Unlearn to Learn?

Last week I conducted a short survey looking for people who are interested in learning SQL concepts. Honestly, I was expecting a handful of people to respond considering the astonishing buzz around the advanced fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. To my surprise, I found my post reaching more than 100K people and got a huge response mentioning an urgent need to learn SQL.

This experience taught me two important lessons :

One, what I learnt about the Technology hype cycle in college days is very relevant. It comes, stays and then goes. New ideas replace old. However, this does not mean the old becomes irrelevant. I find many people who call themselves as “data science enthusiasts” either not know about SQL at all or struggling with basics. Moreover, its a common lingo among talent development circles saying “unlearn old stuff to learn new”. I disagree to this to some extent. My approach to this would be to embrace the new within the context of the old. If someone learns NoSQL without an understanding of relational SQL, he/she would never be able to appreciate the integrity and completeness which relational SQL brings to the table (literally!). Anyone who aspires to be a called as a Data Architect must have a knowledge of both SQL and NoSQL to design the most efficient systems for the business in question.

Second, the bombardment of online-offline knowledge has left people clueless about what to learn? How to start? When to switch from old to new? First of all taking an initiative to learn new things in itself is a highly self driven idea. On top of it, if the learner gets too many starting points, he/she gets more confused that confident. Moreover, the plethora of certifications, courses and buzzwords like AI, ML, Cloud thrown around without a context makes people feel left out in the crowd. Amusingly cloud has been there since the era of email servers. Yahoo has been a flag bearer of cloud technologies. It’s nothing new. AI has been a research topic since the 1960s. It has been able to show its wonders lately only due to the computing power it has derived from cloud technologies like AWS, Azure etc.

So, the question remains. What options does a learner have? What responsibilities do the industry veterans have? It is important for people to have a clarity of thought on their goals. It is imperative to re-skill yourself. However, it is equally important to understand in what and how? It is also important for the veterans in the industry to help the starters cut the flab and begin with a lean approach towards learning.

Mentorship as an act towards guiding people towards learning does help. Ideas?