Jan/083
About Personal Development
Like the topic says, I was just thinking about my own personal development : how much have I improved my skills during the last year?
I like to measure my personal development by looking back one or two years and the comparing to this day. I think this is a very good way to do it and it has worked for me. One thing that I always think about when I meet new colleagues is how much did they improve their skills during the last year?
As far as my own experience tells me, the amount of those who improved a lot is pretty small actually. Which is a shame. We would have more talented people if everybody would keep improving their skills. Instead of saying they don’t have time or they don’t need to? Yeah, right.
Take me for example, I have a 7 months old daughter, a job, this website, hobby programming projects, and so on. And still I find the time to improve my skills, why?
Because I try to improve all the time. When I do something I just ask myself : how can I do this better? (how to do this faster? how to improve the quality of my work? …)
Also if I would have to interview a programmer to some positions, the first thing I would like to know is : how much did he/she improve during the last 1-2 years?
Anyway, keep improving!
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10:32 pm on January 9th, 2008
So… how much did you improve last year?
I learned 2 new programming languages last year: Python and haXe. I’m using them extensively now because they allow me to be much more productive. I’m also automating a lot of tasks now by writing simple scripts for them. And I’m blogging more actively now, partially to force me to finish things because I know people are watching me. It’s been a year full of good investments.
7:16 am on January 10th, 2008
Yep, people tend to forget the automation part, good that your doing it as it saves a lot time.
What did I learn, let’s see..
- Learned about coding in general
- Graphics Programming -> new tricks for both fixed function and shaders.
- OpenGL ES 1.x with extensions, when I came in to mobile business I started with ES 2.0, so it was time to learn the oldie.
- Some .Net programming
- I also learned a lot about team / project management by taking some courses at Nvidia, reading books / articles, etc.
- That making a 3D game requires loads of resources
Also same thing here, I’m forced to think more about my Tips & Tricks when I write them here as more people are reading them, which is good as I probably learn something myself too.
7:17 am on January 10th, 2008
arr.. this commenting stuff still sucks. Need to work on it today a bit.