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Question of the Week: What’s your favourite way to learn something new?

  • Oct 14, 2026 6:05 PM UTC
  • 6 replies
  • 90 views

creeatsafe
Safer
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Some people press play on a tutorial. Others dive into the docs. Some break things until they work, and some just tap a colleague on the shoulder. What’s your favourite way to learn something new: videos, docs, trial and error, or asking a person? Drop your go-to learning style in the comments below, and tell us about a time it really paid off!

📢 P.S. Looking for your next learning step? Explore free courses and tutorials in the FME Academy and see what’s new in the Community.

💡 New to the Question of the Week? Each week, we post a simple but thought-provoking question. It might be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or even a little something personal like this one.

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🗓️ Answer all of this month’s Questions of the Week by October 30th at 5:00 PM PDT to be entered into the draw.

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6 replies

redgeographics
VIP
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Try it and see what happens 😃 Poke at it, try to understand it, try to break it. Kinda like the wizards in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.


ebygomm
Evangelist
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  • Evangelist
  • Oct 15, 2026 8:14 AM UTC

Trial and error for sure, then the FME community if that doesn’t work out. I hate videos


s.jager
Influencer
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  • Influencer
  • Oct 15, 2026 12:45 PM UTC

Same as Red and Eby: try it, try again, break it, fix it, try it. Then search online, avoiding videos indeed (I hate those videos that supposedly explain stuff - extremely inconvenient way of doing things...). Usually if I add “FME” in front of my search, the search engine incorporates FME Community results.

Very seldom (but it has happened) I design beforehand. In the end it usually does not matter time- or effortwise, and things still break and need fixing :-)


crutledge
Influencer
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  • Influencer
  • Oct 15, 2026 4:12 PM UTC

I have to say that some of my most valuable light bulb moments have been shared with me. Learning from and with others is such a great way forward for innovation and new ideas! Truly, sharing is caring and sharing what I have learned with others always seems to both re-enforce the idea and present new perspectives by talking it out and explaining it…...which is why all the resources that Safe has to support an FME learning journey are amazing! But mostly people. Like the FME Community! Thanks to everyone that has shared, and continues to share and support each other! ty.


j.botterill
Evangelist
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  • Evangelist
  • Oct 16, 2026 1:24 AM UTC

Webinar with use case demos and downloadable workspace ‘template’ examples that one can debug. Then armed with this understanding, build out similar solution to the problem at hand


redgeographics
VIP
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Trial and error for sure, then the FME community if that doesn’t work out. I hate videos

I don’t hate videos, but what I do hate is if I’m looking for where a specific menu option is (mostly with Adobe software) I have to sit through a 3-minute video while the answer could be as simple as Tools → Advanced → Thingamajig