I want to accumulate experience faster :)

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'''Traditional experience accumulation'''
	*Do stuff.  Read stuff.  Let your subconcious figure out what works and what doesn't.
'''Ways to enhance traditional experience accumulation'''
	*Keep a journal
	*List of rules ??
'''Ways to share personal experience'''
	*Tell stories
	*Write papers
	*Give presentations
	*List of rules ??
'''Ways to record industry-wide experience'''
	*Write patterns

There is a catch 22 to patterns.  Patterns record practices used by several people [but see GangOfFour below].  Within the common definition of patterns, there is no mechanism for learning new things (as an individual) and sharing what we have learned (as individuals).  It is just ''assumed'' that ''somehow'' three people have learned to do something well, and ''somehow'' we know about what these three people have learned. 

This is in no way bad.  It is not the job of patterns to do these things.

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How are individual learning and individual sharing best done?  I don't know about industry-wide :), but personally, I have been keeping a '''learning journal''' for seven years, and it works great.  After reading wiki for many years, my current belief is that '''stories''' are a good way to share personal experience.

A few years ago, I started keeping '''lists of rules''' in my learning journal.  This helped.  And I like books that contain a successful person's list of rules (for example DebuggingTheDevelopmentProcess).

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The GangOfFour set for themselves the rule that they would have had to have seen a pattern applied at least three times before they would include it in their book.  This helped them keep the book from exploding. Unfortunately, the criteria has entered the folk lore of the patterns community to the detriment of that community's own exploratory edge. 

This site rejects the rule of three. Specifically, any reflective individual with first hand experience is welcome to describe the solutions they have found on these pages whether they know of other instances or not. We're here to find, or possibly create, the corroborating evidence. Write on. -- WardCunningham

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See WhatRecursEverySoftwareProject WhatWeDidStory SuccessStory LittleRulesAndPatterns SharingOfWork
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CategorySuccess