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[[!meta title="Survival of the Skillest: Thriving in the Learning Jungle"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2024 Bala Ramadurai"]]
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# Survival of the Skillest: Thriving in the Learning Jungle
Bala Ramadurai (his/him) - https://balaramadurai.net
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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 (<https://dt.balaramadurai.net>). He has 3 patents to his credit and
10+ publications in international research journals. He co-founded TRIZ
Innovation India (<https://trizindia.org>) 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 weasyprint to make the slides.
- Q (reworded as a question): \<chum-cha\> 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)
## 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/)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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/))
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.
- Thanks, that was a great talk - I'll be watching it again :)
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