My Mission:
In the next three months, I’m going to execute a challenge to myself. I’m going to use the Feynman technique and the 20 hr method to learn to become a full stack developer. This means I’m going to be learning, and journaling the following topics:

• HTML/CSS
• JavaScript/Vue
• Java/Spring Framework (or C++, tbd)
• MySQL

Reason:
During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was made abundantly clear how my current job, as stable as it was, was not flexible enough to survive a situation like this, and knowing it traditionally takes about eight years for an economy to fully recover, I’ve decided instead of waiting, to use my time to learn programming.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you may have realized I started the process several months ago, first re-learning HTML, then CSS, followed by project management, and (at the time of this post) JavaScript. Udemy has been my choice of digital learning platform. The original reason was because of a digital project manager position that opened up in my company, however, since that role was filled, I was left to either continue my training or let it go to waste. I decided, after speaking with a friend of mine, who is a full stack developer, that continuing forward would be the way to go.

What are the Feynman Technique and 20 Hour Method?
Due to the amount of coursework I need to complete within the next three months, I felt it necessary to look into learning hacks that would help me not only digest the information better, but help retain what I’ve learned fully. Due to this, I learned about the Feynman technique, which was developed by Physicist Richard Feynman, who was nicknamed The Great Explainer. His method of learning something new followed three rules:

1. Write the concept’s name at the top and explain the concept using simple language (enough for a child or layman to understand), working through examples and using the concepts in practice.
2. Identify problem areas, then go back to the source material to review. Do this until you are solid in these areas.
3. Look again at your explanation and see if you can further simplify it, taking out topic-centric language.

The 20 hour rule, created by author and business coach Josh Kaufman, quantifies learning something new (and being competent in it) in the following manner.

1. Deconstruct the skill (Feynman’s 1st & 3rd rules)
2. Learn enough to self correct (Feynman’s 2nd rule)
3. Remove barriers
4. Practice at least 20 hours (in total).

Because both methods follow similar principles, due to the quantifiable 20 hours per topic, means to learn everything on my list will take a total of 140 hours, broken down in 90 days, would mean a little over an hour and a half per day, however, since I’ve been working on some of these programs for quite some time and have already passed a CSS/HTML course, I’m looking at a little less than 40 minutes a day.

What Does This Mean?
Instead of writing everything down on a piece of paper (which I’ve already been doing for my notes), I’m going to blog about my learning, using these two methods/techniques, outside of just practice and doing my coursework. This means, for the next 90 days, there are going to be a lot more posts. Because of my current time constraints, I’ve decided to start learning MySQL and Java while still working on JavaScript, since the other two do not have any prerequisites to start, however Vue and Spring Framework will require me to complete JavaScript and Java (not the same) courses before I can proceed to those lessons. I may also consider adding some of my Japanese lessons in these posts as well, since I do those daily to break things up.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@Janifer), if you’re curious. Otherwise, please cheer me on!