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What non-coding skills do you want to learn next?

Stephanie Morillo on March 17, 2020

In addition to coding-related things you're working on, what are some non-coding skills/fields you want to learn about next? These can be coding-ad...
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Dan C.

Writing skills. Technical writing for software documentation (user manual, testing manual, design manual, etc) and content writing for blogging and articles. I don't have any resources. Your post is probably what I needed to start looking for some.

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Stephanie Morillo

Hey Dan! Can I offer some suggestions?

Hope this helps! :)

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Dan C.

Hi Stephanie!

Great Stuff. These sources look great. Thanks a million 🙌🏼

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Samuel Huang

Awesome resources!

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Bhavesh Salunke

Thanks for the content. Don't we have any free online course in substitute to the san diego extension

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Stephanie Morillo

I have not come across any free online courses that are similar in scope, unfortunately.

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German Reynaga Araiza • Edited

I'm not pretty sure if this is valid for your question but I'm learing data análisis and it is meaning to learn some maths and statistics that I've already forgotten. I'm using khan academy for the maths and Udemy tutorial for the data science concepts and methods

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Stephanie Morillo

It’s definitely valid! I was on a data analysis learning kick a few months ago; mostly SQL and Excel, but also some statistics. I work on a team that relies heavily on business intelligence (though not my role). What are you hoping to use these skills for?

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German Reynaga Araiza

I hope to apply them in my job, and try to create a department focused on the data analysis, also I want to use it in some of my personal projects, maybe trying to offer a solution as a consulting using data analysis. :D

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Rémi Lavedrine • Edited

I would love to be more skilled in Teaching technical things. 🧑🏼‍🏫
I am gonna start with Streaming short explanations about technical concept around Security.
As showed in the Lewis' Pyramid,
Lewis Pyramid of Learning

when you are teaching something to someone else, you are actually doing a lot of good to yourself as well.

It can look a little selfish, but it helps both sides actually. 🤝
I started recently a Twitch channel to do that and hope to push more contents in the future.

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Stephanie Morillo

I agree with this so much! There's nothing selfish about teaching others in order to learn better; it's mutually beneficial. :)

If you're interested, General Assembly made their course "How to Teach Online" available for free. This might be a helpful resource. Best of luck with your Twitch channel!

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Rémi Lavedrine

Thanks for the link.
I'll definitely have a look at it.

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Ali Sherief

That is a very useful infographic, thank you very much!

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Omar Gaston Chalas

Right now, I'm pretty focused on enhancing my communication skills in English. I've been underestimating for a long and now, at this point in my career, have the ability to express good and clear insights is a MUST.

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Stephanie Morillo

That's great! Are you using any resources to help you? By communication skills, do you mean in general (reading, writing, speaking) or are you focusing on one at a time?

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Omar Gaston Chalas

Currently, I trying to get better in each one, but specifically in speaking. The method that I'm using is turning my whole environment in English, any content I consume or any device I use must be in English. Also, I have a conversation group with my coworkers. Have you any recommendations? I'd appreciate any suggestions. :D

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Stephanie Morillo

I don't know if this is true in all Slack communities, but some Slack communities pair people up for coffee chats and stuff—that may be an option. :) I've also heard Duolingo is a good place to get the opportunity to practice but I haven't experienced this myself. Something that would work would be recording short videos/screencasts/podcasts, or starting a Twitch channel and going live coding or gaming and talking to people that way!

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Jonathan Yeong

In terms of coding adjacent, I want to get better at writing and communicating in general. In terms of resources, I thought Radical Candor by Kim Scott was a great book on communicating. And for writing I read On Writing Well by William Zissner. But I feel like both of these things take a lot of practice, it's almost like coding except I can't run test cases to make sure my writing is up to par :D.

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Stephanie Morillo

Oh definitely. Writing and communication does take a lot of practice, but it helps knowing that even the best writers and communicators still have a lot to improve upon. I've been a writer most of my career and seeing some of my writing from 10 years ago makes me realize how far I've come!

Are you using any resources to help? What's the main challenge you're facing: is it the time needed to improve your writing or something else?

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Jonathan Yeong

I'm not using any resources currently. Do you have any suggestions? The biggest challenge I face is getting something out of draft into a published post. I feel like I lose steam. Either I think it's not worth writing about or I edit it for so long I give up on it.

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Stephanie Morillo

Well, I did write a book that helps developers do just that. It's called The Developer's Guide to Content Creation. :) No pressure, but if you want to learn more you can click the link here. And as a bonus, I'll send you an invite to an upcoming virtual content AMA I'm hosting in 10 days.

Otherwise, I do link out to some resources throughout the discussion thread, but nothing about the specific problem you have here. If you purchase the book and have questions as you read it, you can always reach out to me on Twitter. :)

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Facundo Corradini

??? how can being an extrovert make communication harder?

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Andi

I would say that I am really curious about HR as not only it would put at an advantage in the job market knowing the "tricks" but also would help me to better deal with various intrapersonal situation when dealing with my collegues

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Stephanie Morillo

Ooo this is a good one! You’re totally right; understanding HR in terms of career growth is extremely valuable. What resources have you found that are useful to you?

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Ridae HAMDANI

I really want to improve my French and English languages, also I want to work on communication skills, I want to go out of my career zone, I want to learn/do something that keeps my mind buzzy and gives my some peaaaace - but I do not know what it is this thing yet - I am open for any suggestions !!!
thanks @radiomorillo

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Stephanie Morillo

What do you mean by "go out of my career zone"? What kinds of things are you interested in?

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Ridae HAMDANI

I mean doing something not related to IT domain. My real problem is I am not interested in anything. Can you suggest me something to do ?

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Stephanie Morillo

A lot of folks in the discussion thread seem to be interested in writing, design, and data analytics. Maybe look through the discussion thread for some inspiration! :)

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Jozo

Not sure if it's related to your questrion but lately I've started getting into music production and it's just so fun :)

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Stephanie Morillo

This is absolutely relevant to my question. :) What software are you using? I admire folks who are into music production; some of these DAWs require a lot of work and patience to learn! :D

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Jozo

I'm using FL studio, it's much more customizable than ableton and that's important to me, and yeah they do require a lot of work and patience but so does programming, and I see a lot of similarities in studying programming or studying music production. So you know it's all about that mindset. :)

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Patrick Charles-Lundaahl

I've used Ableton for over a decade, but I've always been a little jealous of the cool stuff you can do in FL! The Patcher, Harmor, and that FM synth (Sytrus, I think?) are all just completely wild! Maximus is outstanding, too!

Also, +1 for the similarities between programming and music production.

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Jozo

Yes it's pretty amazing piece of software even though I'm still learning every bit and piece of it.

I hope one day I can be a music producer with programming job on a side. :)

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Ian Peterson

It's related to code but I'm currently refreshing and reinforcing my math knowledge and plan to soon dabble in statistics as I want to eventually pivot into a career in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

I also want to eventually deepen my scientific knowledge in areas like physics and get into investing eventually too. I also have an interest in entrepreneurship and want to get into that one day. Lots of future goals I have but most of them are locked up due to my job search. :(

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German Bobadilla

In addition to coding? Three essential skills:

  1. Start and finish what you started skill
  2. Sit down for hours in front of the computer, problem solving without stress skill
  3. Have fun while doing the first two skill
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Mohamed Hassan

I believe i want to get good at reading and writing :)

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Stephanie Morillo

That’s awesome! What kind of writing are you interested in?

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Mohamed Hassan

My writing in general. I really suck, but specifically content writing

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Stephanie Morillo
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Mohamed Hassan

Oh, Thanks stephaine !!

I aleardy red the second post and it was awesome. And i will read the rest i will follow you :)

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Corey McCarty

Will you be bringing these posts to this site?

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Darival

I really need/want to learn how to cook.

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Akhil T J

🙌🏼😌

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Stephanie Morillo

Have you found any cookbooks, blogs that are of help?

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fikuri

i really really want to learn CGI and video editing

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Stephanie Morillo

That's pretty awesome! Have you found resources/programs you'd like to use to learn both of these?

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/*Sharkie*/

One I've been meaning to learn is Digital Markering, which I technically do as part of my day job, so... probably good to have an actual, professional teaching in it. :P

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Stephanie Morillo

Ooo very cool! What about digital marketing specifically? And how does it currently fold into your day job?

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/*Sharkie*/

I'd love to get an actual feel for social media analytics and how to actually, you know, do well on social media that's not just my personal.

I'm both building an eCom site (ahh scary) and running all forms of digital ads and platforms for the hardware store I work in. I like to think I do it well, but in all honesty I'm just going with what I think feels right.

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Stephanie Morillo

Gotcha! Have you taken a look at HubSpot's blog for social media tips? They're a really well known marketing automation platform and they publish a LOT of free content around all things marketing. I found them really helpful early on in my career and they're a great place to start. :)

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Christoffer Wallenberg

I’m currently trying to learn more about learning design and how to design interesting coding exercises for my students.

Also trying to improve my writing skills!

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Stephanie Morillo

Awesome! Do you mean graphic/visual design? Any projects you're working on to help you with your design skills? (And ditto for writing!)

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Christoffer Wallenberg

Mostly UX (smartsparrow.com/what-is-learning-...) but some visual design in regards to how you read text. Currently not working on any specific side project more dabbling around you could say :)

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Stephanie Morillo

Got it! I'm sure you're looking at a bunch of resources but in case this helps, I put together a list of free (and some $) UX design resources for folks who want to learn more about the field and its subdisciplines: github.com/rubymorillo/pocket-ux-list :)

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Dana Ottaviani

I'm working on improving UIs for my projects by creating mock-ups in Krita. I usually just draw them out, but I thought a more substantial source for my project ideas would make it easier to go from designs to code.

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Stephanie Morillo

Nice! I haven't used Krita before; will check it out. :)

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kiranjd

I have always been in interested in writing. My interest peaked when I started reading ton of stuff everyday and I'm loving it!
Recently wrote an article on Medium, my second. I don't have much expectation on it. The goal is to get legible feedback on where I am and how to proceed.
Here is the link if you want to the article to help out a fellow dev. Thanks.

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Ami Scott (they/them)

Communication and talking through my thoughts. Time management and prioritizing tasks better. Improving focus.

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Fardeen Khan

I want to bea graphics designer, make beautiful illustrarions and animations, edit videos..

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Stephanie Morillo

That's great! Have you found any good resources for learning graphic design?

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Fardeen Khan

Well I have access to Linkedin Learning. That has a ton if courses on each aspect if creative design

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Stephanie Morillo

That's good to know!

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Akhil T J

I would like to accure good communication skills, little graphical designing and also some sort of data analytic technologies, like Matlab etc.

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Stephanie Morillo

That's awesome! Have you come across any helpful resources?

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Jayesh Tembhekar ⚡

Definitely public speaking
😳

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Madza

ironically its the foundation to top-class products :)

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Johnson oscar

I want to learn to write and combine an ebook

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Stephanie Morillo

That's so funny—I'm writing my next eBook about that! bit.ly/DGTBP

What do you want to write an eBook about?

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Johnson oscar

How I started doing freelancing gigs and digital marketing

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Stephanie Morillo

Awesome—best of luck!

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Petr Janik

Russian language.

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Nguyễn Trọng Vĩnh

Language: Chinese / Japanese / Korean
Tech related: Data Analytic

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Stephanie Morillo

Very cool! What specifically about data analytics do you want to learn?

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Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Edited

I want to learn how to be news-aware and can take advantage of the real world role.

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Tanmay Naik • Edited

Blogging, I'm really bad at being consistent at that.

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Stephanie Morillo

What's the most difficult part about blogging consistently for you?

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Tanmay Naik

Topics, mostly. And sometimes I end up picking topics and run out of steam midway, and then the articles stay abandoned indefinitely

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Stephanie Morillo

Gotcha! Can I offer a recommendation? I wrote a blog post called 4 sources of endless content ideas which may be of help! :)

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Patrick Charles-Lundaahl

I'd like to learn how to finish pieces of music. I'm pretty competent and engineering, but the writing process has always been a struggle for me.

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Samuel Huang

Problem solving! I think that's not entirely coding related but it will help tremendously with coding

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Taufik R. Firdaus • Edited

Currently I'm studying public speaking and accounting, why public speaking? Because I really suck whenever I try to explain some non technical things. As for accounting I just want to.

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Stephanie Morillo

Yes to public speaking! That's something I can improve on, too. I'd be curious to see if there are online resources for this; if you know any, please share!

As for accounting: I see that as a plus. :)

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Labs64 NetLicensing

PLG - Product Led Growth

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Precious adeyinka

Video Editing Skills with Premiere Pro - I have a few beginners course registered to start with, I highly recommend Udemy, as there are still some great free courses from amazing authors too.

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Ivan Paulin

Do you have any resources on this topic?

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Ali Sherief

Working on learning how to design webpages and UIs, especially with CSS and derivatives, but I'm not sure whether CSS falls in the domain of coding or designing.

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José María

That's so goog. Work with people it's the best. I lik count up and speach

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José María

I nod to copy an script deribates on hash by run java script code. I think the chrome don make hash type.

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Ngan B. Nguyen

I want to learn to take notes efficiently since I have a goldfish brain.
I have found a cool platform notion.so, trying to utilize it.

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Stephanie Morillo

I'm a Notion fan, but not as consistent as I should be with using it!

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rikongha

communication and teaching skills.

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Ammar Ahmed

Better project management i guess.

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Stephanie Morillo

Ahh yes—always a good one. :) Any helpful resources? There are lots of Agile project management books and courses on the market—I'm open to recommendations!