I am combining these two patterns because I think that one without the other will make for an improper balance of skills. This quote [1] by Carl Rogers in his book, on Becoming a Person [2] is very inspirational to me. I have made a career habit out of trying to be unique, self-directed, and perform self-directed learning.
I am also aware of the importance of being able to admit gaps in my knowledge to others. I will be the first to admit that I don’t understand something, or that someone else has a better idea than I do, especially when I think I can leverage this knowledge to improving my skills, and my personal development efforts.
Throughout my career, I have always had home-based software projects in play. The two most noticeable were Guitar Companion, (a Windows C++/MFC turned C#.NET utility program for guitarists which contained components for a notation editor, metronome, tuning fork, band manager, and video guitar lessons), and Guitar Chords, an Android app using MIDI, speech recognition, and swiping techniques to display an intuitive, pleasant looking, and efficient way to show and play any chord.
Although these efforts didn’t make huge sums of money, they did have the intended benefit of ramping up my skills in different areas, allowing me to learn from my home office, and then use this knowledge when needed at companies I worked for. The reverse effect also occurred. I was able to learn techniques at client sites, and then parlay this knowledge back to my personal efforts.
If I had not been willing to “expose my ignorance”, I would not have been able to learn many techniques from other developers. If I had been too focused on “confronting my ignorance”, I would not have done well at sharing back the knowledge I had attained on my own. This process was truly a win-win experience.
It is beneficial that as one grows in their career, they become progressively less concerned about others thinking they are not adequately qualified, because they have gained enough information to both learn and teach. This will lead to salary increases, better projects, better interviews, better companies, and ultimately to a happier career.
References:
1.“If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.”
2. Chicago. Rogers, Carl R. 1995. On Becoming a Person. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin (Trade).
From the blog cs@worcester – (Twinstar Blogland) by Joe Barry and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.