2023 has been a productive year, not quite as efficient as I would have hoped, but I feel like I have made some significant progress towards my goals.

I started the year with the ambition to write a blog post each month to summarise my progress. Unfortunately, that never materialised, mostly because I went down a few rabbit holes in learning how to learn, which involved a lot of trial and error to understand what worked best for me. These tangents can be summarised as follows:

  • Zettlekasten index system
  • Anki flashcard and optimal algorithms
  • Excel spreadsheet formulas
  • Active Recall, Spaced Repetition, SQ4R
  • Blooms Taxonomy, High Order Thinking
  • Knowledge vs Cognitive Process Dimensions
  • Artificial Intelligence for learning (GPT, Bard, Bing, etc.)

After researching the above topics at varying lengths, I have settled on a framework for my learning approach towards the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure certification. The true acid test on how valuable these methodologies are in terms of time efficiency, depth of understanding and ability to recall will be better understood after passing the lab exam.

There is a certain prestige and mystique with any CCIE exam of being at the top of the certification pyramid for a chosen discipline in the networking field. I have a different mindset towards this in which I believe that obtaining a CCIE is the starting point for the real learning to begin.

 

Time

Total Value
Study Time 1,227 hours 10 minutes
Books Completed 5
Pages Read 3765
Reading Time 85 hours 56 minutes
Video Courses Completed 5
Videos Watched 1215
Watching Time 269 hours 13 minutes
Labbing Time 200 hours 15 minutes
Labs Completed 703

The total recorded hours are not specific to the CCIE pursuit, some statistics from the above table can be found below:

  • 1,227 hours equates to 23.6 hours per day for the year
    • 7.01% of total study time for reading books
    • 21.92% of total study time for watching videos
    • 16.03% of total study time for workbook labs
  • 672 hours not categorised will fall into the below areas
    • Researching on learning how to learn
    • Training courses
    • Webinars
    • Creating Anki cards
    • Creating lab topologies and startup-configs in EVE-NG
    • Updating the hybrid tracker-planner spreadsheet
  • Anki Flashcard breakdown
    • Total cards: 1,592
    • Total reviews: 6,771
    • Total days studied: 256 of 365 (70%)
    • Average for days studied: 26 reviews per day

 

Most of the time, studying was done between 04:30 and 08:45 AM each morning. The framework is broken down into completing pre-planned tasks each day in order of the following priority:

Labbing > Active Recall > Reading > Watching

If the planned tasks were complete for the day, I would use any spare time to review the Anki question cards, mostly built from the end-of-chapter quizzes in the books I’ve read. If the algorithm was up to date for the Q&A decks, time permitting, I would move on to the lab scheduling card decks to revisit labs from topics.

This time next year, the labbing hours will make up for most of the total hours, hopefully having successfully passed the lab exam.

 

Certifications

Description Result Pass Date
JNCIS Juniper Service Provider Routing & Switching 2023-02-04
CAA Cato Networks Certified Associate (SASE & SD-WAN) 2023-10-17

 

Courses

Listed alphabetically:

  • Aruba Learning - Managed Cloud-Based Networks with Central (Rev 22.13)
  • Cisco Learning - ISE Troubleshooting: Part II (Rigo Villa)
  • Cisco Learning - Introduction to 802.1X for Security Professionals
  • Cisco Learning - MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB) in ISE
  • Cisco Learning - Rev Up to Recert: DevNet Network Automation Essentials
  • Cisco Learning - Rev Up to Recert: Python
  • Cisco Learning - SD-WAN Application Aware Routing (AAR) and Application Pinning
  • Cisco Learning - SD-WAN Direct Internet Access
  • Cisco Learning - Security Networks with Firepower NGFW
  • O’Reilly - AWS Networking Essentials (Michael Shannon)
  • O’Reilly - BGP Policies in Routed Networks (Russ White)
  • O’Reilly - How Routers Really Work (Russ White)
  • O’Reilly - How the Internet Really Works, Part 1 (Russ White)
  • O’Reilly - How the Internet Really Works, Part 2 (Russ White)
  • O’Reilly - Real World Python by Example (Nick Russo)
  • O’Reilly - Technical Writing Essentials (Nick Russo)

 

Reading

I have loosely been following the recommended reading list from Brian McGahan, which was found as part of the introduction when watching the INE CCIE R&S Advanced Technology Class. The list below is in the order they were read.

  • Cisco LAN Switching (Kennedy Clark, Kevin Hamilton)
  • Your CCIE Lab Success Strategy (Dean Bahizad, Vivek Tiwari)
  • Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 (Jeff Doyle, Jennifer Carroll)
  • Routing TCP/IP Volume 2 (Jeff Doyle, Jennifer Carroll)
  • Cisco IP Routing: Packet Forwarding and Intra-domain Routing Protocols (Alex Zinin)

 

Videos

  • CBT - CCDP ARCH (300-320)
  • INE - CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure 1.0
  • INE - CCIE R&S Advanced Technology Class

 

Best of 2023

  • Game: Chess
  • Film: Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, BlackBerry, Tetris
  • TV: The Last of Us, Mare of Easttown