When you’re new to something, all the pain is out in the open. You stub your toes until they’re black and blue on things the veterans have all learned to avoid. This is both a curse and a gift.
A curse because it’s hard to make progress when you’re constantly getting snagged. Frustration is high and defeat feels scarily near. You might well give up entirely before you know the dance of the natives.
But a gift, too, because you have the clarity to make things drastically better. You won’t miss the non-sense the veterans have long since accepted as the norm. Once you’ve acclimated to the temperature of the pot, you’ll get boiled alongside all the other frogs. But until then, you’re in a magical position to make great strides. To propose radical solutions, deliberately ignorant ideas that just might be brilliant.
This is the time to do the impossible, because you don’t know enough to know what can’t be done yet.
Gyi Tsakalakis
on 21 May 12Right on. This applies equally to people and organizations. Beginners are flexible, malleable and change-receptive. Veterans tend to be rigid and change-resistant. One trick to maintaining effectiveness is maximizing the wisdom of veterans and the curiosity of beginners.
Mike
on 21 May 12So true, and applicable in many areas in life. Orson Welles’ first film was Citizen Kane, which he wrote, produced, directed, and stared in. He didn’t know what you “couldn’t do” in film. As a result he came up with shots that no one had thought of before, like putting a camera in a hole in the ground. And now we have a film that’s considered the greatest ever made.
Björn Grossmann
on 21 May 12I like this, DHH, you are right! Good to be reminded about this!
Vidar Masson
on 21 May 12http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin tells a different story. Its tough but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Dave Hoover
on 21 May 12Absolutely right. Being a beginner is incredibly frustrating but also an opportunity set a life-changing trajectory. See also: Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech.
Anon
on 21 May 12Great post! Stay hungry, stay foolish!
Scott B
on 21 May 12http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec#99
Matt
on 21 May 12Wise words applicable to much of life.
Reminds me of the following quote from Max Planck: “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
jason
on 21 May 12Every so often skateboarding hits a plateau where you think, “That’s it, you can’t do anything more on a skateboard.” And then along comes some 12-year-old who is a blank slate, completely unaware of any ‘plateau, and boom! Skateboarding is reborn. Life is like that.
Tammy
on 21 May 12This post came to me at the perfect time – I’m staring at a learning curve that appears to be going straight up. This is definitely my silver lining.
Matt Vaughan
on 21 May 12I think there are other times when you can affect change too, specifically when things are already changing – when you’re already in the midst of a pivot, it’s a lot easier to make a big change in direction than when you’re allowing inertia to carry you in a linear direction. It’s also easier to see more possibilities, as they become wide open – the existing structures constraining change fall away, allowing for the question “how else can we change?”.
In emergency rooms they call these “teachable moments”.
BetwixtTheTesties
on 21 May 12False http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog
Dragan
on 21 May 12That healthy dose of ignorance was also needed for the Rails to be born. Right?
Ezana Berhane
on 21 May 12As a beginner, this post is very uplifting. The key I’ve learned so far is to have the fortitude to survive the beginning stage. Forming a start-up is like being a woman in labor. The delivery is painful, but afterwards you have something that you made to be proud of.
Gerhard
on 21 May 12This sums up very nicely my past few weeks when I’ve challenged Capistrano, Fabric and all other deployment utilities out there. 1.0 is in sight… http://gerhard.github.com/deliver/
Devan
on 22 May 12Great philosophy! Applicable to so many things in life. I play guitar as a stress relief from software development, and lately I have been experimenting with unusual ‘open tunings’ on my acoustic.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a fellow player was: As soon as you tune your guitar to a new tuning you have never tried before, click record on your DAW and capture those first exploratory licks and chords that you find, because chances are once you get used to the tuning, you will fall back into your old habits and patterns again.
Those first few minutes when you are really unsure about what is going on and your mind is in ‘freewheel’ mode trying to make sense of an unusual situation is when most of the magic happens.
Dmitry Nikolaev
on 22 May 12It’s always hart to start something. The worst feelings. But one I know for sure: try to start 10 or 20 things (not in one moment), but during year, five years or so. Then you start to realize that all problems that you met have some common characteristics. And you know how to better organize yourself for them.
Good luck for all starters! :-)
Guy
on 22 May 12I’m in my 3rd week in a completely new position with my company. This post sums it up really well, I’ve thrown some stuff out there and gotten bit by the “bitter old vets” from time to time but all in all I’ve relished the opportunity. This post is great reinforcement that newness will be fleeting and I need to make the most of it.
Christina Gouthro
on 22 May 12My Favorite Post of The Day!!! Thank you, I’ve saved this into my notes.
I am always on the move, and therefore, always the new girl in every regard. So thank you for this elemental boost of confidence.
Your life is a series of SINGLE steps.
Wolfgang
on 22 May 12What is the new thing you are learning right now that makes you muse about this?
Rafael Ribeiro
on 22 May 12Just started my own company a month ago and this post tell a lot about what I should be focusing on: The things I’m learning and the opportunity to make it different. Thanks again.
navin harish
on 23 May 12I have always felt the same thing and I have seen this in the field of Television. When it was evolving in India, there were so many good shows and then we were invaded by Cable TV and the quality of programming moved from original to template based. Once people have done something, they want to repeat the same thing instead of trying out something new. I just never was able to articulate it as nicely as you have. Link to my article
matt kocaj
on 24 May 12Wow. What a great article! It’s so refreshing to read this and realise that perhaps I’m not “too idealistic” after all.
I love having the clarity of being a beginner sometimes. It’s often that in times like these only the noobs are able to see what’s been staring everyone else in the face for so long and foster the change.
Nikhil Goyal
on 25 May 12Great post. Actually made me think, realize – I was also at a level when the clarity and drive to make something new was amazing.
But what I feel is that, when I will venture in another startup, I might have the same feelings again.
Brian Dear
on 26 May 12Great advice. Sounds like a derivative of Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. Great stuff.
Drew McKinney
on 27 May 12I think this is right on. This is why you so often see younger people start companies that are more “out there”, often attempting to create entirely new markets with huge project scopes. Occasionally this works, but usually it doesn’t, because they get clobbered by the details of implementation.
On the flip-side, join a big technology consulting firm and stay there for any period of time and you will indeed become a eunuch to innovation. (I did this)
But here’s something interesting: I quit my job about 12 months ago to go full-time freelance/ISV. Each and every month I’m away from the place I left, I feel like I’m starting over as a student more and more. It’s funny how long it takes to shake it, but the longer you’re away, the less you’re subject to the goofy procedures and mindset these types of environments produce. And I don’t think this is unique to big dumb companies; any environment you stay in long enough you’ll acclimatize. I think it has to do with the quality of these environments which dictate how you will grow and learn as a person. And every environment has its tradeoffs. /digress
But like you said, once you’ve been an amateur in some field, it’s over. I will never be a twitchy 14-year-old trying to both learn C and get to 3rd base with some girl, but thank god!
This discussion is closed.