Why Universities work and Self-Study doesn’t

Vincent van Wylick — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:23:34 +0000

Just briefly, as the only reason I’m standing is due to the fumes of caffeine, rather than a good night’s sleep.

I just finished going through the Lesson’s Learned blog post on “The Principles of Product Development Flow,” which I think is an excellent review of a book that I does not seem to be on public release yet for us Europeans. Well, you could order it from Amazon.com.

I’m fascinated with things like lean manufacturing, total quality management, agile development, etc. Basically, product development, which Eric enticed me with, as it’s the crucial link between invention and commercialisation (aka the definition of innovation).

That said, product development is something that you best learn in university and not (just) from a book. Several reasons:

anyone can say that they read a book
there are no tests at the end of books, no accreditation for you.
it’s a singular view at a problem, while in a course you (hopefully) get presented with multiple views
you equally don’t have your peers or teachers to discuss problems and solutions with.
And, the most important reasons of all, a good university provides a link between theory and application, by providing you with opportunities for doing internships and/or jobs.

None of this is sadly provided by books and is why I feel that reading a book on product development and management will only help someone actively engaged in this activity and/or doing a study in this field.

That said, I think that those are all areas where bloggers, authors, companies, and educational institutes can do a lot about improving the system of learning and particularly the link between learning and application.

Just my point of view, I’d love to hear yours.
Vincent
(Picture courtesy of sinesoflearning.blogspot.com)

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The key to (my) prolific writing

Vincent van Wylick — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:19:26 +0000

Visitors to Tech IT Easy may have noticed a slight increase in posting-rhythm last week—I averaged at about 2 articles a day. They say that the simplest reason is often the most straightforward one—I was on a brief relaxing holiday—but that wasn’t actually the core-reason why I wrote more.

Last week, I managed to read two books, one of which I blogged about and another of which, a draft is awaiting some QC before being posted. I remember this effect when I was a youngster, reading always made me feel like writing something. Countless were the fantasy-stories I started, but never finished, back when I was reading Tolkien et al.

Luckily blogposts are shorter… during my one year stint on foodandretail.blogspot.com, where I blogged daily, I was on a constant regime of reading related articles and books at night and blogging about them soon after.

There you have it: reading more makes you a more prolific writer. I also say this now that a study revealed that reading less and watching more TV makes you unhappy—or is it that unhappy people watch more TV, I can never figure out the chicken or the egg…

So what are you waiting for, go pick up a book and make some time to read it!

Vincent

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Why Universities work and Self-Study doesn’t

The key to (my) prolific writing