We make technology-based business decisions every day. We do it when we choose to download and use an app. We do it at our jobs, our meetings, our presentations. Depending on who you are and what you do, the degree of how much you will need to understand technology will vary. The following tips should be useful for building a better understanding of technology:

Gather the basics

This may be different for different people, but you have to start somewhere. Figure out what you need to know in order to stay relevant in your focus. You can start with a word or phrase, but often this means researching related or base concepts that you will need in order to get a full picture. Some base concepts include APIs, Cloud Computing, Mobile app development. Wikipedia has turned into an amazing resource for learning more about these.

For software engineers, it's more along the lines of data structures, programming languages, algorithms, computer organization, and environmental testing. Try searching GitHub, medium, lecture notes or videos from universities to get a head start on this.

Navigate the tech lingo, aka the 'slang'

Yes, we all have to do it: Get on a device to look up a term that gets thrown across the room in a tech conversation. It's impossible to avoid this. Every day, there's a new framework, language, utility, device... the list goes on and on.

Deciphering tech lingo can be a mission, it can be overwhelming, discouraging and downright difficult sometimes. Know that no one is more or less intelligent because of a term. Be able to distinguish buzzwords from relevant terms. (More on this soon) and do try to fill in tech knowledge gaps using what you discover during your Google searches.

Be aware of your tools

Every business needs innovation to keep afloat.

If you have a tech-based idea make sure that you are leveraging the best tools whenever you can. Here are a couple of examples:

Say you want to measure your business' success through analytics and KPIs. Business Intelligence tools like Tableau or Microsoft's Power BI streamline the process.

Say Devops has got you down. You have different testing and development environments or you're finding your DevOps team has a lot to do in the way of setting up infrastructure. Containerization or automation may be able to help. Check out Kubernetes and RedHat services.

Mobile app development, maybe you're experimenting, fully developing, or just watching someone else working. Statistically, most software engineers will develop code for a web or mobile application. It is not surprising then, that there are many applications, frameworks, and bootstraps to boost the development time of your product. Check out React-Native, Xcode (for mac) and Android Studio for Android.

For more help on finding useful tools for your business, understand your business' place within the tech sphere.

What specific technologies does your business need to leverage? (Is it AI, cybersecurity, electronics?)

And where does your business lie within the technology space? There are three tiers to this in my opinion:

1. Your business is tech: meaning you develop software or tech as a product, 2. Your business uses tech and 3. Your business is supporting tech: Meaning you offer services that support tech businesses category 1 (think of Amazon's AWS platform or even foundries).

Attending conferences, talks, and workshops are a great way to discover and learn more about emerging technologies as well as for keeping a competitive eye on a specific industry or field.

Seven Segment Display exercise on an FPGA.

Thanks for reading my post. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments.

Later in 2018, I will be graduating with a computer engineering degree and joining the tech community in contributing knowledge and useful software utilities to various parts of the world. I think today it's hard to get around not knowing the applications and uses of technology.

If you are interested in learning more tech concepts and lingo check out the links below:

For software engineers: https://github.com/cassidoo/getting-a-gig#your-skills

Easy to understand technical videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/daveXbang

Various UMD and Georgia Tech videos on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/

Blog

Jul 22, 2022

In a room where I'm often the "only one"

Jul 22, 2022

Jul 18, 2020

You Are Enough

Jul 18, 2020

May 31, 2020

Writing Tips for the Writer in All of Us

May 31, 2020

Apr 17, 2020

The Value in What Only You Can Do

Apr 17, 2020

Jan 12, 2020

Behind the Scenes: Public speaking at Tech Conferences

Jan 12, 2020

This breakdown or agenda has to speak to you, else you may find yourself trying to compensate by introducing additional aspects to your talk when you may not have the room or relevance to do so.

Jan 12, 2020

Dec 31, 2019

Creating a Voice

Dec 31, 2019

From all the moments I can recall growing up, it was never easy wanting to pursue or practice art. I can recount feeling so much hatred towards my projects and then myself— no matter the medium I decided to pursue. I’d share my art to the world, look at my post later, feel shame and delete the project. . It was hard for me to face that disappointment. I’d avoid it by not creating anything.

Dec 31, 2019

Demystifying technical consultancy

Dec 31, 2019

Before I started as a consultant at Red Hat I knew little beyond the title of the role what I would be doing on a day to day basis. People ask "... tech consultant? What is that?" And I've seen it described as a career path that is "less traditional" for those going to work in the software industry. Today I thought I'd dispel some of the mystery around the role of a software consultant and talk about key goals, roles, and terminology related to successful technical consulting.

Dec 31, 2019