Richard Feynman

Noted philosopher / physicist Richard Feynman has a now-famous method for quickly learning a topic.  It boils down to (a) pick topic (b) write everything you know (c) research to understand gaps (d) simplify.  While I’m not big on biographies, I found this graphic novel version extremely compelling.

I suspect most makers do something very similar to this, whether they realize it or not.  My own variation on this method is to create an outline of what I want to learn with each feature I want to include, do some preliminary internet research, add links to resources to the outline, read, drill down on topics, ask questions, LRR.1

• Goals
  • Keyboard
    • Media knob, media buttons, with a layer shift (ideally, through triple click)
    • Another layer with function buttons for data entry for work
    • Sweet RGB underlights, perhaps different lights for working and for media, perhaps different lights with keypresses
• QMK Documentation
  • Keymap creation tip video
  • Keymap configurator
  • Keycodes
  • Layers
    • Switching “layers” on a QMK keyboard means you can store entirely different layouts of keys and/or key assignments in one keyboard – basically giving you the functionality of multiple keyboards in a single device
  • Combination keys
  • Macros
  • Encoders
  • Rotary Encoders
  • LED Underglow
  • VIA – I only saw a reference to this and have no idea what it is
• QMK Community
  • Discord
    • D3vastat0r, an extremely helpful member of the QMK Discord offered some sample code for the rotary encoder
    • D3vastat0r, also answered some additional questions
      • The button which switches layers must be on the keypad, not some different key or key combination from the main keyboard
    • Sample rotary encoder code by TeaKettleDally
  • Subreddit
• Flashing firmware
  • QMK Configurator (a graphical interface for mapping keycodes to keys)
  • QMK Toolbox (for uploading firmware)

Sometimes I’ll document stuff in a notebook, but when it’s something I know will take some time to learn and probably require code and other digital resources, I like to type them up in blog posts.  It feels therapeutic, getting all this stuff written down.  I think of it as closing mental browser tabs.  Also, by adding links into a post, I can actually close real browser tabs, which is a distinct side benefit.

1. Lather, rinse, repeat [↩]