This is a nice post. Read the whole thing.
The competing vs running was an excellent dichotomy. If you do not learn something before hand you will be hardpressed to say where you are going to use it. You use it because you know it. You can think of where you can make use of it because you already understand it. I can still remember a lot of the ugly code I’ve written because I didn’t know of some technique or some abstraction. I can still remember how it feels to code around a problem because your current toolset doesn’t have the necessary tools to help you solve the problem. In academe there is this saying “Publish or Perish”, in the world we call corporate at least for programmers there is nothing equal so I propose “Learn or Burn”. The basic structure of how my profession is organized allows the companies to have the upper hand. They don’t give you enough time to study, this allows them to devalue your skills as time goes by. Don’t let the companies have the upper hand. “Learn or Burn”
What do you learn just in case you’ll need it in the future, and what do you learn just in time when you do need it?
In general, you learn things in school just in case you’ll need them later. Then once you get a job, you learn more things just in time when you need them.
When you learn just in time, you’re highly motivated. There’s no need to imagine whether you might apply what you’re learning since the application came first. But you can’t learn everything just in time. You have to learn some things before you can imagine using them. You need to have certain patterns in your head before you can recognize them in the wild.
Years ago someone told me that he never learned algebra and has never had a need for it. But I’ve learned algebra and use it constantly. It’s a lucky thing I was the one who learned algebra since I ended up needing it. But of course it’s not lucky. I would not have had any use for it either if I’d not learned it.
via Learning “Just in Case” versus “Just in Time” – Preparation – Lifehacker.