Planting seeds for a culture of learning - starting DevBookClub

Original post on Medium brought here for posterity. I’ve since moved to another company, and the DevBookClub started grew into a Louisville meetup - Dev Book Club by a fellow organizer.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest your reap but by the seeds that you plant.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

The idea that created a hunger to explore #

I have always been plagued with a curious mind, but it wasn’t until some time ago that I developed an interest in trying to share in that curiosity with others. I attribute that to the perspective gained by mentoring for an organization teaching others involving my given craft (CodeLouisville).

What started with a giddy Facebook post by a nerd about some books led into sidebar discussions among peers revealing an opportunity. An opportunity to create a community around learning with others. Quite the contrast from what many of us were accustomed to; learning in silos as individuals.

Taking inventory for the voyage #

The initial chatter with my peers showed a variable amount of interest in certain areas, but we all seemed to agree on one thing; start simple.

• Start Simple
• Keep a history
• Set a cadence and a point of centralized updates
• Direct the group toward the end destination

Mind you; these conversations spanned only a day online, it was the next day that I put our infrastructure into place and we were dipping our toes into the water to check the temperature. I was scared of losing fleeting interest in the adventure, so acting quick was a must.

Pausing story time here for now #

After churning on this post for an hour, I need to get back to the grind on some code for other projects. However, I fully intend to continue. Sheesh, starting this I was all “This is going to be dreadful” however this has been quite an enjoyable outlet thus far. More to come!