In this insightful podcast episode, join prominent tech education figure and software engineer/site reliability engineer Ivan Velichko as he delves into the creation of his innovative learning platform, iximiuz labs. We discuss the platform's structured learning path, emphasizing the importance of fundamentals and practical applications, the significance of hands-on experience and the limitations of random blog posts in skill mastery. Discover Ivan's unique approach to learning and the challenges he faced in developing this platform. Ivan Velichko's story to becoming a tech education content creator comes to life as he shares his wisdom and expertise. Don't miss this episode as we navigate the world of Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies learning with a dedicated tech educator and industry influencer!
find out more about Ivan - https://iximiuz.com/en/about/
X: https://twitter.com/iximiuz
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iximiuz/
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About the guest Ivan Velichko:
(04:03) - Ivan’s self introduction.
(04:41) - How Ivan got into the tech world.
(05:56) - Ivan is a workaholic, when he is doing the programming job.
(06:29) - Ivan’s first job after college, outsourcing work for major companies like Coca cola, Philips, etc.
Ivan’s educational journey as the content and the platform creator:
(07:30) - Thoughts on the appropriate approach for learning, making it a project!
(09:00) - Ivan’s journey with Kubernetes.
(10:20) - Ivan’s experience with solving five hundreds of Leetcode problems. How does it sound to you, if you’re actively on the tech market?
(12:43) - Ivan’s thoughts on knowing about underlying Kubernetes layers. What has changed? What has not compared to the past? Fundamental is a key focus.
(15:25) - How Ivan made the decision on how to pick up something to investigate and how.
(17:42) - How to turn the learning into the content: blog posts.
(19:20) - The quote “You don’t know how much you don’t know the topic until you write about it“. Fill in the gaps during the writing.
(20:09) - How Ivan launched the idea of creating courses.
(23:14) - How much effort it took and what technology was used to create the learning platform: both back-end and front-end experiences.
(25:12) - The most rewarding way for Ivan to deliver the content: building playgrounds & connecting them into a course, differentiating/producing the challenges, keeping the content structured, internalizing the skills, not just understanding them. Must-listen part!
(31:05) - Users’ feedback on what approaches/courses they love to take. Wow, 1500 challenges! Memory and practice. Must-listen part!
(35:34) - Ivan’s thoughts on the improvement in terms of the content collection and delivery.
(38:27) - Ivan’s thoughts on his Twitter/X following.
(39:57) - Ivan’s plan about the next step: create more content, open his learning platform to other content creators targeting H2 of this year. Stay tuned!
(41:23) - Ivan’s curtain call for the audience.
