Compound learning! 2022 retrospective & 2023 resolutions

It's been such a long time since I wrote my last issue. As we get closer to the end of 2022, this may be my last chance to write about what I have learned and achieved this year.

Before I start writing about my career and community achievements in 2022, I want to write about one of the best topics I live with it every day, "Compound learning," which is one of the reasons behind what I could achieve the recent years.

Compound Learning

Compound learning is the knowledge equivalent of compound interest.

If you are unfamiliar with compound interest, it's one of the essential concepts of finance today. It means "interest-on-interest".

Generally, what you earn as interest will return on what you have already invested, and over time, it grows exponentially. You may have heard the "Snowball" effect, where a ball of snow gets bigger and bigger as long as it is rolling.

"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn't, pays for it."  Albert Einstein said.

In contrast, compound learning refers to "knowledge-on-knowledge". Typically it means the more you learn, the faster you can digest different topics, the better you understand how things work, the higher the return, and eventually, the quicker to become better at skills.

Recently I wrote about "consistency in learning" and how it can make a huge difference in one's life, myself in this case. One of the consequences of learning consistency and persistence is the compound learning effect of it.

But you may ask?

How can I leverage this mindset?

Perfect question, right time.

Over the years, by reading, trying, enhancing, and finally personalizing my interests and goals, I could have devised seven(7) steps that I often use.

I'll share my experience here.

1- Identity:

Ask, what do you want to learn?

2- Prioritize:

You may want to learn many things, but time is limited. So, be clear enough and find a list of the most important things that will have a faster impact on you and your life first.

3- Plan:

Start by scheduling time in your calendar to learn what you have defined.

4- Discipline:

This is the most crucial step, where you must stick to your plan no matter what happens. Of course, things will change and require your attention from time to time. It's totally fine not to follow sometime. Do not be so harsh on yourself.

5- Enhance iteratively:

You will follow each step, and at some point, you need to have a retrospective step to figure out how to improve and continue. Learn from mistakes.

6- Revisit:

What makes this process sticky is when you will come back to what you have learned in the past. If you take your time and return to what you have read and understood, you will figure out that you know the concepts way better and perhaps will retain and use them much faster. Imagine you read a book five years ago and are in this mindset too.

7- Be patient:

Lastly, ensure you are patient enough, just like compound interest, where you'll see a meaningful result over time. In the beginning, it will look like it's slow and does not add any value, but over time, it significantly affects your career and life.

The seven(7) steps above are what I have done in the last seven years.

One of the significant results of compound learning is earning problem-solving skills.

The more you add up to your knowledge, the better you will understand the problems, and since you have extensive knowledge, the more likely a chance that you can solve a problem.

The pyramid hierarchy starts from the bottom, with hard or functional skills, soft and leadership skills, to the top, which is problem-solving. Hard to get to the top, but completely doable.

Let's see how this could help me what I could achieve in 2022.

2022 retrospective

Every year, in the last five years, I write down what I have done over the previous 12 months of my personal and professional life.

Usually, I have done a lot which gives me great ideas on how to improve, enhance and do it better next year.

In short, some of my achievements:

🎯 I started DevRel at invertase.io. This was one of my goals in 2021. I have been doing developer relations for a long time, but mostly in my spare time, I learned a lot over the years, and finally, last year, I became a DevRel.

📣 I have been part of 21 conferences and meetups by doing workshops and talks. I also traveled to 19 cities in 12 countries.

🎙 I have done 26 Twitter spaces & podcasts

✍️ I have written nine(9) blog posts as a guest author and my blog. I have also been a technical reviewer of one(1) fantastic Dart and Flutter book that will be published soon.

📚 I have read 11 books.

🎥 Even though my youtube channel was not as active as I had hoped, I still could publish 28 videos and several subscribers from almost nothing to 3220.

🎧 I have completed two(2) courses; one is posted on my channel, and another is waiting for the final edit.

🗞 I have written ten(10) newsletters written

📚 What is interesting is that I made a deal of creating three(3) new complete courses & potentially one(1) book, which will be unique in the Flutter world.

✅ I have done two(2) FlutterVikings conferences, one entirely virtual on Feb 2022 and one hybrid on Sep 2022 in Oslo, which had 500 in-person attendees and 6000 online registered attendees.

These are the main highlights of what I could have done. There are more minor things that I still need to write or remember.

It may sound like a few lines in this writing. However, as I mentioned earlier, the compound learning effect could help me spend less time achieving more.

If you start today, it may sound impossible to do all of these in one year, especially if you have a full-time job and a family. But as you learn and know more, it takes less time to produce or create content.

If you want to compare it with investment, it is similar to what you invest over the years, and you can spend it easily when you want.

2023 resolutions

Many believe in something other than writing down or even thinking of what they want to do.

Having written goals and defining where you want to go is essential to help you plan and invest appropriately.

Everyone has different resolutions and goals for each day, year, or life. So, no one should necessarily follow another person's dreams.

That's wholly personal, but sharing resolutions and goals will help you make up your mind and to trigger some ideas for others.

Let me then write my main focus in 2023:

Spend more time on my health, both mentally and physically

• Read more; desiring to read at least 25 books.
• Regular workout, wishing to exercise 3 times a week
• Meditate, I need to learn more about meditation techniques.

Creating more videos

• My Youtube channel is where I usually publish my videos, although there are other places. I plan to post regular videos next year.

Writing more content

• I have written a book before. It's pretty complex and time-consuming, but the result is so rewarding. I plan to repeat this process this year. I already have one topic that is a work in progress now.
• I also want to write blogs and tutorials regularly.

Self-organizing better

• I guess this is an important skill to organize better yourself, your time, your travel, etc.
• In 2022, I did a pretty good job managing my time and calendar. Next year, I want to organize better my content, personal notes, websites, and so on. I want to keep learning how to become better at this topic.
• I will also move my newsletter to a new platform as this platform is shutting down soon, So you'll hear from me in 2023 from a recent newsletter system.

Financial independence:

• I was reading a book recently, and there was a lovely quote: Many types of research on happiness indicate that the definition of happiness differs from person to person. However, one thing is almost the same for everyone: managing one's time. The more control you have over your time and better and happier you can live.
• To control your time, you need to have a certain level of financial freedom—for example, a 5-to-9 worker dependent on a monthly paycheck will have difficulty managing time. Why? Because that person cannot easily decide whether they can leave a job, find another job, travel any time he wants, and so on.
• Hence, It is one of my end goals to become financially independent. I must ensure my existing assets go well and figure out how to expand and diversify my portfolio. I need to learn more about investment, stocks, bonds, etc.

Conclusion

If you want to take one thing away from this issue is to invest in your knowledge and compound learning. I have pointed out my seven steps of creating a path to do "compound learning" in my life, and I hope that could be a starting point for you.

You do not necessarily need to follow the same steps, not from me or anyone else, but you can begin from a point and slowly shape it in a way that can work for you.

Happy new year, everyone, and I hope 2023 will become your best year ever.

Sincerely

Majid

29/12/2022