How and Why To Learn In Public - Dev Leader Weekly 78
TL; DR:
Check It Out!
Looks like people were interested in mugs based on a meme that I posted -- so I decided to make it a reality. I've launched a little Shopify store and I've put a few mugs up for sale. I'll continue to add stuff there just for fun, so keep your eyes open for silly developer merch.
Fun fact: After selling my first 9 mugs I am negative money. This is why we test things.
Exclusive Article: How and Why To Learn In Public
It's no secret of mine -- I love the idea of learning in public! This is actually how I started Dev Leader originally before I took a 10 year break to create content more seriously. It all started because I was trying to learn about transitioning into a manager role more effectively and I figured that I could help others in a similar situation.
Here are four things that I like to think about when it comes to learning in public!
Motivation & Accountability
This might not be applicable for everyone, but I think it will resonate for certain individuals -- learning in public can be a great way to stay accountable.
I know how easy it can be to say we want to invest time into learning or self-improvement and then end up putting it off. Most of us are excellent at procrastinating. But once you start posting about what you're learning, you may find that it gives you some motivation to keep it going, and then the accountability to keep up that momentum kicks in.
External accountability can work really well for some. I know that when I was bodybuilding I did much better with a coach even in my off-season. I felt that having the external accountability to check in with him worked REALLY well. I've even used my coding live streams on my YouTube channel to keep me accountable for learning new things!
TIP: Having some external motivation may help keep you accountable.
You can check out this video if you'd like to follow along with the content in the article:
Practice Communication
I talk about soft skills for software engineers ALL the time. I even have a course on soft skills with Ryan Murphy because we think it's THAT important for you in your developer career.
Learning in public is an excellent way for you to practice your communication. Think about it:
When you do this, you not only get to practice writing technical information for a potentially non-technical audience (maybe they're not technical on that subject!) but there's more. You get to test your own level of understanding of the subject.
In our software engineering careers, being able to communicate complex topics in simple ways is a valuable skill. You'll be able to leverage it with your manager, with product and project managers, and even engineers across different teams who may not know your domain as well.
And who said there's no chance to practice soft skills like you can your LeetCode skills?!
TIP: Practice writing for a non-technical audience so even they can understand your learnings
TIP: Use your writing as a personal feedback loop to check your understanding
Getting Feedback
Feedback is another key benefit to learning in public. I'd like to start this part off with a pro tip though:
You do not want to "learn in public" by pretending to be an expert on the subject. This often gets misunderstood because people are attempting to maximize their perceived authority on the subject to get more social media engagement. Don't do it. The people that you would benefit from getting feedback from will be able to see through this, and you'll notice they'll be less likely to help instead of calling you out on your errors.
We can just minimize that altogether by taking the stance that we're actively learning and trying to check our understanding -- there's nothing wrong with stating that you're looking for feedback on what you've learned!
Feedback is a key aspect of being able to grow in our careers, but not everyone gets feedback on a regular basis. That means it can be challenging to make use of feedback when you receive it (I mean, if you don't have experience with it it's going to be more challenging). It might also mean that when you get constructive or critical feedback it feels more personal instead of helpful -- and that might not be a helpful way to approach it.
TIP: Use your learning in public as an opportunity to get critical feedback.
As long as people aren't being rude to you, you can always explore the feedback and get clarity on it if you don't understand. I find if you remain curious people are often happy to help explain things from different views.
Networking
What's one REALLY awesome benefit to learning in public? The one probably EVERYONE is hoping to do more of?
Networking.
If you're just starting out on your software engineering journey, you might feel like your network is essentially zero. I get it, we all need to start somewhere though -- so take that first step!
Instead of being in a position where you feel frustrated that:
My advice here is to treat networking like a marathon, not a sprint. I see far too often that people want to rush networking so they blast their resume to everyone and ask for a job referral. It might work on an off-chance, but I personally would not recommend such a thing to anyone taking this seriously.
TIP: Treat networking as a long-term investment for your whole career.
Instead, expect networking is going to be a long-term investment that will pay dividends for the rest of your career. It might not lead to a job opportunity immediately, but if you pursue genuine and meaningful connections with your network you are absolutely increasing your surface area for luck in the future.
Speaking of which, this is the Code Commute episode that inspired this article:
Get Started!
If you're looking to get started learning in public, I recommend you start out by picking a format for how you'd like to share, and some cadence for doing it. It could be once a week, or once a month -- this will be very individual, and you want to find a balance between something that you can sustain and something that keeps your momentum up.
For me, blogging was a great option to get my thoughts down. These days we have plenty of free microblogging websites, so you don't need to set up your own Blazor blog (but you'd be cooler if you did!!) or get set up with WordPress. Blogs are a great way to organize a bunch of ideas instead of necessarily trying to cram them into a social post.
TIP: Consider blogging about the things you're learning!
But to get readers you might just want to switch things up! Maybe take some key learnings from your blog entry and share them out for feedback on social media. You could also write a brief post to direct your audience to read the article directly. Heck, you might even record a short video and put it online if you're up for it!
If you're interested in sharing content to different platforms to get more people engaged (like cross-posting to Bluesky, Twitter, Threads, and LinkedIn where there are PLENTY of developers), consider trying out BrandGhost for free. I built this platform to help with my social media pipeline, but the free version lets you post and schedule with ease!
TIP: Consider using BrandGhost (IT'S FREE) to post your learnings across social media.
You could always ask one of our affiliates John over at Llambduh his thoughts on using BrandGhost ! Check out his newsletter and give John Sprunger a shout!
Are you learning in public? Tag me in your posts so I can learn with you!
Weekly Recap
Struggling To Meet Senior Engineer Expectations (Or Is It Just Ramp Up?)
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Submitted by a viewer, the goal of this video is to navigate some challenges with a remote hire trying to ramp up into their senior engineering role.
What should they be focusing on?
C# Semantic Kernel Plugins: Get YouTube Video Info!
Semantic Kernel in C# is absolutely awesome! One of my favorite parts is leveraging the plugin system.
In this video, let's explore using plugins to play around with getting the AI to query YouTube video data!
Am I Just Coasting As A Software Engineer?
How might you define coasting for yourself? Is this a shared definition, do you think?
Let's talk about what coasting might mean in software engineering.
They Arent Promoting Me - Should I Stay Here As A Developer?
A viewer wrote in and asked for an opinion on a situation: Their manager seems to be leading them on about their promotion.
Should they stick around or should they move on?
Which Projects To Build?! - Principal Software Engineering Manager AMA
This comes up all the time -- if I'm applying for jobs, which types of projects should I be building?
I see different answers for this, and I think that there are multiple ways to go... but it's important to understand the goals!
As with all livestreams, I'm looking forward to answering YOUR questions! So join me live and ask in the chat, or you can comment now and I can try to get it answered while I stream.
I Dont Want To Chase Promotions As A Software Engineer
A question from Reddit regarding not wanting to make software development a grinding lifestyle.
Should we tell recruiters this? I have a different idea, but I think it's still worth discussing...
NON-STOP Randomization As A Software Engineer!
It's not uncommon for priorities to change at work for software engineers... But it can suck when getting randomized.
What can we do about that?
Switching Tech Jobs: What To Consider As A Software Engineer
At some point in your software engineering career, you'll be faced with the debate:
Stick with the current job or take on some risk with a new role.
How will you decide? Which factors should you consider?
Are Promotions BETTER Or WORSE Than The Tech Job Market?
If you were interested in driving your software engineering career forward, does it make sense to focus on promotions or look to the tech job market?
What should we be considering when navigating this?
Becoming An Irreplaceable Software Engineer
An interesting question from Reddit popped up where the author asked about becoming irreplaceable...
But is this a job security thing, or is the word we want here instead invaluable?
The Reverse Podcast Interview - Interview With Alex Lau
He's BACK!
I felt very fortunate to have Alex Lau , author of Keep Calm and Code On, back on the channel for an interview... But with a twist!
We did a bit more of a grab-bag style where we jumped between some different topics AND I was on the receiving end of the interview for some of them!
Thanks so much for your time, Alex! Always a great conversation.
How To Conduct A REVERSE Software Engineering Interview
So you're trying to line up that dream job but... How do you make sure it's actually the place you want to work?
What questions should you ask and how do you prepare?
Not A Good Coder But I Want To Make Lots Of Money
Generic questions get generic answers, but when this Redditor asked for a roadmap to kick off their software engineering journey, I wanted to explain why asking for an open-ended roadmap isn't a helpful start.
As always, thanks so much for your support! I hope you enjoyed this issue, and I'll see you next week.
Nick “Dev Leader” Cosentino
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Software Development Manager at Lightspeed
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