There's Three Ways To Know Anything

Okay, so i've decided there are three ways to know anything. Maybe there's more ways. So, there are at least three ways to know anything. Everything.

Say you want to write really good .Net code: code that fulfills all your needs, does cool stuff, and works reliably. There's three ways.

First, you can read up on the .Net framework, by reading books, by reading other people's code, by reading every article and blog entry you can find -- by reflecting into the IL and reading all of that code too. This is the first way to know everything: learn it all in advance, Just In Case.

Second, you can shun all the books, ignore everyone else's code, concentrate on the language itself, and never use the framework -- always write your own code to achieve whatever needs to be done, from the most basic of first principles. This is the second way to know everything: trust noone, build on first principles, Just Because.

Third, you can run with the fragments of knowledge you've picked up so far, and dive into real world problems. When you hit a barrier -- search for the answer to that specific problem, solve it and move on. Intellisense, Google and Google groups are your friend. This is the third way to know everything: Just In Time.

What do you know? And how?

(p.s. after writing this, i googled for "Just In Case" learning and found that Kathy Sierra covered these ideas much better than me, years and year ago, from a teaching perspective.)

My book "Choose Your First Product" is available now.

It gives you 4 easy steps to find and validate a humble product idea.

Learn more.