Expert and beginner
What excites me most about building things for the web is that it’s constantly evolving and because of this, we’re continuously learning better ways to solve familiar problems.
It seems like every day there’s an exciting new approach to get the job done and it’s almost always an improvement on the techniques we know or that we’ve relied on for years.
Often you find yourself learning these techniques from someone just starting out. Someone you might otherwise think of as a beginner. But regardless of their inexperience, you can guarantee they know something you don’t. Just as they might be keen to learn from you, you can learn something just as valuable from them, becoming a better developer in the process.
Rachel Andrew summed this up perfectly in a recent tweet:
“I love that in this industry you get to be an expert and a beginner at the same time. Learning new things, being a beginner, reminds me what that is like and makes me a better teacher of the things I am expert in.”
The constant need to learn and start over can feel overwhelming at times, we all feel it, regardless of our experience, or lack there of. But it’s our mindset and approach which is the most important thing to master.
Some people let it get to them, becoming despondent with their attitude and outdated in their beliefs. They form what you might like to call a “fixed” mindset, thinking they already know it all, which prevents them from making progress and developing further.
Others choose a “growth” mindset, seeing the gaps in their knowledge as an exciting opportunity to learn and improve. They embrace the attitude of a life long learner and learn continuously, from whoever they can.
As inexperienced developers it’s important to value what little we may know. Be confident knowing that though we may refer to ourselves as beginners, we are in fact experts alike. We have something just as important to teach, as we have to learn, regardless of how long we’ve been building things on the web.
The vastness and complexity of this industry means it’s impossible know it all. There’s a very good chance what we decided to focus on is totally different to that of a more experienced co-worker. We must use this to our advantage, every way we can.
This reminds me of Frank Chimero’s Everything easy is hard again where he writes:
”In one way, it is easier to be inexperienced: you don’t have to learn what is no longer relevant. Experience, on the other hand, creates two distinct struggles: the first is to identify and unlearn what is no longer necessary (that’s work, too). The second is to remain open-minded, patient, and willing to engage with what’s new, even if it resembles a new take on something you decided against a long time ago.”
As experienced developers we must maintain the desire to learn and reinvent. We must listen, observe, and keep an open-mind about who we learn from. Embracing Shoshin, otherwise know as Beginners Mind can help us overcome our egos. Whilst teaching can help us remain humble, learn patience and let go of our preconceptions. As we teach something new, we learn to approach each problem as if it was for the first time.
No matter how much we think we know, we must never think we know it all or believe we’re better, simple because we have more experience. We must challenge our techniques when challenged and reinvent our methods when it’s time to do so. We must learn to unlearn what’s no longer necessary.
Further resources #
- Rachel Andrew on being an expert and a beginning at the same time.
- Shoshin, the Zen Buddhism teachings of Beginners Mind.
- Everything easy is hard again by Frank Chimero