仅因为您是自学成才，并不意味着您必须独自学习。 (Just because you’re self-taught doesn’t mean you have to learn alone.)

I am a self-taught designer with no formal training. No art school, no private courses, not even MOOCs. Nada. But not everything I know about design today I owe to myself. To the contrary—collaborating and learning from others has been key to my progress.

我是一名自学成才的设计师，没有接受过正式培训。没有艺术学校，没有私立课程，甚至没有MOOC。娜达但是并不是我今天对设计所了解的一切都归功于我自己。相反，与他人合作和学习是我进步的关键。

离开建筑物 (Get out of the building)

When I first started out, I went to all sorts of industry events, conferences, and seminars. In the beginning, I just wanted to hang out and get free pizza. Not necessarily learn anything.

刚开始时，我参加了各种行业活动，会议和研讨会。一开始，我只是想出去玩并免费获得披萨。不一定学任何东西。

As I made the rounds to different events, though, I began bumping into more experienced designers. They told me about structural grids, vertical rhythm and negative space — concepts I hadn’t even heard of. They showed me D3.js, Sketch and The Noun Project — tools I had no idea even existed.

但是，当我巡回参加不同的活动时，我开始碰见更有经验的设计师。他们告诉了我有关结构网格，垂直节奏和负空间的概念-我什至没有听说过。他们向我展示了D3.js ， Sketch和The Noun Project —我什至不知道的工具。

That’s also how I stumbled upon hackathons: open-plan workspaces packed with smart people, coffee, and… more pizza! I loved it. That setup was perfect for getting quality, real-time feedback. Whatever I designed, I could get feedback on the spot from experienced designers to find out whether it was any good.

这也是我偶然发现黑客马拉松的方式：开放式工作区，挤满了聪明的人，咖啡和……更多披萨！我爱它。该设置非常适合获得高质量的实时反馈。无论我设计了什么，我都可以从经验丰富的设计师那里得到现场反馈，以了解它是否有好处。

Most importantly, though, I made friends. We talked, we collaborated, we brainstormed—long past the events where we met. Crucially, we gave each other moral support. It helped us all overcome the moments of self-doubt that inevitably crept in. And there were many.

不过，最重要的是，我交了朋友。我们进行了交谈，我们进行了合作，我们集思广益-远远超过了我们遇到的事件。至关重要的是，我们互相给予了道义上的支持。它帮助我们所有人克服了不可避免地潜入的自我怀疑的时刻。还有很多。

学习旅行 (Travel to learn)

About a year in, I decided to make my first trip to Silicon Valley. I was running out of cash, and starting to doubt whether my transatlantic voyage had been a good idea. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have worried — in the next month, I ended up learning more than I’d learned in the previous year.

大约一年后，我决定第一次去硅谷。我现金不多了，开始怀疑我的跨大西洋航行是否是一个好主意。事实证明，我不必担心-在下个月，我学到的东西比上一年学到的要多。

It wasn’t just the quality of events that made a difference. Maybe it was because I didn’t know anyone, but I really went that extra mile to say hello to strangers.

改变事件的不仅仅是事件的质量。也许是因为我不认识任何人，但我确实付出了更多努力与陌生人打招呼。

After that initial experience, I resolved to keep traveling. Wherever I went — from London to Bangkok — I joined co-working spaces and signed up for events. Predictably, not all cities offered as much expertise as Silicon Valley. But I learnt something new everywhere.

有了最初的经验，我决定继续旅行。无论我走到哪里(从伦敦到曼谷)，我都会加入联合办公空间并报名参加活动。可以预见，并非所有城市都提供像硅谷一样多的专业知识。但是我到处都学到了新东西。

Travel also gave me the first taste of working remotely. As I was Skyping with clients one thing became clear: to design well I needed to communicate even better. I learnt to ask more precise questions, get to the point faster and call out BS without missing a beat. Given the circumstances, I had no choice. But that’s not something you typically learn by reading a book.

旅行也使我第一次体验了远程工作。当我与客户进行Skyping交流时，一件事变得很清楚：要进行出色的设计，我需要更好地沟通。我学会了提出更精确的问题，更快地达到目的，并在不错过任何机会的情况下喊出BS。在这种情况下，我别无选择。但这不是您通常通过读书来学习的东西。

获得帮助，给予帮助 (Get help, give help)

Even as I was working from home, I couldn’t escape the influence of others. For example, early on, when I wasn’t able to tell if my designs would function as intended, I would borrow ideas from Dribbble or Behance.

即使我在家工作，也无法逃脱别人的影响。例如，一开始，当我无法确定我的设计是否能按预期运行时，我会借鉴一些想法来自Dribbble或Behance。

It didn’t help my designs stand out. But over time I internalized hundreds of different solutions, patterns, and other neat tricks.

它并没有帮助我的设计脱颖而出。但是随着时间的流逝，我内化了数百种不同的解决方案，模式和其他巧妙的技巧。

Eventually, I started creating original designs and sharing them as well. Soon enough, young designers and entrepreneurs started asking me to audit their work.

最终，我开始创建原始设计并共享它们。很快，年轻的设计师和企业家开始要求我审核他们的工作。

The conversations we had further organized my knowledge, and would often lead to new, unexpected ideas.

我们进行的对话进一步组织了我的知识，并且常常会导致新的出乎意料的想法。

I improved my own skills by helping others improve theirs.

我通过帮助他人提高自己的技能来提高自己的技能。

与他人一起学习 (Learn with others)

If you are considering learning a new profession or teaching yourself a new skill, try doing so with other people. The satisfaction of learning will be just as great — if not greater — and you will probably discover ideas you wouldn’t have come across otherwise.

如果您正在考虑学习新的职业或教自己一种新技能，请尝试与其他人一起做。学习的满意度将是一样大的(如果不是更大的话)，并且您可能会发现您本来不会遇到的想法。

Who knows, you might even land a gig or two.

谁知道，您甚至可能会参加一场演出。

I certainly did.

我当然做到了