{"id":13500,"date":"2016-06-27T12:15:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T09:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/?p=13500"},"modified":"2016-06-21T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T11:30:20","slug":"next-step-learning-new-skill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the next step when learning a new skill?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Getting started with a new skill is hard, but the steps are clear. You\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/courses-counter-productive\/\"> completing a course or a tutorial <\/a>, and someone else laid out a list of exercises you have to master as a beginner. But what can do after you\u2019ve finished that first application to keep learning? How can you improve on that new skill instead of letting it gather digital dust?<\/p>\n<p>There is often no clear progression after those first steps, and it\u2019s easy to get discouraged and fall off. A lot of the material you\u2019ll find is focused on the somewhat experienced developer learning a new framework, and not on learning what\u2019s required to become an expert. There is a gap at this point that you need to fill yourself so you have new material to learn when you\u2019re ready to continue.<\/p>\n<p>You have to trust that you can build your own path at this point. Nobody can tell you everything you must learn, because you need to learn from your own experiences. At this point, you\u2019ll deliberately seek out information that may not be directly related to the subject, but that you can integrate with what you already know.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you\u2019ve learned AngularJS, you can learn more about HTTP, JavaScript, or the design patterns that were used to build the framework. Both theory and practice are important: you need to understand how things are done, but be able to use that knowledge in your own projects.<\/p>\n<p>You also have to challenge yourself and deliberately focus on learning hard things and growing if you don\u2019t want to stay stuck or give up on your new skill. The default is to fall back on your existing knowledge and habits, but those will end up being a crutch. Try out new ways to do things, or explore another language to gain some perspective.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re always working in the same environment, growth can be harder to find. Stay curious and investigate when you encounter something you don\u2019t understand. You can also take advantage of the occasion to improve your soft skills such as writing clear code and comments, or coaching another member of your team. There are many ways to learn, but you have to look for them and plan to learn instead of leaving it to chance.<\/p>\n<div class=\"attribution\">\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span class=\"reference\">Reference: <\/span><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.cindypotvin.com\/what-is-the-next-step-when-learning-a-new-skill\/\">What is the next step when learning a new skill?<\/a> from our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/join-us\/wcg\/\">WCG partner<\/a> Cindy Potvin at the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.cindypotvin.com\/\">Web, Mobile and Android Programming<\/a> blog.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting started with a new skill is hard, but the steps are clear. You\u2019re completing a course or a tutorial , and someone else laid out a list of exercises you have to master as a beginner. But what can do after you\u2019ve finished that first application to keep learning? How can you improve on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-development"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is the next step when learning a new skill? - Web Code Geeks - 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Getting started with a new skill is hard, but the steps are clear. You\u2019re completing a course or a tutorial , and someone else laid out a list of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is the next step when learning a new skill? - Web Code Geeks - 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getting started with a new skill is hard, but the steps are clear. You\u2019re completing a course or a tutorial , and someone else laid out a list of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Web Code Geeks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webcodegeeks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-27T09:15:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cindy Potvin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/CindyPtn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@webcodegeeks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cindy Potvin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cindy Potvin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c5df30ebfba793235473ab81edbd742\"},\"headline\":\"What is the next step when learning a new skill?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-27T09:15:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/\"},\"wordCount\":428,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Web Dev\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/\",\"name\":\"What is the next step when learning a new skill? - Web Code Geeks - 2026\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/web-development\/next-step-learning-new-skill\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.webcodegeeks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/web-dev-logo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-27T09:15:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Getting started with a new skill is hard, but the steps are clear. 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