Issue 48 - The Most of Important Skill Of Our Time Is "Learning How to Learn"
How Neural Networks Work. Who is Hiring. Ten Rules for Negotiating Job Offers. AI Agents for Test Automation. Sketch Design Language in Flutter. iOS feature for Motion Sickness and much more.
There are two types of learning:
Just-in-case learning which is what we do in school. Learning all subjects in case we might use them in future, such as biology, history, social studies, and mathematics.
Just-in-time learning is what we learn as we need it, typically what we do in our jobs. Once we specialize, whether as software engineers, doctors, or in any specific field, we start learning things as we go.
Earlier, just-in-case learning was the only option. However, in the AI and Internet era, just-in-time learning has become increasingly important. However to effectively learn just-in-time learning, we must first have our fundamentals clear.
Let me give an example from a consulting project I am working on.
My major experience comes from mobile app development. A few months ago, I got an opportunity to work on a full-fledged application with an Angular and Python that allows users to query using AI by speaking to it.
I didn’t know Python beyond basic scripting, nor did I have the backend knowledge for building an application with real-time transcription and AI chat features.
I used just-in-time learning to learn many concepts while working on the project:
Building APIs
Working with WebSockets
Integrating third-party APIs into our system
Implementing logging
Understanding Docker for releases
The reason I was able to pull this off was the strong fundamentals I built through just-in-case learning, and on top of it, just-in-time learning to speed up the process.
Because I have a developed good software fundamentals from 11 years of experience, I knew how to structure classes and write functions.
With AI, I describe what I need in a prompt, review the plan, start implementing, and make manual tweaks where necessary or when things go off the rails.
I’ve seen many engineers stuck in a loop when just-in-time learning is required. They feel they don’t have enough experience, new frameworks slow them down, unfamiliar with dev environments and so on.
However, in our AI-powered, information-rich era, we need to develop just-in-time learning skills. Just-in-case learning is valuable when starting out, but as we advance, we need to master learning how to learn.
What is the latest skill you have learned from Just-in-Time learning? Hit the Comment below.
Flutter with AI Workshop
AI won’t replace you. But a person who knows how to use AI will. If you are a Flutter developer and want to leverage AI in your day-to-day workflow, I am planning to run a workshop.
Checkout more details on flutterwithai.com
💼 Jobs to Apply:
1. Staff Software Engineer, Flutter at GoodLeap
We are seeking a highly skilled Staff Software Engineer (Flutter). As a Staff Engineer, you will play a critical role in the technical leadership and growth of our mobile team. On the GoodLeap Pros team, you’ll work closely product managers, designers, and other engineers, to build an entirely new CRM platform for our clients in the trades.
Salary Range: $173K – $200K • Offers Bonus
✍🏻 Articles to read:
1. Why are Neural Networks architected that way in the first place? by Arnav Gupta
A simple OCR system which uses multi layers probability algorithm to find a number is used an analogy for understanding how neural networks work by using weights.
2. Sacrificing the Present for An Anticipated Memory by Scantron
“The ‘Instagram Generation’ now experiences the present as an anticipated memory.”
3. AI Horseless Carriages by Pete Koomen
Spend a few minutes thinking about how YOU write email. Try writing a “You System Prompt” and see what happens. If the output doesn’t look right, try to imagine what you left out of your explanation and try it again. Repeat that a few times until the output starts to feel right to you.
Whenever a new technology is invented, the first tools built with it inevitably fail because they mimic the old way of doing things. “Horseless carriage” refers to the early motor car designs that borrowed heavily from the horse-drawn carriages that preceded them. Here’s an example of an 1803 Steam Carriage design I found on Wikipedia:
4. Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer by Haseeb Qureshi
Employment is just striking a mutual deal in the labor market.
Negotiating is a natural and expected part of the process of trying to make a deal. It’s also a signal of competence and seriousness.
Imagine you were negotiating with someone over buying your watermelons, but the negotiation took so long that by the time you’d reached an agreement, your watermelons had gone bad.
Needing more than three days to make a life decision isn’t a sign of anything other than thoughtfulness.
📺 Videos to Watch:
1. AI Agent for Test Automation - KaneAI | Generative AI Testing Tool
This is a new testing tool that I found easy to use for describing tests and creating steps for running tests on mobile devices. The main advantage of this tool is that it automatically adapts to changes made, checking if they are bugs or intentional design changes, and adjusting the steps accordingly to ensure successful testing.
2. My 17 Minute AI Workflow To Stand Out At Work
Notebook LLM is great for research by asking questions to on uploaded research papers all at once.
📦 Code from Packages
1. Native Video Player
A Flutter widget to play videos on iOS, macOS and Android using a native implementation.
Perfect for building video-centric apps like TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts, as well as general video playback needs.
2. Gesture Recorder
gesture_recorder enables you to “record” all the gesture event happening during recording.
The recorded data can be replayed, which means you can duplicate exactly the same behavior again and again.
3. Sketchy Design Lang
Sketchy is a hand-drawn, xkcd-inspired design language for Flutter on mobile, desktop, and web. It’s powered by the wired_elements code, the flutter_rough package and the Comic Shanns font.
Sketchy is a complete design language: a theming system, widget catalog, and example gallery that avoids Material/Cupertino entirely. Every control is drawn with rough_flutter, seeded primitives prevent flicker, and the palette mirrors the Sketchy Mode color brief.
📚 Quotes From Books
1. 102 Lessons from the 102 Books I Read This Year by Scott Young
Chunk your helping. People who volunteer in bigger chunks (say one day per week) get more benefits than those who do so every day, perhaps because it makes the act more salient.
🔖Post I Found Useful
1. Ask HN- How Are Parents Who Program Teaching Their Kids Today?
2. Being Famous in not Building Public Brand
3. The Most Underrated iOS 18 Feature For Motion Sickness
😂 Fun and Memes
1. AI World Clocks
2. kavishdevar/librepods- AirPods liberated from Apple’s ecosystem.
👋🏻 That’s it, Folks
I am currently open for consultation part-time/full-time, specialized in mobile development with Android and Flutter. So if you are looking for someone to:
Build product architecture from scratch
Train existing developers to level up
Fix major bottlenecks in legacy codebase
Improve code quality
And most importantly, ship things faster
then reach out to me at info@burhanrashid52.com.