I was reading the pattern on “Confront Your Ignorance” and it talks about what to do when you realize that there is/are gap(s) in your skillsets that you need to work on and need for a daily work. Some people are scared to confront their ignorance because they hate thinking of themselves as ignorant and hide that side of theirs.

While reading this pattern of chapter two, confronting our ignorance is the best way to become better in what we do because we will actually improve our skills and master in what we will do. There are many ways to actually confront our ignorance: For some people, the best approach involves trying to get an overview by reading all the introductory articles and FAQs they can get hold of. Other people find that jumping straight to the construction of Breakable Toys is the most effective way to understand something. Sometimes others will be trying to acquire this skill as well, and by working together you can make better progress. At some point, with this ways, we have gained a satisfactory level of ability in this new area, and then we can decide whether it is more productive to dig deeper or turn our attention to the other gaps in our skillset.

This pattern is closely tied to Expose Your Ignorance, but implementing it is less of a challenge to your pride because it can be done in private, without anyone else ever finding out the things you did not know. We need to know that learning in public is one of the ways in which an apprentice begins the transition to journeyman. It’s a small step from learning where people can see you to teaching.

What I love about this pattern is that many times I love to challenge myself and go do thigs where I feel I need to confront my ignorance and learn. It’s a factor that everybody should have, especially software developers. This field requires a lot of practice and we need to keep in mind that it’s not everybody who knows everything in this field. We may have some skills but we also all have to confront our ignorance at some point.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Software Intellect by rkitenge91 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.