I once read somewhere that the art of being educated is really 3 things; being able to entertain yourself, being able to entertain others and being open to new ideas. The first two aren’t that interesting in the workplace, but the last one certainly is.
Being open to new ideas is an important attribute, especially in tech. One of the fundamental things that should be on all our to-do lists is to find a better way to do the things that are mundane and routine. You should be looking to automate the boring things and spending time on things that are more interesting.
Getting rid of the boring things will allow you to be more open to new ideas, none of us are in the position where we’re in a state of perfect efficiency so there’s always going to be a better way to do the things. The important things is to recognise when things can be done better; it’s often tempting to think that because you’ve always done something in a certain way, it’s the only way to do things. It’s often better to start again than it is to keep pursuing a dead end, even if you have sunk time and money into the dead-end.
Being open to new ideas isn’t hard; it’s just an acceptance that you aren’t right all the time. In development there is an entrenched idea that certain things are good and always desirable; for instance 100% code coverage, in your tests. But sometimes, it just gives you a false sense of security. You could have 100% code coverage, but if the way in which you’re using the external API is just a bit rubbish, and it would never have worked in production; then your code coverage metric means absolutely nothing because you haven’t met the user requirements.
Get exposed to new ideas, knowing what is a good idea and the basic concepts around which certain “rules” are formulated mean that you know when you can break the rules. Dogmatic adherence to rules means that you get trapped into a certain way of thinking, which will not allow you to be open to new ideas.
Lewin
@QuotidianEnnui
Tech Talkfest 