I grew up to the phrase, “Never say never.” I grew up reading fantasy and science fiction books and watching action movies like any other boy. However, perhaps more than the excitement, I loved the story. When I got to school, I did not stop reading or watching movies. I also began getting into role-playing games (RPG’s) on both the console and the pen-and-paper variety, think Dungeons & Dragons. While those are a little beyond the norm, I took it a step further. I paid attention in history class. I heard about Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. I read about Napoleon and General Eisenhower. I watched documentaries on Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. I grew up believing a person could be great. I believed I could be one of them. Then I got older.
I was expected to find a way in life. I could not continue dreaming of being the next Michael Jordan, Steve Young, or Andy Roddick. I had to grow up. I was never very keen on the idea. By this time, computers had become an avenue to more stories and dreams. I began to pursue basic web development, and then on to programming. I could not decide whether I wanted to make games that future generations could love or websites which would open the eyes of others. I began walking down that path. On the side, I kept myself grounded with history classes. They were a constant reminder of where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in the history books.
I graduated college and got a job. I got told, “Welcome to the Real World.” It turns out it is not much different than whatever world I was in before. People have expectations, and it is my responsibility to meet them. That means even if I do not like it. I am very independent. I do not like someone else telling me what to do. At the same time, I want people to listen to me. I used to yell louder in hopes I could drown out the others until they had to listen to me. Sometimes I still do. With my job, I wanted to write code. I wanted my code to change the world.
My boss recently shifted me into a new sort of role. I coordinate developers literally on the other side of the world as we work on an application used by people in the same city as me. The new role requires getting up before the sun because people on the other side of the world work very different times than we do here. I am told it has something to do with an 11.5 hour timezone difference. I also spend most of my days in meetings. Some days I spend the entire day in meetings. Each meeting has people asking me to get work done. I struggled to understand how I was suppose to get work done while I was constantly in meetings. I wanted to be writing the code rather than sending it off to others. I could do it better. I yelled a little bit.
I still do not know whether I want to continue pursuing the road I am on or return to the fork in the road. However, in traveling down this new road, I learned something. If I want to be great, I do not have to do the things at which I am great. I just need to continue meeting the challenges laid before me. I have to rely on the people around me to help me. I have to rely on others to point me in the right direction when I can no longer see the road. I will have to try new things. I do not know where I am going. I do not know where I will end up. The one thing I know is I can never stop trying.
If I had the time and the university would not complain, I would sit in on a lot of classes. Currently, I am sitting in on Software Engineering thanks to Dr. Wallingford being nice and the fact I have already taken the class. However, a person can learn an unbelievable amount by simply becoming one with the inner sponge. By listening to people more knowledgeable than one’s self, a person gets introduced to new ideas. Unfortunately, it is not enough to simply sit on these new ideas. They have to be put to practice. I do not know where this quote comes from anymore, but it has been a favorite of mine for a long time:
It works in theory, but fails utterly in application.
It is easy to think I understand something only to try to implement and find out I have no clue what I am doing. Other times, I find the original idea is only applicable to specific situations. Sometimes, it is just a bad idea from the start. Pondering an idea is often a good start, but the approach which often has the most success, and is also the most fun for me, is to put the idea to practice. This website is one such example. I get to play with web development ideas as I learn about them. Some of them work. Some of them suck. Sometimes I write about them and people laugh at me. Sometimes I write things, and people agree to the point they talk about it in their classes. The end result is more feedback from which to learn.
Learning is not passive. Many times people are told to be quiet and just listen to lectures. Maybe they are supposed to read some assigned readings. This is what I referred to earlier as becoming one with the inner sponge. It is a good place to start. It is not the finish line. The most knowledgeable experts in any area tend to live, eat, and breathe their interest. Ask a professional tennis player how long they are on a court, hitting a tennis ball, doing physical training, debating nutrition, dealing with media, et cetera. They did not become good simply be sitting on their butts listening to someone tell them how to hit a serve. They got out on the courts and did it.
Eventually those engaged in a field will become the new experts. Then they will share what they have learned with the next generation. It may simply be by communicating with an old friend who happens to be a university professor. It may be at a conference with their peers. It may be via a blog. Regardless, they share the information in some ways. This is how knowledge has been passed down for millennia. The key is to get in on the scoop rather than being left by the wayside.