I find it pretty easy to pursue a course of study and answer assessment questions on the subject. Experience teaches me that such assessment problems usually tell you how to solve them, (either implicitly or explicitly), and I won’t gain proper appreciation for the subject until I use it in a more poorly-defined situation.
I’ve been intending to get a decent understanding of the HTML5 canvas element for a while now, and last week I hit upon the idea of making a small point & click adventure puzzle game. This is quite ambitious given my past experience (I’m a dev, though much more at home with data than graphics or interaction design), but I decided even if I abandon the project, I’ll still have learned useful things from it. A week later and the only product I have to show for my effort is a blue blob whizzing round a 2.5D environment. I’ve succeeded in gaining an understanding of canvas, but quite by accident I’ve also consolidated my understanding of vector decomposition and projective transforms, which I learned about years ago but never actually used for my own purposes.
This got me thinking: I don’t actually know what projects are going to let me develop certain specific skills and areas I want to develop. I’m currently studying a stats-heavy undergrad degree part-time with the intent of changing careers into something more data-sciencey in a few years. What projects should I set myself to develop those sorts of skills, (or alternatively, to alert me to the fact I’d really hate a career in data science)?
I find it pretty easy to pursue a course of study and answer assessment questions on the subject. Experience teaches me that such assessment problems usually tell you how to solve them, (either implicitly or explicitly), and I won’t gain proper appreciation for the subject until I use it in a more poorly-defined situation.
I’ve been intending to get a decent understanding of the HTML5 canvas element for a while now, and last week I hit upon the idea of making a small point & click adventure puzzle game. This is quite ambitious given my past experience (I’m a dev, though much more at home with data than graphics or interaction design), but I decided even if I abandon the project, I’ll still have learned useful things from it. A week later and the only product I have to show for my effort is a blue blob whizzing round a 2.5D environment. I’ve succeeded in gaining an understanding of canvas, but quite by accident I’ve also consolidated my understanding of vector decomposition and projective transforms, which I learned about years ago but never actually used for my own purposes.
This got me thinking: I don’t actually know what projects are going to let me develop certain specific skills and areas I want to develop. I’m currently studying a stats-heavy undergrad degree part-time with the intent of changing careers into something more data-sciencey in a few years. What projects should I set myself to develop those sorts of skills, (or alternatively, to alert me to the fact I’d really hate a career in data science)?
I could use similar advice, as I am in a similarish position.