Push vs Pull Learning
As a software engineer, you’re always in learning mode—whether it’s a new tech stack, a fresh codebase, or an unfamiliar domain. When someone on my team is onboarding to something new, they often ask me, “What’s the best way to get up to speed?” The answer varies, but I find it helpful to discuss two key approaches to learning: push learning and pull learning.
Push learning is when you’re fed material to learn. Imagine picking up a textbook, starting at chapter one, and steadily making your way through the book. Or maybe you’re watching a lecture series on YouTube, moving through each video in sequence. Here, you’re absorbing what’s being given to you, which is great for gaining broad knowledge and understanding theoretical concepts.
Pull learning, on the other hand, is more targeted. Picture a problem set in front of you—pull learning involves diving into resources as needed to solve the issue at hand. At work, this might mean watching a specific lecture to tackle a particular problem. Pull learning is all about learning by doing, which tends to make the material stick.
When you’re onboarding, blending both styles can be incredibly effective. The ratio depends on your siituation. One common consideration is how quickly start contributing. You may choose more push learning to optimize for a longer time horizon. If quick wins are crucial, more pull learning might be in order.
Another important consideration is the risk of not being fully ramped up. If you overindex on pull learning, you will only encounter things that are immediately relevant, which could leave you unprepared for rare but critical challenges. In other words, if a critical piece of your infrastructure rarely goes down, you won’t know much about it until it’s too late. That’s where push learning comes in — it helps you cover the unknowns.
By default, I encourage people to begin by applying pull learning and introducing some level of push learning to start. A great question to check your investment levels: “If I push learn at this rate, how long will it take to learn the material? And “Is that rate acceptable given the criticality of the key pieces of onboarding?” This reality check usually nudges people a bit more toward push learning
Keep in mind, push learning can and should be adjusted. If there are certain parts of the material that are more critical, you can and should get to them first as a part of your push learning. This form of push learning when the push learning is prioritized without being just-in time can be referred to as spread learning, and its inverse is referred to as scatter learning.
Bring this mental model to your next onboarding conversation. Happy learning!