Back

Recently I was trying to help my younger colleague with preparation of list of topics what he should learn. Well, it was my idea to provide such a list to him, I am not really sure if he was really interested in short term as his highest priority now is Java certification. My list included following:

• OOP
• design (principles)
• design patterns
• TDD
• refactoring and how to identify code smells
• writing expressive code

My list did not contain Java, but I added "look into other languages like Ruby, Lisp, Erlang to get an idea there are more possibilities" just to show my bias towards skills that can be used also after changing implementation language. Still I believe language/libraries details are important, but it is easy for me to say that after mastering advanced topics in Java many years ago.

Then I've realized it is huge task list as none of those topics can be learned in "a week". Even worse, I am not able to prioritize them to help tackle this daunting task. My best offer is along the lines "learn everything at the same time".

I have to say I am really glad not being in the same position, that I need to learn everything again. It hurts just to imagine what I would need to learn. Of course, I still need to grow in all areas (as most of us), but it is easier to select some topics that interest me more just now and go through them without a rush. Or to jump from one topic to another.

Back