Learning Something New

For a good portion of my career I have been blessed in that I have always found something new and interesting that piqued my interest long enough to learn it whether it be new programming languages, operating systems, complex systems, databases, business management, project management, leading groups, or following inspirational leaders.

I like learning. The other part of it is I like learning in order to look at things differently. A change of perspective if you will. I have always found that if you can see issues from various viewpoints you can get a better appreciation of how to best tackle something. Also another great thing in the learning process is teaching others. Nothing challenges your understanding and position on a topic than a student. They question, prod, push. That sort of relationship grows both the student and the mentor where hopefully the student outgrows the mentor and becomes one.

Practically speaking learning has helped me transition from one paying job to another even in difficult times. In many instances experience and knowledge is not necessarily always about what you know or heck even how well you know it. In my experience, it is a mixture of knowing what you can do and how your experience can help others which can make all the difference. If you can find the right connection or strike the right balance it can lead to very fulfilling and rewarding pursuits.

For example I recently had the privilege of applying my technical expertise to a personal pursuit related to a lifelong passion with Buddhist religion and Mongolian history by creating a small application that allowed people to share their notes and insights on how to learn English. I wrote it by myself. Created the hosting services. Found a nice little provider. Alot of the internationalization work was challenging especially since I had not really done that but was a lot of fun. In the end even as I take the occasional support calls, it was a very fun and wonderful effort. The thanks and gratitude of total strangers whom admire my accomplishments has been worth more than any positive performance appraisal from any company. Also for the project I deliberately chose technologies and approaches I was not familiar with. Why? Because I wanted to be challenged and learn something that I felt passionate about. That combination is what drives me I have discovered.

Learning is a key ability in technical professionals. It is what allows them to keep apace of this ever changing industry. Yet is the drive to make things better whether it is to improve a single line of code, deliver a really nice GUI, or to automate a process that sparks the passion technology professionals. And when you are enjoying yourself in what you are doing it shows and is apparent to everyone around you.