Opportunities to Learn

So, your training budgets used up, the conference you like was last month and won't be around for another year; is that it? When else are you going to get a chance to get yourself into the learning frame of mind?

All the time. Here are a couple of examples of how I squeeze a little extra study into life:

• I drive about an hour each way on my commute. That's two podcast episodes per day, ten per week.
• Once a week, my developer team has "code club," an hour-long meeting in which one member makes a presentation or leads a discussion. Everybody else is invited to ask questions or share their experiences.
• There's a little time at lunch to read some articles.
• I go to one or two local developer groups a month.

You don't necessarily need to deep-dive into some information in order to make use of it. Just knowing that it's out there and that you can find it again is enough to give it a space in your mental pigeonhole. When...