What on earth is a "Training Optimised Developer"?

I'm glad you asked. A Training Optimised Developer is a person who may work as a computer programmer. They are someone who is personally invested in their personal growth and development.

Does this sound odd? Then read on.

The Comfortable Developer

It's very easy as a developer to get comfortable in your job, isn't it? Don't believe me? When was the last time you completed an online training course? Or how about actually sitting in on classroom training? What about the last time you read a technical training book?

If you're anything like me, it is very easy to feel worn out at the end of the day, and to not want to study. We feel like we've earned the right to expense all of our spare personal time relaxing.

Our lazy mindset.

The danger of this comfortable mindset, is that you will eventually fall behind the rest of the pack. If you only ever read about the next TV Series coming out on Netflix, you're going to be stuck using Classic ASP while the rest of us are programming on quantum computers (okay maybe not quite that extreme, but you get the idea).

Its important to make sure you're investing the right amount of time into improving yourself.

That is not to say we shouldn't spend time unwinding and relaxing or spend time with family. In fact this is critical to help us recharge. It is important to find the balance between work, personal development, and spending time with the most important part of your life: your family.

Enter: The Training Optimised Developer

The training optimised developer is someone who has a interest in being relevant in their respective job or industry for as long as possible, or desired.

Continuous personal development is a mindset and lifestyle of ongoing training, exploring and learning. It means that you want to make sure that in 5 years from now, you will be better than you are now.

If you're not learning, you're not growing. - My dad.

Staying Motivated

It is sometimes hard to motivate oneself to spend an hour watching a video course or reading a dry technical book. But you know what? The best things in life require effort to acquire and achieve.

It is okay to not feel motivated. Motivation and inspiration is a challenge I face every day.

Find your "thing"

We all learn differently. For me, my learning process is currently something along the lines of the following:

• Use of video training to discover and learn about new subjects or technologies.
• Blogs for keeping up with the cutting edge (like this one and this one).
• Listening to audiobooks in the car on the way to work, on the way home, while jogging and many other things.

I find it very hard to actually read through technical books. I've done it, and will likely do it again, but it takes a lot of special effort. My current learning method on the other hand, works for me very well.

Feel free to experiment to find out how you learn best.

Special Mention: Audiobooks

I have only recently discovered audiobooks. I have been doing a lot of listening lately and getting through more actual book material in one week than I did in a year and a half of owning the printed book.

Audiobooks are a great way to easily consume knowledge, without having to drop everything. Most audiobook providers will offer a free trial for you to test their service out.

Be sure to give this a try.

Your Mission, Should You Accept

Join me in committing to be a Training Optimised Developer.

Commit to always learning new things. Share your knowledge with others.

Learn something new this week!

Challenge: Learn Hello World in a new programming language or framework that you're not familiar in. Watch a video course on Pluralsight or Lynda (or YouTube). Listen to an audiobook that teaches you something new, or how to be a better developer.

I've given you some ideas to get started.

Let me know in the comments what you did this week to become a Training Optimised Developer.

Happy Learning!!!