Continuous Curiosity
Yet More New Kids On The Block
I don’t know about you but in my role as an architect I am forever hearing about new tools and technologies. They often have crazy names which I’m not even sure how to spell at times. This is not anything new, in fact it happens all the time. The question is, how do you deal with it?
I started asking around to see how some of my colleagues deal with this. Most said that they got their phone out and Googled it, perhaps under the table if they were in a meeting. 😊
Others said they had given up chasing down all things new because it took too much effort to keep up with every new thing that they heard about.
I’m not in love with my mobile phone so I sit in the middle of these two approaches. I typically make a note in my learning diary and then pursue the look-up at some other time that is suitable.
Curiosity Is Healthy And Rewarding
I believe curiosity is healthy and rewarding (although perhaps not for cats).
For those curious enough to resort to research, some kind of learning will inevitably result. Those who adopt this approach tend to be the kind of people who already know about something when someone presenting asks the audience to raise their hand if they have heard of X or know something about it. (Of course some in this situation deliberately avoid raising their hand in case they get asked to explain it. 😊)
Curiosity Opens New Doors To New Possibilities
Have you ever wondered how the trail blazers latch on to new things? It’s simple! They choose to follow up on their curiosity beyond the point of research. Their curiosity turns into doing something rather than just reading about it. These are the people who click on the “Get Started” link.
In my book, it takes both “starters” and “finishers” to do things well but we’d be so stuck in the past without the “starters” who get bored so quickly doing the same thing day in, day out.
Like training, curiosity opens new doors to new possibilities.
We Never Had It So Good
Today, if you dare to experiment with cloud technologies, you’ll soon discover it’s easier than ever to build things. There is already a wealth of services out there (most have three-letter acronyms) just waiting to be consumed and because much of the hard work has been done by someone else for you (sample code provided), they are very quick and easy to embrace.
Many legacy solutions are so overdue a re-write! You would never build anything today the way we built things in the past. The problem is that if we fail to follow the healthy pursuit of continuous curiosity, legacy thinking will always hold us back.
Get curious. Dare to discover new and better ways of doing things.
Go on, challenge the status quo!
Thank you for liking this page.
Tim Simpson
19th July, 2019
#LifeAtCapgemini