Kent consumes as much information as he can about the thing that he's interested in, then he builds stuff with the things that he's consumed. The consumption process involves glancing over any related content or diving deep into a tutorial.

But then you actually have to build something, and not just follow a tutorial, but actually build a thing that you made up in your mind. Don't follow a tutorial. Then, go off and teach the things that you learned through blogging, meetups, podcasts, conference talks, etc. 

People learn in different ways. By recording your content in multiple mediums you are enabling a larger portion of your audience to learn more effectively.

But, creating content isn't just for brand-building, it is also an effective way to solidify knowledge for yourself. If you are asking yourself at what skill level should you start creating content then you should remember that creating content is for anyone who wants to learn and not forget stuff.

Kent attributes a lot of his success in becoming independent to building his personal brand. He double dipped with the value he produced while employed by creating content to share publicly. Kent also made sure to interact with people and answer questions on twitter. 

The key is not to try to get as many followers as possible, but instead to try to have an audience who is committed to you and your message. You can't do this by trying to force engagement with viral tweets, you have to produce real value and share it with people.