Starting to see progress from learning new technologies

I have started to see some results from my experiment to broaden out my technical skills. I started 6 weeks ago to tackle all the languages on the top 10 Open Source Project Activity List. It has been quite a slog, but in the last week the quality of my conversations with other entrepreneurs who are working on projects has changed.

Inevitably if you engage with someone who is already in the middle of starting up their idea, they will have picked a technology platform. Before this push on learning, if they hadn't chosen the technology stack that I knew (Ruby on Rails), then I had a very limited amount that I could offer in terms of concrete technical execution. At that point you are put in the same bucket as everyone else that is giving them advice, "Oh great, someone else giving me suggestions that add to my work load."

Last week, I starting talking with someone who is wanting to move their application to Google App Engine. This will require knowledge of either Python or Java. Now that I know the basics of Python, I am able to jump in and start looking at what that would entail. It is a great feeling.

Progress so far:
mastery: Ruby, Rails, Javascript, Dojo, CSS, MySQL
productive: none yet
literacy: Java, Python, C, Objective C, PHP, jQuery, Google App Engine
untouched: Perl, Django, Spring

This week, I am working on the iPhone stack with Objective C and leveraging Python on Google App Engine so I can move that one into the productive column.

My basic approach is still holding. I read a book and make flash cards, then as I exercise or find free time, review the cards. I rotate through existing stacks so that they stay fresh.

We will see. I won't know if this is a productive line of effort for another 3 months when more of the technologies move into the productive or mastery column.