The fourth pattern that I plan on discussing is titled “expose your ignorance” in the book. The reason I want to choose this pattern to learn next is because I believe that it relates to me one hundred percent of the time I am in school. The idea behind this pattern is that if you do not speak up when you are lost, you will inevitably hurt your learning process. Many people, including myself, get into the habit of not vocalizing questions and concerns for fear of being disruptive, time-wasting, and possibly getting even more confused. It is very easy to simply keep your head down and struggle through a course or project without getting everything you need out of it. Basically, in situations where you do not know what you are doing, protecting your pride is often a bad solution, and exposing your ignorance is likely your best option. The book does a great job explaining why this is and it has good examples of times where it is a needed apprenticeship pattern to pick up. Even in jobs, it is important to expose your ignorance. The easiest way is by asking questions. Not only will it help you learn faster and more, but it will also ensure that you are doing everything right and in the way that your employer expects you to get your work done. The book has other solutions for this as well. In fact, the main action that it tells you to carry out is to “write down a list of five things you really don’t understand about your work. Put that list where others can see it. Then get in the habit of refreshing this list as your work changes.” Personally, I feel like in my years of schooling I have not reached out enough with questions for fear that I would look like I do not know what I am doing. It is not going to get any easier for me when I try to get real jobs, so it is important for me to learn to put my ego aside and expose my ignorance in a way that will allow me to learn and get better everyday.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Tim Drevitch CS Blog by timdrevitch and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.