We Need More Learning About Things

Image from Google Images

If you haven't seen the 2003 movie, Daddy Day Care, you definitely should give it a chance. It's a funny, quirky movie about a couple of dads running a day care for kids while they run into endless shenanigans. One of my favorite scenes from the movie is when Becca, a smart little 5 year-old is asked how the dads could improve the day care. Her response: 
Becca: We need more learning about things!
Dad: We need more learning about things?
Becca: Yes. We're at a very critical age. You have to feed our minds!

It's true that it's important to engage young kids with learning while they're at that "critical age," however, there's never a time in your life when you stop learning. I've always been someone who is passionate about learning, and I don't think that eagerness or drive to learn something new will ever fade away. I love learning a new skill, especially one that I can apply in both my professional and personal endeavors. With technology changing so quickly today, I feel like it's nearly impossible to be an expert on anything. It used to be that you were required to be skilled in only one thing and know it inside and out, but now you basically need to know a little about everything. It makes you more marketable and essentially more beneficial in group situations where collaboration is key.

So how do you go about knowing a little bit about everything? Well, for starters you should read…. a lot. Pick up the newspaper and get familiar with the current events, and while you're at it read a magazine that relates to what you want to do professionally. My favorite magazines to read are Wired and Smashing. Just taking a few minutes out of my day to read an article helps me feel more informed about what's going on in the industry. How else am I going to find out what's happening? 

As for actually picking up some skills, do a few tutorials in your free time. I'm one of those nerds that stays inside on a Friday night, because I'm sure that I could learn just a few more techniques in Photoshop to make my projects better. I'm not saying don't have a social life, but if you want to get better at something you have to find the time to do it. Remember that your time is valuable so make sure that you're spending it wisely when you're just starting out.

My absolute favorite video tutorial site to use is Lynda.com. You have to have a subscription to access all of the content, but some full length videos can be found on their YouTube channel. The service is wonderful though. You can make playlists of videos that you want to watch, see your progress, and even download exercise files so you can work along with the videos. All the transcripts for the videos are there too, so if you watch something and then forget how to do it later, you can refer to the transcript.

Another tutorial site is Tuts+. I haven't used this site as much, but there's a lot of pages with various how-to articles and videos that I immediately wanted to learn how to do. Some were really specific and unique, like this tutorial that teaches you how to make a commercial print advertisement using 3D splashes. I'm pretty sure Tuts+ is a lot like Lynda, and you probably have to pay to access all of the content. However, you can view some video tutorials on their YouTube channel.

So that's my advice. Try to learn something every day. Sacrificing even 10 minutes can make you so much more knowledgeable. Stay creative my friends!