Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist

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Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist
By Steve Litt

Price: $39.00

Availability: Usually shipped within 48 hours of receipt of check and order form.

Paperback, Staple Bound, 312 pages, 111,000 words

ISBN 0-9724825-0-4

This book isn't for everyone. It's written for technologists, and is of little value to the non-techncal. It's also not for those with time to spend learning the material in "the school of hard knocks". This 310 page book targets those needing to learn new technology quickly.

This book (call it Rapid Learning for short) is written exclusively for three groups of technologists:

The busy technologist whose livelihood, career quality and quality of life require quick mastery of the ever quickening rush of new technology.
The technologist pigeonholed into a legacy, non-marketable or low salary technology, needing to quickly catch up.
The unemployed or underemployed technologist or future technologist requiring quick technological employment without the time and expense of further training, college or certifications.

Rapid Learning documents the processes, strategies, tactics and techniques, used by top technologists, to learn quickly and profit handsomely from that learning. How they consistently get in on the ground floor of their chosen technologies, and how they choose the right technologies. You'll learn why learning and work can no longer be separated, and you'll learn over 100 pages worth of career integration strategies, tactics and techniques used by the most successful technologists.

At this point you may wish to view the Rapid Learning Flowchart or the book's table of contents. Each contains links to return to this point.

The information comes from over a decade's observation of technologists: The successful, the moderately successful, and the sidetracked. Useful information was separated from the noise using those old troubleshooting tactics: Exploiting the differences and finding the commonalities. What were the extremely successful technologists doing that the moderately successful were not? The author tested most of the tactics, found them to work, and documented them in this book.

Depending on your familiarity with Troubleshooters.Com and Troubleshooting Professional Magazine, you may be asking "who's this guy Steve Litt?" Let me introduce myself.

I'm Steve Litt. I'm best known as webmaster of Troubleshooters.Com, the premier website devoted to Troubleshooting Process. I'm the editor of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine, a technology directed pro-GNU/Linux and open source monthly online magazine. I'm the author of Troubleshooting: Tools, Tips and Techniques, as well as a contributing author to Red Hat Linux 6 Unleashed , Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed, Linux Unleashed 4E. I'm the main author of Samba Unleashed.

In my 15 years of professional development experience I've used C, C++, Delphi, Powerbuilder, VB, Informix 4gl, Java, Perl, Python, XML, Clarion, x86 assembler, and many other languages now obsolete. I learned them all on very tight schedules with no formal training. I learned every one using the techniques you'll see in this book.

Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist gives you the tried and true techniques used by elite technologists for years. Use it to improve your career, gain free time, escape from a technological dead end, or even to end unemployment. If using it gains you a 10% raise just one week earlier than otherwise, it will have paid for itself twice over. The trick is to get the book and master these techniques before the next new project or job inquiry.

The Rapid Learning Flowchart

The following flowchart describes the Rapid Learning Process (minus career integration). Over 100 pages of this book elaborate on this flowchart. You can click here to go back to the book description.

Here is the table of contents for Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist. Part I is a 27 page introduction discussing the technological and business changes making Rapid Learning a required skill. It thoroughly discusses why it is no longer practical to separate learning from working.

Parts II takes you step by step through the Rapid Learning Flowchart (above), while part III discusses the finer points of web research (research is a step on the flowchart). Chapter 10 is a detailed coverage of the Universal Troubleshooting Process from the Rapid Learning point of view. 100 pages of material is devoted to elaboration of the Rapid Learning Flowchart.

Part IV is 133 pages of vital information on how to (and how not to) combine work with learning. Much of the career advice in Part IV is very different from what you see in popular press career guides. If you've been disappointed by those career guides, you may be very pleasantly surprised by the information in Part IV.

Part V is 42 pages of information for those wishing to take Rapid Learning to the next level, or to use it in tricky or unusual situations. Below, for your review, is the table of contents. You can click here to go back to the book description.

Part I: Rapid Learning And The Technologist Paycheck                1
  Chapter 1: The Secret Weapon Of Successful Technologists          2
  Chapter 2: How We Measure Our Success                             6
  Chapter 3: What's Wrong With Traditional Learning Methods?       16
  Chapter 4: Rapid Learning: Relieve The Pressure And 
                 Boost The Paycheck                                22
Part II: Using Rapid Learning                                      28
  Chapter 5: Rapid Learning Process Overview                       29
  Chapter 6: Building Your Terminology Glossary                    35
  Chapter 7: Finding And Using Terminology Sources                 40
  Chapter 8: Terminology Diagramming For Complete Understanding    48
  Chapter 9: Increments and Proofs of Concept                      56
  Chapter 10: Troubleshooting                                      63
  Chapter 11: Research                                             87
  Chapter 12: Review and Documentation                             91
  Chapter 13: Example: Linux Web App                               94
Part III: Information Mining on The Internet                      100
  Chapter 14: The Internet As An Information Source               101
  Chapter 15: Rapid Research Using The  Web                       109
  Chapter 16: Using Newsgroups, Forums And Mailing Lists          117
  Chapter 17: Copyright Issues On The Net                         127
Part IV: Rapid Learning/ Career Integration                       134
  Chapter 18: Why Career Integration Is Vital                     135
  Chapter 19: Secrets Employers Don't Want Us To Know             141
  Chapter 20: Secrets We Don't Want Employers To Know             148
  Chapter 21: The Rapid Learning/Career Integrated Process        151
  Chapter 22: Ethics                                              158
  Chapter 23: Facts Tell, Stories Sell                            162
  Chapter 24: Using Terminology To Build Career Success           168
  Chapter 25: Opening Doors With Business Ownership               176
  Chapter 26: Networking: Opportunities And Pitfalls              184
  Chapter 27: User Groups: Gold Mines In Minefields               193
  Chapter 28: Career Superchargers: Publishing And Speaking       199
  Chapter 29: Your Website: The Ultimate Portfolio                210
  Chapter 30: Open Source Software: Another Great Portfolio Piece 223
  Chapter 31: Job Searching Online                                232
  Chapter 32: Info-Trolling On The Job Search Trail               246
  Chapter 33: Overcoming Discrimination                           251
  Chapter 34: Advanced Career Techniques                          259
  Chapter 35: Your Hired!                                         265
Part V: Advanced Rapid Learning                                   268
  Chapter 36: The Rapid Learning Classroom                        269
  Chapter 37: Stealth Rapid Learning for Employees and Consultants294
  Chapter 38: Rapid Learning and Certifications                   303
  Chapter 39: Rapid Learning For Technology Managers              307

Note: These page numbers may change *slightly* in final document preparation.

The Rapid Learning Flowchart

Table of Contents