's keep it as the now, okay?

00:17:09.257 --> 00:17:11.390
So five years before that, I used to work

00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:12.990
for General Electric (GE).

00:17:13.090 --> 00:17:14.790
I was a research scientist for them

00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:16.874
and the skills that I had was:

00:17:16.924 --> 00:17:22.474
I had a PhD which was used in this profession.

00:17:22.824 --> 00:17:23.740
I had writing skills,

00:17:23.790 --> 00:17:25.224
I had some teaching skills,

00:17:25.424 --> 00:17:28.224
and I love to interact and learn from my teammates.

00:17:29.224 --> 00:17:32.540
Then I joined Mindtree, which was the current job

00:17:32.590 --> 00:17:35.774
when I did this, software services company.

00:17:36.824 --> 00:17:38.474
I co-founded TRIZIndia also.

00:17:38.524 --> 00:17:40.574
These are two organizations that I served.

00:17:41.124 --> 00:17:44.940
And facilitator, that was the main profession that I was in.

00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:46.874
And the skills I had was:

00:17:46.924 --> 00:17:47.399
TRIZ [Theory of Inventive Problem Solving],

00:17:47.800 --> 00:17:51.874
interacting with people outside of my team,

00:17:52.224 --> 00:17:54.840
and I could align well with my organization.

00:17:54.890 --> 00:17:56.224
I knew exactly where they were going

00:17:56.274 --> 00:17:58.407
and how to align myself, my goals with that.

00:17:59.107 --> 00:18:02.174
Now, I said, five years later,

00:18:02.224 --> 00:18:04.674
I want to be an entrepreneur and an author.

00:18:05.174 --> 00:18:06.924
And I want to do this for,

00:18:07.224 --> 00:18:11.557
I want to really work with academia and corporate companies.

00:18:11.757 --> 00:18:12.790
That was my goal.

00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:15.007
So the skills I needed to have were:

00:18:15.057 --> 00:18:18.157
marketing, writing, sales, hiring, people management,

00:18:18.207 --> 00:18:19.474
all of that I needed to have.

00:18:19.924 --> 00:18:21.490
And I had to plan that so I used

00:18:21.540 --> 00:18:22.740
the PARA structure [projects, areas, resources, archives]

00:18:23.090 --> 00:18:27.240
to manage how I'm going to learn all of these skills

00:18:27.290 --> 00:18:29.207
and imbibe those and get better at it.

00:18:29.257 --> 00:18:30.357
So that's where I use this.

00:18:31.157 --> 00:18:32.439
Ok, your turn.

00:18:32.639 --> 00:18:34.940
You can pause this video and build your own nine windows

00:18:34.990 --> 00:18:36.007
to plan for the future.

NOTE Summary

00:18:36.957 --> 00:18:39.957
So in summary, you need to empty your teacup

00:18:40.007 --> 00:18:42.740
before engaging with the work in front of you.

00:18:43.040 --> 00:18:45.340
Use the PARA structure: projects, area,

00:18:45.390 --> 00:18:46.669
resources and archives.

00:18:46.770 --> 00:18:51.479
Create this folder structure and use reviews regularly,

00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:53.474
weekly, quarterly and yearly.

00:18:54.024 --> 00:18:55.740
Use the nine windows to your advantage

00:18:55.790 --> 00:18:57.290
for your future career planning

00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:00.340
and of course, apply PARA to your future plans

00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:02.859
to plan for those as well, ok?

NOTE References

00:19:03.210 --> 00:19:04.790
Now, these are the references I have used.

00:19:04.840 --> 00:19:07.240
heavily borrowed upon Tiago Fortes' PARA,

00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:09.239
David Allen's “Getting Things Done”

00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:13.039
and Tasshin's way to implement this in Emacs and Org Mode.

00:19:14.190 --> 00:19:15.457
These are some acknowledgments.

00:19:15.507 --> 00:19:17.790
I used some generative AI for this.

00:19:18.290 --> 00:19:20.590
And this is a question to you:

00:19:20.790 --> 00:19:24.090
What parts of this talk are you planning on implementing?

00:19:24.140 --> 00:19:26.274
Please write this in the Etherpad.

00:19:26.824 --> 00:19:28.519
Thank you so much. If you have any questions,

00:19:28.569 --> 00:19:30.357
let me know in the Etherpad as well.

00:19:30.857 --> 00:19:32.724
Good luck managing your tasks,

00:19:33.474 --> 00:19:36.650
emptying your teacup, and planning for the future.