Been writing a short "what I learned this week" note for four months, entirely for myself

Not a blog, nothing public, no audience. Just a file where every Friday I write a few paragraphs about whatever confused me that week and what it turned out to be.

Two things I didn't see coming.

First, writing it down forces you to find out whether you actually understand something. I'd start typing an explanation of why our caching layer did a particular thing and realise two sentences in that I had no idea, I'd just been pattern matching off the code around it. So then I'd have to go look.

Second, it turned into interview material by accident. When someone asks "tell me about something you've learned recently" I now have four months of specific answers instead of a panicked "uh, React?"

Twenty minutes a week. I started it because I felt like I was learning nothing and I wanted proof either way.