Eric Ries strongly promotes the build, measure, learn feedback loop in his book The Lean Startup as a way to refine strategy through learning and experimentation. While Mr. Ries’s book focuses on organizational learning, it also forms a seemingly obvious framework upon which to base personal learning.
I never thought, even as an engineer, to hypothesize what personal changes may or may not work in order to achieve my development goals. Mr. Ries likens management to Human Systems Engineering and in this case I am the human. Hypothesizing what may work would allow me to focus my own learning, watch for immediate impact and tweak my activity based upon the results. Learning what makes me effective in small ways, very quickly should greatly accelerate the process. If I pursued personal learning in a quick turn cycle, how much more efficient might my own development become!