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I feel just as much empathy for my colleagues. No one is wrong, or right in this situation. You're exactly right that it ends up being, "do this, then that", a

I feel just as much empathy for my colleagues. No one is wrong, or right in this situation. You're exactly right that it ends up being, "do this, then that", and the problem with following those instructions is you learn almost nothing. You're running a playbook, and have no context as to why. Before I did this, I followed that structure, and 6 months down the road, I had learned not nearly enough for the time frame. So I've just stopped, and am following this approach. At the very least, I will (and do) know and understand a lot more. At the cost of being a complete deliverable sink. The issue around communication is that, I really don't understand what is being said often. Essentially the things that people (rightly) assume is base knowledge, is not base knowledge for me. So the only way to get there, is to really study, take courses, learn about and rip apart what these things mean. And that takes time. Lots and lots of focused, intentional time. Now I'm building the foundation, and I'm learning a lot more, but I'm delivering a ton less. It's a challenge, but I will take responsibility for that, and just keep working hard to get better.

bigiain 8y ago
Another view: Fucking up teaches you _way_ better lessons that studying and coursework. I often joke that the reason I get paid what I do is because of all the expensive mistakes I've already made on some other companies dime. A big part of my role as and older/senior tech guy, is to tell war stories carefully selected and curated to give very strong hints about how my less experiences junior devs are about to get things wrong. Some people never learn from other's mistakes - but if you've got expensive mistake stories to share, try very hard to ensure the people smart/perceptive enough to benefit from them get to hear about them... Give them the chance to "stand on the shoulders of giants" (even standing on the shoulders of ordinary people is better than making the same dumb mistakes they've already learned from...)
- AndyNemmity 8y ago
  I tend to agree with you that fucking up teaches way better lessons, but it requires a foundation. I'm an older/senior guy as well. The difference is that, I decided to accept a role, that changed into a role doing something I had never done. I was never a programmer, and I accepted a role that unknowing to me, ended up being a development role. I decide that it would be fun to become a developer, and explore this world. I would be considered an expert in other similar fields, but not this field. The biggest misjudgement on my end was that I didn't understand how far behind I would be. I assumed it would take a lot of effort, and drive, but I completely missed how much it would take to become competent. Still enjoying the experience, and am getting very excited towards a future where I can deliver and be relied on for critically important things.
  - bigiain 8y ago
    Oh sure. Three decades worth of fuckups isn't something you can get in a bootcamp... But I think understanding that the greybeard over in the corner has those three decades, and that even if they fucked up using Perl running on hardware they physically touched/owned - they probably learnt some critical lessons that directly apply to your $language-de-jour running on $cloud-platform-of-the-week... Become the person who'll get told, and listen too, their war stories...

bigiain 8y ago

Another view: Fucking up teaches you _way_ better lessons that studying and coursework. I often joke that the reason I get paid what I do is because of all the expensive mistakes I've already made on some other companies dime. A big part of my role as and older/senior tech guy, is to tell war stories carefully selected and curated to give very strong hints about how my less experiences junior devs are about to get things wrong. Some people never learn from other's mistakes - but if you've got expensive mistake stories to share, try very hard to ensure the people smart/perceptive enough to benefit from them get to hear about them... Give them the chance to "stand on the shoulders of giants" (even standing on the shoulders of ordinary people is better than making the same dumb mistakes they've already learned from...)

AndyNemmity 8y ago
I tend to agree with you that fucking up teaches way better lessons, but it requires a foundation. I'm an older/senior guy as well. The difference is that, I decided to accept a role, that changed into a role doing something I had never done. I was never a programmer, and I accepted a role that unknowing to me, ended up being a development role. I decide that it would be fun to become a developer, and explore this world. I would be considered an expert in other similar fields, but not this field. The biggest misjudgement on my end was that I didn't understand how far behind I would be. I assumed it would take a lot of effort, and drive, but I completely missed how much it would take to become competent. Still enjoying the experience, and am getting very excited towards a future where I can deliver and be relied on for critically important things.
- bigiain 8y ago
  Oh sure. Three decades worth of fuckups isn't something you can get in a bootcamp... But I think understanding that the greybeard over in the corner has those three decades, and that even if they fucked up using Perl running on hardware they physically touched/owned - they probably learnt some critical lessons that directly apply to your $language-de-jour running on $cloud-platform-of-the-week... Become the person who'll get told, and listen too, their war stories...