The ideas discussed in this pattern are often ignored by a lot of people including me. Documenting what you learn will not only serve as a further reference but will also save you a lot of time refreshing your mind on topics that you might have lost ideas. In the other hand, you may still remember what you have learned on a problem but the issue is that you have got only the main ideas, forgotten the details in it.
I got to realized how ignorance I am about recording what I learn after reading this pattern. I think I have never learn why I fails sometimes because on my reflection, I realized that in most cases, I overlook some of the things I learn as a real event and therefore don’t think I will ever forget them. But in the long round I lose track of most things as time goes on. On reflecting on why I sometimes don’t document what I learn, I couldn’t find a particular reason for that. Gone on the days when there was limited storage in our computers, and in the worst case, no internet access, we could record what we learn on note books. The only problem I had with that was, as time passes, you turn to have more books and you overlook their important. Sometimes you are tempted to trash your entire old document thinking you have enough knowledge that can deal with issues coming from these documents. But I realized this is not true because not long ago, I have encountered a situation where I have to go all the way back to my high school note book for the solution.
After reading this pattern, I think I will not ignore the power of recording what I learn anymore. With internet access, recording is going to be more convenient and effective. For some time now, I have been saving what I learn in goggle docs but after reading this pattern I have taken another twist to blog all my learning. I think this can help me easily managed and share what I learn with others.
Computer Science Exploration 