When I was a kid, I loved riding my bike, even when it had training wheels. Times were simpler back then, you could be left mostly to your own devices and often wander around the neighborhood; you could travel around for what seemed like miles…I’m sure it was just a couple of blocks. One day, one of my training wheels broke, and I lost the freedom to ride. My dad was busy working most days in the summer and because we weren’t particular well off, I didn’t want to bother him. So one day I decided I would teach myself to ride. I grabbed my bike and ripped off the second training wheel; There was no going back.
The secret to riding smoothly is speed, once you gather enough of it, the science says that a number of forces acting on the wheels prevents a rider from falling. As a six-year-old, I knew none of that. So, at first, I tried to balance myself on the static bike; the results were unsurprising. Then I tried gathering speed from a dead stop; The results were unsurprising. There’s a reason in a picture perfect world the image is someone pushing you until you get the knack of gathering speed.
I must have spent the entire afternoon figuring it out. Put the wheel pedals at an angle, so they are ready to produce force, push your self forward and start pedaling…remember, balance is everything until you gather speed. I fell dozens of times, but by the end of the day, I had it. The amazing thing about learning to ride is that it’s a skill you never forget.
Making Learning Permanent
The stress that we put the different parts of our brain at the same time is the key. That appears to lock things in our brain that we remember. That’s the same way people learn. If you find something really useful, specially to what your current needs are, then you’re more likely to recall it in the future.
Just like everyone else, I find things that are super useful. I used to bookmark them and never use them again, but I’ve learned that if you take the time to work with something, then I'm more apt to remember it when I need it.
The Toolbox
Every week, I've been posting about little tools that I find that are pretty useful. I go through a ton of emails and sites each week to come up with them. So, I decided to make my livestream about the tools and I called it the toolbox. Here's what the official Episode 1 Looked like.
Barring some technical difficulties at the beginning, I think it came out pretty well. I added a theme this week and covered how Github can help you with Project Management.