An effective learning method for programmers _ programmers

In September, New Zealand's Kiwi Pycon (an annual seminar on Python language), I presented an effective learning approach for programmers. There are two main aspects in the speech: one is the mode of thinking, the other is the specific learning method. The following is a simple guide to thinking patterns in that speech. If you want to know something about learning methods, here are some videos. Recurse Center

I worked for two years at a company called Recurse Center in New York before I joined Dropbox (a US cloud storage service company) last year. Recurse Center is a community for programmers to retreat, similar to a writer's retreat. Participants are here for three months to do the things they are most interested in. So a person who has been in Java development for ten years may go to Recurse Center to learn a new language, such as Clojure (Clojuer is a dynamic functional programming language that runs on the JVM platform). Or someone who just graduated from a computer major might go there to learn web development skills. Moreover, some people just learn to program in the amateur, probably just go there to recharge. There are almost no organizational plans for programming there-no deadlines, no assignments, no instructional guidance. is an experience of adult self-study.

My role is the equivalent of a mentor, helping people to take full advantage of the time they feel lost in recurse Center for full freedom. People who have received traditional education or worked in traditional jobs often do not know what to do. So I will help them set goals and help them make the most of their experience. The most important thing we think about is how to make the most of their learning experience as effectively as possible for programmers. Today I'm going to talk about how to be an efficient learner and how to apply research results to our daily lives as programmers and engineers. What do you want to learn from this article?

Take a minute to think about what you want to learn from this article. You may want to learn how to work as efficiently as possible. You may want to know how to be a better teacher or mentor to a junior engineer. Or you might want to know how to make institutional changes in your organization to create a better environment for working efficiently.

These are useful goals and I will refer to them in the material. However, I suggest you think about most of your own learning methods. When I hear these learning methods, it is often that these methods are clearly applicable to other people, but they do not apply to me. I will elaborate on this point later. Growth mode of thinking: Carol Dweck

Let's discuss the first key to effective learning. Sociologist Carol Dweck has done a lot of interesting research on how people perceive intelligence. She found that there were two main differences of opinion about intelligence. One, she called the fixed mode of thinking. This view holds that intelligence is innate and difficult to change. The other is the growth mode of thinking. The idea of a growing mindset is that these people believe that intelligence is malleable and can be improved by effort.

(Carol Dweck, outstanding personality researcher in the field of psychology, social psychology and Developmental Psychology, USA)

Dweck found that a person's view of intelligence-fixed mode of thinking or growth mode of thinking, can significantly affect a person to choose the task of the way, the response to the challenge, a person's cognitive performance, and even a person's integrity. Let's look at some dweck interesting research. Two ways of thinking cause different efforts

The first interesting research result is that thinking patterns affect people's view of effort. If you are a fixed mode of thinking, you believe that people are not smart, is not smart, people can not really change this thing. At the same time you believe that if you are good at something, it is easy for you. If something is difficult for you, you will not be good at it. This is the view of the people in the fixed mode of thinking. The growth mindset believes that as long as you work one thing, you will eventually become good at it.

Some studies have found that people with fixed patterns of thinking are unwilling to give real effort because they feel that they are not good at what they are trying to do. Dweck notes: "If you have every task you need to work on, you question your intelligence and it's hard to keep your ability confident." "The praise that backfired."

The most famous is probably the result of the second interesting study. The Dweck team found that giving the students a slight difference in praise significantly affected their performance.

In this study, the Dweck team set up a series of questions for students. The first set of questions all the students are doing well. They praised half of the students: Wow. You are very good at these questions, you must be very clever. ”。 Praised the other half of the students: "Wow." You are doing very well in these problems, you must work very hard. ”。 Then they did the second set of questions, which was more difficult than the first set, and everyone was poor. Then they did the third set of questions, the third set of questions like the first set of questions-and back to the simple level.

At this point, a group of students (praised by smart students) set up a fixed mode of thinking. Group B students (the students who were praised for their efforts) built up a model of growth thinking.

They found a bunch of interesting things here. One thing is: in the first set of questions and in the second set of questions, they asked the students, then they want to do a simpler exercise or more difficult. (In practice, everyone gets more difficult questions next.) Dweck wants to see if students who receive different compliments will respond differently. If so, 90% of the students who were praised for their efforts chose to do more difficult questions, compared with only one-third of the students who were praised for their cleverness to choose more difficult questions. Students who are praised for their efforts are more interested in challenges.

The second thing they found was the performance of middle school students in the third set of questions. They found that group A students were obviously worse off than they were when they were doing the first set of questions. But group B students did a little better than the first set of tests. Group A students could not recover well from the wall of the second set of questions, while group B students were able to recover well.

After that, they asked the students to write to their pen pal about the study: "I took part in a research project at school, which is the score I got." They found that almost half of the students who were praised for their cleverness were lying when they told their grades, but the students who were praised for their efforts were hardly dishonest.

So here are three revelations: the growth mindset is more likely to choose a challenge rather than a simpler one than a fixed mode of thinking, to be more insistent when confronted with setbacks, and to be more honest in their performance.

The most interesting part of the study is that the difference between the two compliments is so subtle that the results are poor. Being praised for being smart leads them to want to be smart and to hide their bad behavior by just doing something simple that they know will perform well. Being praised for trying to make them want to keep working harder is the best way to work harder. Response to disturbances

Another study examined the students ' response to temporary disturbances. The Dweck team designed a short psychology course for students in basic education schools. This course is a booklet with a small quiz. There are some brochures that have a confusing paragraph, others not. The confusion is not set in the quiz, so students can grasp the point if they completely ignore the confusion. The investigators wondered whether the students could recover from the confusion of the fragments.

They found that, regardless of whether anyone had interfered with the paragraph, the growth-minded students mastered 70%. Students with fixed mode of thinking have mastered 70% of students without interfering with the paragraph, but students who have interfered with the paragraph have mastered only 30%. Students with fixed thinking patterns are less able to recover than those who are growing up when confronted with disturbances.

"How to better explain the nature of people like to imitate other people's habits." Because these people are excellent and we want to be like them. Or do we want to make these portraits of us. ”

If I'm involved, I'd like to get a brochure with distractions because it really resonates with me. If you have ever had a similar situation or feeling when using a new tool or viewing a technical document Please raise your hand (most people will raise their hands). Something like that happens all the time--you get a document from a field expert on a novice, or an unpopular or some other problem. Skipping the confusing parts of the document we read is a vital skill for programmers to get the rest of the information successfully. Programmers need a model of growth thinking

Programmers need a growth-minded model. The key skills of the programmer: such as response to disturbances, resilience after frustration, desire for challenge, easy coping for people with a growing mindset, but difficult for people with fixed thinking patterns. Everyone is a fixed mode of thinking.

Now, sometimes when people hear the idea of a fixed mode of thinking, like a scarecrow (a face). For example, does everyone in a technology company really understand this view? I think most people are fixed mode of thinking. Here are some examples. 10 times times the efficiency of the engineer

Start with the concept of "10 times times efficiency engineer". "10 times-times efficiency engineer" means that some engineers are more efficient than other engineers, and "10 times times Efficiency" is a definition of efficiency. There's a lot of controversy about this concept, but we're going to put them aside for a moment. If you agree with the concept of "10 times times Efficiency engineer", do you think "10 times times Efficiency engineer" is inherently a super efficient programmer? Still agree that their efficiency is gradually increasing.

I think, in many of the popular concepts, the concept of "10 times times Efficiency engineer" is based on the idea that "we will never be able to be somebody". It is clear that this is a point of view that is close to a fixed pattern of thinking. Hero Worship

Another evidence that we are a fixed mode of thinking is hero worship. So Julie Pagano in the "Pycon 2014" Convention on "imposter syndrome (fake syndrome, fraud syndrome and other Chinese translation)" A wonderful speech, one of her victory over the imposter syndrome is "kill your idol." Don't use other programmers as a measure of your ability, don't say "this person is very different from me". It is also useful to verify two different modes of thinking by doing this. If you have a programmer idol, do you think they are very different from you? Do you become more like the person you adore. If you don't think so, this is evidence of a fixed mode of thinking.

So I admit that the fixed mindset of a technology company is really common. Can you change the fixed mode of thinking? Of course.

Thankfully, you are now convinced that the growth mindset is better than the fixed mode of thinking. So the next question is: This can be changed. You can switch from a fixed mode of thinking to a growth mode of thinking. The answer is: Of course, you can completely transform the fixed mode of thinking into a growing mode of thinking.

In fact, in many studies of Dweck, there are some subtle ways to induce growth-oriented thinking patterns or fixed thinking patterns. The "compliment" study is an example: a compliment changes the behavior of a student. In other studies, they asked students to read a story about a famous person's success, writing at the end of the article "because they work hard" or "because of their superior genes". So it's completely a thing to change.

So how to change the fixed mode of thinking. Sometimes a challenge can actually be used to identify a fixed mode of thinking, and once you hear yourself say "I never learn physics," It's obviously wrong thinking. But sometimes it's hard to get rid of fixed patterns of thinking. So you can use some small flags to identify the fixed mode of thinking and eradicate it. How to recognize the fixed mode of thinking.

If you are concerned that you are a fixed mode of thinking, you should pay attention to the sentences that begin with these keywords. Like "I'm never good at CSS", "I'm not a popular person" or "some programmers are learning faster than others." The sentence "I am ..." is "suspect sentence". The words "yes" often appear in such sentences.

Now, obviously you're not going to be able to talk about a sentence with the word "I am", which is not the identity of a fixed mode of thinking. Instead, use these sentences as a small yellow flag that you remind yourself of, and closely tip and check your fixed mode of thinking.

Just to say, "I'm not a popular person" is a case of a study. The--dweck team has done a research on social and communicative contexts, and the study has reservations. (For details, see the question and answer session) How to change the fixed mode of thinking.

OK, once you are identified as a fixed mode of thinking, how do you change it? Here are four ways. ① cognitive transformation of praise and success

First, the cognitive transformation of praise and success. I mean, when you get the compliment of the wrong way, turn it into a compliment to a growth-oriented mindset. So if someone says, "Wow, you've done a really good job, you're too smart." "You can convert it to" Yes! Great, I really worked on this project. ”。 You don't need to shout out loudly. But cognitive transformation can help you improve your initiative to look for challenges and efforts.

You can use the same approach in success or achievement. When something goes well, don't think "of course it's going to be good because I'm smart", but think "I've used an effective approach to this project." I should do more to apply this method. " ② Transformation's perception of failure

Of course the other side of this method is also very effective. A big part of fixed thinking and growing thinking patterns is how you deal with failure. What your inner play is like when you face setbacks or don't get the results you want. If you think "maybe I really don't fit the job," then you should mark it with a little red flag. On the contrary, you should ask what you got from your failure or what kind of learning you need to change. This method sounds normal, but it is really useful. ③ as a challenge to celebrate

Third, rejoice in the challenge. How you react when you have to compete. Try to be thankful for it. This is the habit I always adhere to when I work in Recurse Center. Some people would sit next to me and say, "I met a wonderful Python bug (sigh)." I said, "Great, I like the wonderful Python bugs." ”。 First of all, let's say that one thing is clear-when you come across a wonderful bug, and more importantly than the bug itself, it means you've found something that you can do to get a sense of achievement, something you can't ask for.

As I mentioned, there is no delivery date in Recurse Center, no assignment, so there is no price to pay for this mentality. I usually say, "You can spend a day tracking this bug in flask (a Python framework)." "Now, on Dropbox (a cloud storage service), we have a product to develop, with delivery dates and corresponding users." I can't always be happy to spend a day chasing bugs. Therefore, I am deeply sympathetic to the people who are in the reality of the delivery date. However, if I have to fix a vulnerability, I admit that the existence of bugs is not good for my bug fixes. But in the absence of a delivery date, you can still use my attitude. ④ focus on the process

Four, focus on the process. Like many people, I work with some excellent engineers. Sometimes I try to fix some tricky bugs in an unreasonable way, but some people can fix them in the right way. In this case, I would habitually ask them how they did it. Especially when I was using Dropbox, their answer would be illuminating. Sometimes, some of the information they answer comes from knowledge I don't know at all. Now that I've been here a long time, I often see the difference between the technology and the methods of others, or the details of my own way of not succeeding.

This approach is always to think: "This person can solve this bug must be a genius." "The type of person that is the most effective in the long term. Self-confidence and impostor syndrome

Dweck the study of the imposter syndrome is very interesting, the Imposter syndrome is a kind of always feel that they are a shameful incompetent liar, may be exposed at any time. If you've ever felt that way in your workplace, raise your hand (80% of people will raise their hands). Many of you will be like this, and I have had this feeling very clearly. This feeling is too unpleasant. Painful and very bad for your career, because if you're always worried about losing your job, you're unlikely to take risks or find opportunities to grow.

The solution to the Imposter syndrome is to maintain confidence. For example, "If you feel you are not qualified at work, you should be more confident and you will be better off." This advice is sometimes as hasty and useless as suggesting that you "don't feel this way." Even if the method works very little, it will allow you to focus on self-confidence and past achievements. Confidence doesn't help you deal with challenges.

But that's the point. Dweck's research shows that self-confidence does not predict your success when you are coping with new challenges and when you recover from setbacks.

Henderson and Dweck A study of students who have been promoted from elementary education to university. They called the junior students to assess their self-esteem and test whether the students were fixed-mode or growth-minded. The students were then kept track of their learning performance until they were promoted to a higher grade.

They found that the more confident students of the fixed mode of thinking suffered setbacks in their studies. In contrast, students with a growing mindset are more optimistic about their learning. Confidence is not an effective predictor of success, whether they are high or low.

Now, there are many other surveys that show that confidence and success are related. Dweck insists that self-confidence is a good predictor of how well you can do things, but it doesn't predict how you react to new challenges and how you feel about failure.

The second related point is that Dweck found that successful experiences do not affect your response to challenges and failures.

So success in the past cannot predict your response to new setbacks and failures, and your level of confidence cannot predict these, and it is a good predictor of your resilience to failure to be a growing mindset. Break the shackles.

I had little discussion about the imposter syndrome, so I was excited about it. This gives us a new and more useful way to overcome the imposter syndrome. Basically, if you are a fixed mode of thinking, you will feel very stressed, every moment you are full of fear of competition. If you have a growing mindset, you can enjoy the competition and enjoy doing the tricky things.

Guess what. It's easy to focus on the problem when your identity is not compromised by a difficult problem. You don't have to worry about being expelled, not being cheated, so you can easily use your resources and focus on the task at hand.

So once again: if you believe that "some people are not good for programming," You need to spend a lot of time and effort trying to find evidence to confirm that you are one of the people who can do it. It is therefore in turn to subvert this view, to break the traditional view of genius and to change the idea that everyone can enhance their skills by working hard. "Self-theories": The role of motivation, individuality and development

The growth mindset makes you more able to cope with failure, and it's easy to work hard to make it easier for you to accept challenges that are very useful to programmers.

If you want to explore the details of this study, you can go to see some survey results, I do not have time to do everything today, I strongly recommend a book written by Dweck, called "Self-theories" is a number of essays, summed up many of the main points of the author's study. It mentions the details of the study, but it's all plain and easy to read. At the same time she has a book called "mindset" to people who need popular science, but if you want to see more details of the content, "Self-thieories" is a better choice. Question and answer session

Q: Are there any research on the growth thinking model and the fixed mode of thinking for the team? How the team handles the problem.

A: I haven't heard of it yet, but it's an interesting question. I would love to see such research.

Q: I read "mindset" and I am the father of a twin daughter. I've found that these methods can really change their resilience and how they solve their problems.

A: Yes, the study is a bit scary. Like, do you tell your children that they are smart. You're killing them. I didn't get a chance to talk about it, but the book has some research on gender differences, and found that girls with high goals are more likely to have fixed thinking patterns and are less likely to take risks in the future when they are in trouble. This is probably the case for women present.

Q: The conclusion of this study is either black or white or there is a certain level of gray.

A: I think it might be a spectrum. This study can be regulated as a category of two-dollar model. Nor can I accurately determine where to divide. The feedback results of the fixed mode of thinking and the growing mode of thinking in the experiment show some cases: one has a mode of thinking, but there is also a reaction of the other way of thinking, the two modes of thinking are balanced in a certain range.

Q: Is it possible that a person in some areas is a fixed mode of thinking, and some other areas are growth mode of thinking.

A: It is absolutely possible. Programming in programmers is a growing mode of thinking, but it is common to have a fixed mindset in terms of social skills.

Q (from a computer science instructor/TA): For our freshmen, is there a way to build a growing mindset for our students? Many students come out of the school are fixed mode of thinking, which is not conducive to our early teaching.

A: If you are a lecturer or have the opportunity to stand in front of an audience, you can say clearly that "programming is a skill that can be done well by effort", even if that sounds unconvincing, research shows that it does have some impact.

Another particularly interesting thing is that a research experiment on value. Experiments have shown that women can significantly improve her performance by writing down her own values before entering a "preconceived threat" environment. The basic concept is that if you as a programmer, your programmer identity is questioned, it is very painful and difficult. But if you can show your worth in other places, it will lessen the doubt. The findings are very exciting for people who are marginalized in technology (there is no intention of slandering anyone). For more information, see Leigh Honeywell's worksheet.

Q: So it's essentially a matter of innate and acquired, right.

A: I don't define it that way, in a way, I don't think either of these two modes of thinking alone represents an individual. You can control your mode of thinking to a great extent. That's why I think it's very important to think about these studies from our own situation, not just our children or our students.

Q: There are many ways to apply these methods in programming, but can you tell me how to apply them in social situations?

Answer: Of course. The study is covered in "self-theories", Dweck lets children write to join a pen pal club (a real-life pen Pal Club – which will eventually lead to pen-pal relationships). As a result, all the children were rejected by the pen Pal Club. (laughter) before writing a letter, half the children were told, "it's a time to see if you're sociable," and the other half is told "it's an opportunity to improve your ability to make friends." "Children who are guided to a fixed mode of thinking have written the same letters, some of them very briefly." Children who are led to the growth mindset are more likely to write long content and, in order to have more opportunities to be noticed, say "I love chatting with you", even if this is the first time you write to a pen pal. (The audience sighed with sympathy) in the original book, the Dweck team is careful not to hurt any students, so that they do not feel that they are not good at making friends.

If you are interested in social methods, I highly recommend that you visit Captain Awkward's blog. Captain Awkward has some social challenges, such as "I'm going to a party to talk to three people, and every time I succeed in talking to someone and getting to know something about them, I reward myself 10 points." "There are a lot of interesting ways to deal with social anxiety online, whether you have any confusion or not," he said. Thank

Thank Maggie Zhou, Amy Hanlon, Alyssa Frazee and Julia Evans for their feedback on the earlier keynote speech.

Thanks to Sasha Laundy, she led people to think about what they wanted in the Pycon speech about getting and giving help, and thanked her for encouraging me to use the same way.

I thank the Kiwi Pycon, especially Marek Kuzie, for hosting me.

from:http://blog.jobbole.com/107445/