Your Periphrial Vision.

I’ve learned more by accident–by a long shot, than I’ve ever learned on purpose.

I when people see what I do (this site, the knowledge I have to fix tech issues) I often get the comment: you have a lot of time on your hands.   I rarely hear it from someone more successful than I am, and it always mildly irritates me.   Why?  Because it’s almost always referencing a skill I have that the other person has yet to develop.    And it’s almost always an insult.  I’m okay with that now, more able to ignore idiots as irrelevant to me than ever before.

I’ve learned what I know two ways: deliberately  (seeking out information, engaging people I respect, taking classes, joining groups), and accidentally (stumbling upon stuff, fixing problems, reading stuff in a sidebar).

I’m sure that I’ve gained more knowledge inadvertently than on purpose.   And usually, it’s in the course of seeking connections or seeking information that I’ve learned stuff.  When I was on LiveJournal, I found “Scott Ginsberg” through another link.  From there, I found Julia Cameron, and I have been permanently and profoundly impacted by The Artists Way.   I wasn’t seeking to become more creative, or become “unblocked.”  I read an interesting article Scott wrote (that I no longer remember), added Scott to my reader to try out, he recommended Julia…

…or when I was into the horrible Robert Kiyosaki, he recommended the fantastic Body For Life stuff.

There are countless other examples of finding great information.  But it comes because I have a bias towards curiosity, towards knowing stuff, and towards improving my product.  There are others who–through more limited exposure-have gained way more knowledge than me in different topics.

So this week, I’m thinking about these questions:

1.) How can I make gaining knowledge more efficient?

2.) How can I filter out more crap?

3.) How can I organize what I’m trying to learn?

4.) How do I evaluate periphrial learning?