🥇Finding order in the chaos of IT: organizing your own development

Each of us (I really hope for that) has ever thought about how to effectively organize our development in one sphere or another. This question can be approached from different angles: some look for a mentor, others attend educational courses or watch tutorial videos on YouTube, while others sift through informational noise, trying to find nuggets of valuable information. However, if we approach this issue unsystematically, we will spend most of our time searching for what is truly important and interesting rather than studying it.

But I know a way to organize this chaos. And since my area of interest is IT, I propose to discuss a systematic approach to learning and personal development specifically in this field. This article reflects only my perspective and does not claim to be the truth. The ideas expressed in it exist only in the context of the article itself. I will try to present them as concisely as possible.

I invite all interested parties read more!

Step 1 (prologue): Determine what you want

The first thing to start with is the awareness of the goal. Not just setting it, but actually being aware of it.

"A person in a hurry"

Surely, many of you have had some idea that required immediate action and you were eager to implement it right away. You set goals and tasks, decomposed them, allocated efforts, and worked towards the result. But as you approached the final stretch, when almost all tasks were solved and the result was just around the corner, you looked back and saw… a sea of wasted time, a lot of other more important and meaningful tasks waiting on the side. You saw futile effort.

At that moment, the realization came — is this idea really so important that I spent so many resources on its realization? The answer can vary. And the question does not always arise. This is one of the cognitive errors of your consciousness. Don’t be like that.

"A person who does not keep his word"

Another "brilliant" idea has come to your mind. You are determined to make it happen. You are already mentally sketching a plan of how it will change the world, how it will make your life or someone else's life easier/more vibrant. Perhaps you will even become famous, and people will admire you...

It happens. Rarely. Almost never. And on average, you might gather about ten ideas in a week. Meanwhile, you just talk, jot things down, and idealize. Time passes, but the work never gets done. Ideas are forgotten, notes are lost, new ideas come in, and this endless cycle of inner boasting and self-deception feeds your illusions of a wonderful life that you can't achieve with such an approach.

"A person of mindless quantity"

You are an organized person. Let's assume an IT specialist. You set yourself tasks, work through them, and see them to completion. You keep statistics of completed tasks, draw graphs, and trend upwards. You think in quantitative categories…

Of course, getting bogged down in numbers and taking pride in their growth is great and satisfying. But what about quality and necessity? Such questions are not ones that "mindless quantity people" ask themselves. So, let's forget about that and just multiply and add, since the supremum of labor function is still so far away!

"A normal" person

What unites all of those types of people described above? One could ponder and find many such coincidences, but there is one significant thing — each person from the presented types sets goals without properly realizing and analyzing them.

In the context of personal development, goal-setting should not be primary; it should come after realizing the aim.

"A hasty person", first of all, should assess how much effort will be required to implement the idea. How much time will it take? And is it even worth it?
"A person of his word" I would advise to start small — finish at least one "brilliant" idea. Refine it (which isn’t mandatory) and set it free into the world. And to do this, one must come to realize what goal the idea will carry.
"A mindless quantity person" needs to start monitoring the quality. There must be a balance, even if it's shaky. What can a chart with only a curve, even an upward one, but with no labels tell us? It might be a graph of increasing failures. And one can only assess the quality of work by realizing its goal.

It turns out that to be "normal"To achieve your goals, it's essential to understand what objectives you set for yourself and why. Only then can you start defining the tasks needed to achieve those objectives.

Step 2 (The Start): Find Your Path

As we come to understand the goal of our development, we need to consider the path we will take to reach it. In the IT field, there are numerous ways to develop our skills. You can:

Read articles on Habr
Read blogs of authoritative people (for you or the community)
Watch thematic videos on YouTube
Listen to lectures and podcasts
Attend various events
Participate in hackathons and others In competitions
Gather with colleagues and discuss topics that interest you
Find a mentor and draw knowledge from them
Take online or offline courses
Learn everything through practice, realizing projects
Go to interviews
Write thematic article
And much more that I may not have mentioned.

In this diversity, it's important to determine what suits you best. You can combine several methods or choose one, but I recommend carefully considering each option.

Step 3 (Development): Learn to Learn and Extract Only What’s Necessary

Having determined your development path, we cannot say that all problems are solved; there's still the task of absorbing the knowledge you acquire. At the very least, you'll encounter "information noise," useless or minimally useful knowledge that only wastes your time without yielding significant results. It's essential to filter out this information and ruthlessly discard it from your plan. Otherwise, your learning could turn into boring 8 AM lectures on uninteresting subjects.

Learning is a continual process, including learning how to learn. If someone tells you they are already a guru in self-learning, express doubt (in any respectable form) because they are mistaken!

Step 4 (Climax): Build a System in Chaos

So, you have recognized your development goal, chosen the path you will take to it, and learned to filter out the useless. But how do you organize a system so as not to get lost in knowledge? There are many ways to organize such a system. I can only offer part of a possible approach briefly, as an example.

You can start your morning by reading news feeds (Habr, thematic groups on Telegram, and sometimes short videos on YouTube). If new videos have been released since yesterday that you wanted to watch, add them to the "Watch Later", so you can come back to them later.
Throughout the day, when there's an opportunity (and it doesn't interfere with main tasks), play podcasts or videos in the background from the " YouTube ", while immediately removing those episodes that aren't useful (you can identify them from the episode announcement and the first few minutes). This way, you'll be cleaning up the Augean stables.Watch LaterIn the evening, while returning from work, I would recommend spending time with a book, reading articles, or listening to podcasts. The same can be done in the morning while commuting to work.
When there are events happening where you live (conferences, meetups, etc.) that interest you, try to attend them to gain new knowledge, interact with colleagues, exchange experiences and knowledge, and perhaps get inspired by an idea.
On weekends, during your free time, analyze the information you've accumulated over the week. Set goals (acknowledging them), prioritize, and eliminate "information clutter." Don't skimp on planning. A chaotic life will cost you more.
Throughout the day, many other events can occur. Here, I'm only touching on what directly relates to the self-development system. Take my recommendations as the foundation of your system if you wish. The main thing is that it brings results and is harmonious.

Step 5 (resolution): Keep everything from falling apart

The system is built. It seems to be working. But we remember that our system was built amidst disorder, in informational chaos, which means there's entropy that is passively growing. At this stage, it's crucial to gradually reduce it so that our system can function with minimal wear. Once again, each individual should choose their own way to reduce chaos. A favorite blog author might stop writing posts,

-a channel or podcast might close, so it's necessary to ensure that your system only contains resources that interest you and are still active. YouTubeStep 6 (epilogue): Achieve nirvana

Step 6 (epilogue): Achieve nirvana

When the system is built and refined, knowledge flows smoothly, filling your head with new ideas. It's time to reflect the product of your system's work into the physical world. You can start your own blog, Telegram- or YouTube-channel to share the knowledge you've gained. This way, you will reinforce it and benefit other knowledge seekers like yourself.

Speak at conferences and meetups, write your own podcasts, hold meetings with colleagues, become a mentor to others, and implement your ideas based on the knowledge acquired. Only then will you "reach nirvana" in self-development!

Conclusion

I've experienced every facet of being human: I was a "person of hasty deeds", "person of unkept words", "person of mindless quantity" and even approached a "normal" person. Now I have reached the 6th Step, and I hope that soon I can tell myself that all the efforts spent on building my own development system amidst the chaos of IT were justified.

I ask you to share your thoughts on building such a system in the comments and to which type of people you relate.

To everyone who made it to the end, I express my gratitude and wish you to "reach nirvana" with minimal time and other associated losses.

Good luck!

UPD. To improve the understanding of conditional types of people, I slightly changed their names: