On day 1 of All Things Open, an open-source conference, in Raleigh, North Carolina, I attended Jason van Gumster's all-day Blender workshop. It was my first time using Blender and I was able to build a 3D four-leaf clover. Jason is the author of Blender For Dummies, so I suspected he would be a good person to learn from. I was right!

The next day, we talked about his path into 3D modeling and his passion for teaching which I got to witness firsthand the day before. Jason shared an interesting example of something I love to hear about - practical, short-term workshops; Adobe, among other organizations, have hired him to give Blender workshops for select groups of their workforce.

I enjoyed hearing Jason's perspectives on teaching & learning a skill that is both technical and artistic (what's the difference?) - I think that you will, too. We broached getting into the weeds with a little Python talk but otherwise, much of what we discussed applies to learning across the board, in my opinion.

You can find Jason on Twitter and Instagram and just about every other social network, with one exception but, as Jason tells me, he's "willing to submit to peer pressure" to add another platform to his life, TikTok. 

If you want to work with Jason or learn more about his work, his website is also a good place to look.

The wealth gap is widening. Noi Brooks, co-founder of Disruptor DAO wants to do something about it through education.

Disruptor DAO advances opportunities for Black and Brown women to build wealth through mindset shifts, education and investment in innovative technologies. They are an inclusive organization and welcome mission-aligned allies.

Noi and I talked about why education matters in making sure the benefits of next technological innovations - specifically Web3 - are realized equitably. Noi recently participated in her first hackathon and has some encouraging words for women considering making their own path into tech. 

Disruptor DAO has partnered with an organization to create a practical, culturally relevant Blockchain Fundamentals Course that is FREE!

I hope you'll get something from this episode or know someone Disruptor DAO could help! Please pass this information along to help someone learn something new.

Be sure to follow Disruptor DAO on their Instagram or Twitter! They're really up to some interesting things.

Thank you for listening to the Quarterly Learnings podcast!

I'm always learning something new and then talking about it so I decided to really talk about it. Listen here for a preview of what to expect from the show.