Jason's last lecture...

Jason’s all everything, gigantic and super lecture on how to teach yourself
Software.

1. begin by figuring out what you need to do. Don’t bring a tank to water balloon fight. Find the most simple and easy to use software to do what you want to do
2. But then maybe what you think you want to do, is not actually what you should be doing. To you and your mom and your girlfriend the cut off head of your dog on uncle’s body you made in MS Paint might be hilarious. But when it comes to extorting money from your boss by doctoring photos of them in the back parking lot sniffing the cremation remains of Abraham Lincoln. Well you might need something better.

3. OK….so you’ve figured out you need something more advanced. How do you learn software in just a few days.

4. First….. you should know. YOU DON’T. Good Software is designed to be deep. Meaning that you might be able to open and save something, or resize or make an audio clip. But that doesn’t mean you know how to use it.

5. Begin by playing. Make something. Anything. It will make you feel better. And then you’ll hit a brick wall. Like learning French by going to France. They will teach you how to say hello and I’m sorry, but after that they just laugh and try to trip you as you walk down the steps of some lame museum gift shop.

6. What are the common features of most software packages? Look at the buttons stupid. Well it isn’t that you are stupid….you just smell that way is all.


7. You’d better save your work damnit. And save it five thousand million billion quadrillion times. The law of averages suggests that eventually you will do something right…so saving all the time with various file names means you will save the right version……eventually.

8. Try the help file. I know…this seems obvious….but you don’t do it. I have no idea why, but you don’t. lame lame you.

9. Ok so the help section sucks…..yes we know.

10. Search it damnit….but then how do you do a good search? Try specific and general. Let’s try it now.

11. Join forums and ask the damn question. People out there will eventually answer. Cause you know. People are ego maniacs.

12. Don’t fear the tutorial books and the video tutorials. Once you learn the task you needed to learn. Try these as well. Feel free to skip ahead and jump around!

13. You don’t always have to take a course!!! Cause they are just going to do the above anyway.

14. And remember, as soon as you learn that software, either a new package will come along or a new version will replace it.

15. It is all about content damnit.