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From
TNPC issue #3.17...
How Can I Learn This Real Fast?
by T.J. Lee
August 17, 2000
As you might imagine I get to talk to a lot of people about
software and its uses. Magazine editors, book editors, clients,
potential clients, new computer users, old computer users, and
people who have gotten old by using computers. One common
question is, "How can I learn xyz real fast?" where xyz is some
software package. It might be a software program I know really
well, it might not, but the person asking thinks I have some
magic formula that will get them up to speed in a hurry. Perhaps
a book title I can refer them to or a Web site I can send them
to... something that will make it all quick and easy.
I haven't got an answer for them. Oh, I can refer an inquiring
mind to a book. If they want help on a Microsoft Office
application or about something on the Web I can refer them to a
book I've co-authored. But there's a catch. They'll have to read
it. Actually pick up the book, crack the spine, and bend the
pages. Then they'll have to sit down at the computer, fire it up,
and start pounding on the keys. Work with the software program
and make mistakes.
But not many folks seem to want to do this. I think the Internet
has increased the perceived "immediacy" of problem solving. Throw
a computer at a problem and it should instantly be resolved.
Maybe it's me, but I don't think it works that way, as much as
we'd all like that to be the case. I got into a serious
discussion with one of my editors who was trying to explain the
problem with my last book project, a problem he was going to
resolve. I'm paraphrasing here, he said, "Your book was all
wrong. A person had to read page 1 before they read page 2. It's
too linear and no one reads books that way anymore. You have to
write it so every page stands on its own, so you could keep it in
the bathroom and every time you come out you'd know something
new." The guy was serious and I don't write for that publisher
anymore.
The scary part was that maybe he was right, maybe the classic way
of teaching someone to do something doesn't work in a world of
quick-cut TV editing and double mocha java supremes. But I've
taught and lectured tens of thousands of computer users
around the world and I haven't found a workable replacement for
the linear approach.
Here's a linear idea, and one that you've heard me espouse before
in TNPC: if want to be more productive, learn to type faster. If
you work with a word processor, generate content, or build Web
pages, anything that results in words in a row, you should become
a red-hot touch typist. But, you have to make an effort to get a
result. Just hunt-and-pecking day after day will not turn you
into a typist. Get a training program and work with it.
If you're trying to learn a software program, know the difference
between what a program does and what it lets you do. Huh? Take
Word and Excel for example. Word is a word processor and Excel is
a spreadsheet (number processor). I can't tell you how many times
I've sat down with the "powers that be" within some company that
was rolling out these two applications to figure out a training
schedule. Always the same amount of time (the bare minimum if not
less) was to be devoted to each application. And usually less
time to Excel than to Word, which was just silly.
Word "does something." Word generates documents. Excel doesn't
"do something," it does many very different things limited only
by the knowledge and expertise of the user. Word is an
application; Excel is a development platform. Word generates
documents but Excel doesn't have this common output, no
"document" that you ultimately create (because a spreadsheet is
really a mathematical model, not a document with static content
in the traditional definition). Teaching these two very different
software programs takes two very different approaches to be
effective and it was very difficult to get those honchos to
allocate the training resources to do the training right. Because
to do it right takes more effort.
The other day someone asked me how to learn Excel in a hurry. I
told them to build something. Doesn't matter what, just roll up
your sleeves and start building something. A laundry list,
balance your checkbook, do something. Same for Word. Start a
journal, start writing letters, recipes, write something. Want to
learn how to build tables in Word? Start building them. Want to
use conditional statements in Excel formulas? Start building
them. Doesn't matter what application you're trying to learn,
stop looking for a quick fix and start using the program.
Sure you should get a book, heck, get one of ours, but get one
and don't just slide it under your pillow and figure the
knowledge will magically seep into your head whilst you sleep.
Read it. Linearly, from one page to the next.
Maybe one day computers will be true appliances like a television
set. You don't have to know anything about a TV to use it other
than how to turn it on. But until them be prepared to invest
time and effort into learning your computer and the programs
that run on it.
You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com
Copyright © 2000, PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. and Dan Butler.
All Rights Reserved.
The Naked PC is a trademark of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc.
ISSN: 1522-4422
You may reprint an article from TNPC as long as you show the
entire article and include the authors byline, excerpt and
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How Can I Learn This Real Fast?
by T.J. Lee
(This article originally appeared in The Naked PC
newsletter #3.17, subscribe at http://www.TheNakedPC.com)
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