SHUHARI - THE PATH TO LEARNING ANYTHING
Ever wondered how you got to that point where you look back to how far you have come? I embarked on a journey of self-reflection into my past — years back when I started learning to program — and came to a conclusion that my journey so far could be summed up in one word — SHUHARI.
SHUHARI: is a way of thinking about learning a technique. It's coined from a Japanese form of martial arts known as AIKIDO. Every syllable conforms to a specific way one acts and behaves to acquire a specific skill or technique. Following this pattern consistently leads to one acquiring special traits that further helps to improve your skill level.
Every individual that goes through this process passes through three stages of personal development and skill acquisition.
SHU (Follow/learn) is the beginning, just as a pupa might not make sense to a child, following your master's teachings doesn't have to. The end product of such a metamorphosis can be so beautiful that your mind might not be able to comprehend how something meaningless could evolve into something chivalric.
Shu teaches us to follow, learn, and imitate our masters (in my case Learning facilitators). Getting into Andela, I embarked on a three-month simulation that made no sense at that point.
Shu leaves room for wondering, not questioning. The main purpose of SHU is to have you identify someone of superior intellect or skill and learn from their knowledge and experience.
HA (digress/detach) - At this point, I digress. HA is a complicated part of this metamorphosis. It forces the student to gain anonymity and start solving problems based on what they have learned for SHU.
HA is flexible. It allows one to gain more depth in their learning process by riding on the shoulders of other masters (StackOverflow/Mentors).
Equipped with the tools I gained from my simulation, I was battle fitted to tackle the world and its problems (via a three months apprenticeship program).
However, as a young butterfly, the world's problem were more complex than I imagined — this pushed me to acquire more knowledge based on the principles I learned from following (SHU).
Mind you, a majority of these skills were not related to programming but played an important role in my learning process. Stakeholder management, speaking to be understood, seeking and giving feedback etc, were tools I needed to acquire for proper communication and product evaluation both in my daily life and apprenticeship.
An organization which designs systems are constrained to produce designs that are exact copies of the communication structures of these organizations — Mel Conway.
This tells us how something as trivial as communication can shape the entire structure of an organization.
RI (separate/transend) Have you heard the saying "the student has now become the master?" RI is that point where you start solving problems based on your own ideas and intuition.
RI for programmers/developers could be specialization, becoming a master (mentor) and helping others, and working for a company with your acquired skills. RI produces a more mature you that is not afraid to dive into problems, fail, and find efficient solutions.
Conclusion:
The learning process of a programmer never ends. It's an endless cycle of SHUHARI. I personally feel more stupid the more I learn ... there is always something out there you haven't learned.
Just because you have gotten to the RI stage of your skill acquisition doesn't mean you have to end there. You can find someone to mentor, solve problems with that skill, or start learning something new. The programming world is in constant evolution — you get left behind if you don't keep up with current changes.
I'm currently working for InvisioApp as a Software Engineer. I mentor and get mentorship both inside and outside of Andela. I embrace this cycle because I get to learn something new at every point. In short, I'm a lifelong learner.
