T.C Bookstore
Troubleshooters.Com
________________

Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
By Steve Litt

Price: $11.95

Availability: Usually emailed within 48 hours of receipt of electronic payment or check and order form.

PDF (EBook), 136 pages

As a technologist, you use many more technologies and many more tools than did the technologists of the last decade. Technologies and tools obsolete in a matter of months these days. So do technologists.

Employer provided training is a relic of the 20th century. Employers want to hire fully trained people -- making room by laying off seasoned employees. And of course, when the employer changes technologies, those new hires are laid off.

It gets worse. You can be laid off just for being more expensive, or less tolerant of employer abuse, than an H1-B substitute. Disney replaced a 200+ member IT department with H1-B's fielded by an outsourcer. Don't believe me, read it here and here. I'd like to say Disney is an exception, but this stuff happens all the time, including a recent layoff at Southern California Edision.

After years of good work, your employer could throw you into the unemployment line, from which only a few regain their former employment status and compensation any time soon. One way to be part of that few is the ability to instantly learn new technologies, as fully described in "Rapid Learning for the 21st Century".

Rapid Learning is a terminology-first, experimentational method for lightning fast learning. Perhaps you'd prefer to call it "just in time learning". This book gives you all the tools: The technology glossary and sources for new terminology. Terminology diagramming. Incremental/differential learning and associated troubleshooting. And just to make sure you really understand Rapid Learning, this book's appendix contains a 35 page, real-world Rapid-Learning session you can follow along, or even reproduce on a computer. When you emerge from that appendix, you'll be ready for anything the workplace can throw at you.

Let's say you hear of an opportunity with an unfamiliar technology. You learn enough of it that night to discuss it literately. The next day you make your move on the opportunity, and learn to work with it in the next few days. When the position is filled a week later, it's yours, because you're the candidate who's fully trained and can prove it.

If you're securely employed, Rapid Learning helps you stay that way, and helps you advance your career. If your employment situation is shaky, Rapid Learning improves your value to your current employer, and to enables you to express your value to potential employers. If you're currently unemployed, Rapid Learning is how you rise to the top of the unemployed masses, grabbing a job from your competition and hitting the ground running.

But I'm the wrong age/gender/race!

The prejudice in the IT world is a poorly kept secret. Such prejudice should be repudiated and abolished. But until it is, if you're the wrong age, gender, race, religion, or college degree status, you'll need to live and prosper in this prejudiced world. Some employers don't discriminate, and offer employment to the most skilled. If in the out crowd, these are the jobs you need to go after. Everyone else is going after these jobs too, so Rapid Learning helps you rise to the top and capture the job.

Another benefit: When our society finally throws off the shackles of prejudice and IT becomes a true meritocracy, the world will be your oyster. Armed with lots of skills and ability to learn new ones in days instead of months, you'll rise right to the top of the heap.

You're welcome

I regularly receive email thanking me for writing the book that enabled the writer to get a job, switch jobs, or advance in his new job. After you buy this book, I just might be receiving such an email from you.

About this Book

This book is 136 pages. Here is the table of contents:

Chapter 1. The Quick and the Dead	1
Yesterday's Learning Methods	1
Today's Learning Method	3
The Global Economy	4
Labor Mobility and Interchangeability	4
Staying Ahead	5
Getting Ahead	6
Summary	6
Chapter 2. Here's How You Learn Fast	7
Definitions	7
Overview of the Rapid Learning Process	9
Where Rapid Learning Works Best	10
Summary	11
Chapter 3. Building Your Terminology Glossary	13
Definitions	13
Warning: Do Not Violate Copyright	15
Glossary Format	16
The Power of Terminology	17
What To Look For	18
Where to Hear New Terminology	20
Where to Find Definitions	22
How Much Description To Include	28
How To Practice	28
Summary	28
Chapter 4. Terminology Diagramming	31
Definitions	31
Types Of Terminology Diagrams	31
The Structure of a Terminology Diagram	37
Why Terminology Diagrams Are So Powerful	37
Making Your Diagram	37
Summary	41
Chapter 5. Incremental/Differential Learning Overview	43
Definitions	43
First Do No Harm	44
From the Familiar to the Unknown	44
The Power of the POC	45
Example Proofs of Concept	47
The Purpose of an Increment	52
Why is it called Incremental Learning?	55
Why is it called Differential Learning?	55
Optimal Increments, Review and Documentation	55
Research	55
Summary	55
Chapter 6. Optimal Increments	57
Definitions	57
Choosing the Optimal Step Size	58
Choosing Between A Proof of Concept and an Increment	59
Curiosity Driven Learning	61
Increment by Reverse Engineering	61
Summary	64
Chapter 7. Research Tips	67
Definitions	67
The Internet is Your Friend	67
Searching Error Messages	70
Friends and User Groups	71
Books and other printed matter	74
Summary	75
Chapter 8. Troubleshooting For the Rapid Learner	77
Definitions	77
Scope	78
Adopt the Correct Attitude	79
The Ten Steps	83
Intermittents	87
Bottleneck Analysis	88
Summary	89
Chapter 9. Review	91
Definitions	91
The Proof Is In The Toggle	92
This Step Clarifies The Knowledge	92
Summary	92
Chapter 10. Documentation	93
Now How Did I Do That?	93
Rapid Learning Documentation Makes You Look Like a Genius	94
The Intended Audience	94
This Step Cements The Knowledge	94
HTML Is Handy For Recording And Lookup	95
Pro Move: Publish Your Documentation	95
WARNING: Avoid Copyright Violations	95
Summary	96
Chapter 11. Now Do It	97
The Benefits of Rapid Learning	99
Appendix A. Example: SSH	101
Acquire Terminology	102
Hello World	104
Increments: Remote X and Remote Commands	104
Curiosity Driven Learning	106
More On Public-Key Cryptography	107
GPG	115
SSH Public-key Encryption Experiments	119
Tunnelling	130
Summary and Lessons Learned	134
Index	138

The first hundred pages of this book cover every step of the Rapid Learning process. You're given tips to make it the Rapid Learning Proces more effective. The following graphic is a flowchart of the Rapid Learning Process:

Top level Rapid Learning Process flowchart

Incremental/differential learning flowchart

The Appendix goes through an actual Rapid Learning session, showing you how the Rapid Learning process is applied to a real technology (SSH keys in this case). Don't worry if you don't know what SSH keys are. You'll learn while reading the Appendix. More importantly, you'll learn real-world Rapid Learning techniques.

We live in interesting times. Recession, outsourcing, offshoring, disposable employees. The unemployment line is just a new technology away.

We live in interesting times. New technology constantly brings new opportunities. When you hear of an opportunity, show up at the meeting or job interview completely knowledgeable, and ready to work. Read this book tonight!