** TO BE ASKED EVERY WEEK **
What did you learn this week?
Learning is re-learning
One of the disadvantages of not being a developer full time is there can be stretches of time where I just can’t sit down and code as much as I would want. Because of this, I find myself Googling topics that as soon as I see the solution, I immediately remember that I had seen, and resolved, the same issue before. I know one of my biggest learning moments in this journey was sitting down with a very seasoned developer to work with me on something. We weren’t five minutes into the session when he, without hesitation, jumped into Google to look something up. At that point I realized that just because you’ve been doing this for a long time doens’t mean you remember EVERYTHING. This is a pattern I see with all of my developer friends. In fact, I would say that experienced developers Google MORE that junior developers. I know I thought if I didn’t know something (even something basic), I didn’t want to cheat and look it up. WRONG. Luckily, I was, and still am, surrounded by great developers that remind of this quite often.
When I start to get frustrated with myself about how much I don’t know, I think back to year ago, or even two years ago when this journey began. I have to laugh a little when I remember how I was back then (and I still laugh at myself a lot today!). I know there were many things back then I was “re-learning” on a daily/weekly basis that have become second nature to me now, and this is what encourages me to keep going.
Yes, learning is many things, and I know I will continue to re-learn, but this is all part of the process.