Ask HN: Which one is better – Read all or on Need basis Which one is better -
a) Read all books/blogs/... about the relevant technologies related to a project and start working
b) Read books/blogs/... on need basis as you keep working on your project. Which works or doesn't work? Thanks... |
You need to have read at least _some_ of the material to even know where to start and how to find more information when you hit a problem.
On the other hand, having practical experience with the technology will help you filter out "need to know" from "obscure trivia".
The issue I frequently run into with this method is wasting time on less efficient tools and or rebuilding or starting over after gaining the knowledge I could have obtained first.
But I'm definitely in camp B as a sink or swim type personality.
A is useful in some situation, namely when you can't start or don't want to start yet. A big enough project may need a year of reading before you even start.
Generally you should read enough until you are highly motivated to do the work. And once work slows down, read some more.
Jumping in completely cold can lead to huge wastes of time because you don't know what you're doing. So read that book on a new language, follow the offical tutorial for a new framework, go over the docs etc. But make sure to time box that learning and then move on to doing some real work because otherwise you can get stuck on the learning phase forever.