Shiny Objects.

Lately, I've been in the mood to learn about some new technologies. For the past few months, year I've been fairly head down in the J2EE world learning/using J2EE technologies like EJBs, JMS, Spring, etc... Now I'd like to use some time to branch out and look at some none J2EE technologies.

I find that it's important spend some time outside of your comfort zone every once in a while. Like all technologies the J2EE world expects you to modify your thinking to fit within a certain framework. The more time you spend working within that framework the harder it becomes to think in a different way. One way to keep your mind nimble is to, every once in a while, try something new.

However, learning a new technology with out the pressure of deadlines or the structure of a project to work within is an incredibly frustrating process. When you are learning a technology in order to accomplish a goal, it's very easy to stay focused. You figure out very quickly what's important and what isn't. When your goal is to learn a technology it's very hard to stay focused. To keep from being distracted by every shiny object that you wander across.

Some people blithely suggest, why don't you simply formulate a project and use that project as a learning tool. Formulating a project is difficult. You have to find something that is simultaneously interesting, unimportant, and straight forward. These attributes seem to me to be inherently contradictory.

So the question arises, what is the best way to learn a technology?