More times than I care to admit, I’ve engaged projects for which I’m—for lack of a better term—under-qualified. It’s partially because I don’t like to back down from a challenge and partially because these projects force me to learn something new. Every time, somewhere in the midst of the project, I ask myself why the hell I thought this was a good idea. And every time, at the end of the project, I breathe a sigh of relief and realize I’m walking away with a new skill. I suppose I’d call this a goal-based learning approach.

I’ve done what I think is some of my best work using this approach, and it’s undoubtedly shaped my future work in those areas. I jumped at the chance to contribute to Ghost, though I had almost no experience in Node.js. Now, I’m really turned on to Node.js and thinking about how I can use it to create something new. Additionally, my Ghost theme, Vapor, is by far my most successful open-source project. I thought the first WordPress theme I wrote was going to be my entrance and exit for that vertical, because I didn’t know a damn thing about WordPress (though I did have experience in PHP). I now manage a network of over 100 sites, all running custom themes and plugins.

Every time, somewhere in the midst of the project, I ask myself why the hell I thought this was a good idea.

To date, this approach hasn’t failed me. I think the pressure of delivering a product on time and to spec forces me to focus on only the things I need to learn while discarding extraneous information. I tend to absorb things in passing, so I always pick up something extra in the process, but personally, it’s much more structured than if I just said something like, “I’m going to learn Objective-C!” I’ve tried that approach, and I’ve found that out-of-context learning is not my style. If I have a goal, an idea to realize, then I find much more success in the learning process.

As 2013 draws to a close, I look forward to 2014 and more projects and ideas that drive goal-based learning. I don’t know everything, and that’s a good thing. That’s why I learn, and it’s how I grow.