Learning? Me? But I’m An Expert
You’ve been a coder for a few years now, maybe even decades. You’ve got a successful job, making enough money. You know the “respectable” technologies that the recruiters look for: C++, C#, Java, whatever. There’s no need to learn anything new. Stay in your comfort zone. Take it from these guys:
“I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.”
- Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1948
“It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.”
- John Von Neumann, circa 1949
“But what is it good for?”
- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”
- Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
Wise words indeed.
You need to learn when you know you don’t know enough, sure. It’s easy to pick up a book when you’re feeling clueless. The more dangerous time is when you think you do know enough. Coding (and computer science) is like the Red Queen’s Race: you need to run as fast as you can just to stay still.
- When was the last time you bought or borrowed a technical book?
- When was the last time you bought or borrowed a technical book, and then actually read it?
- When was the last time you bought or borrowed a technical book, and read it, where it was of no immediate use to your job?
Leave your comfort zone. Admit your ignorance. Learn something new. Learn something useless. Because next year, you might be kicking yourself for calling it useless. Don’t tell me that what you know now is all you’ll ever need to know. Don’t get quoted in next year’s list.
If you liked the quotes above, you might also be interested in “A Double Handful of Programming Quotes“.
When a book comes out it’s information is almost always a year or so old …
When was the last time you read a technical blog post, article, or code documentation when it was of no immediate use to your job?
True, books are “out of date”. My point is that many developers don’t even read out-of-date books.
Blogs and other web-based articles are just as good IMO. I subscribe to over a hundred blogs – I don’t read them all in depth obviously, but I scan for articles of interest.
I’ve got a book lined up for my holiday (off tomorrow) – Beautiful Architecture – and I’m learning jQuery, which has no direct relevance. Look through my ray-tracing articles – I doubt they’ll ever be of importance to my work – but I did all that for fun.
Having said that, my diatribes are mainly aimed at myself – I don’t do enough off-topic reading – that’s just my writing style, writing about myself, but as if to a third person.
(PS to all commenters – I won’t be able to approve comments for a week – please don’t assume you’ve been spam-blocked!)
Cool, I mostly see books as increasingly irrelevant for learning programing and internet technology, so was somewhat surprised to see you use it as an analogy.
That being said, that’s because most tech books are how-to or into details, APIs, etc that change quickly with time. Other books the Dragon Compiler book for example, are much more timeless, as they tech concepts and ways of thinking that aren’t closely tied to the underlying implementation — these are the ones worth reading IMO.
I have translated this article into Russian. Thanks for wise thoughts.
Please, see: http://cs-flow.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html
Anyone working in a technology related field should make part of their job staying up to date on what is next. Because advances in technology come so quickly if you are not constantly learning, you and your knowledge will become obsolete.
I don’t get what the quotes are supposed to mean… are you saying that these people were ignorant? Clearly they were pioneers of computing, so what are you saying? These people were geniuses in their fields, completely learned from I’m sure technical books as well as experimentation, so what I got out of this post is no matter how much you learn you are going to say things that seem stupid later. The quotes honestly don’t have much relevance to the rest of your post, just because they are both on the subject of ignorance.
I always love it when someone brings quotes like these up.
1.) Circa 1948, there WAS only a world market for about 5 computers.
2.) This quote would only fit if your “Take it from these guys:” was intended seriously, instead of sarcastically. The speaker was emphasizing the same point as you.
3.) This is frequently brought up… but always the source is cited as a nameless engineer.
Firstly, entry-level techs at IBM still gain the title “engineer” in certain departments. Are you going to laugh at a company because a lower-level tech didn’t understand a groundbreaking technology?
Secondly, can you guarantee that this quote is indeed an honest quote, and not a fabrication? Countless quotes have later been proven to be complete fabrications meant to convince a target audience to side with the speaker/author. They also frequently share the trait of having a nameless underling as the source.
Thirdly, many presentations include, as an attention-grabbing technique, a challenge question such as this (What is it good for? This is what it’s good for!)… Taking this statement at face value without any context is inappropriate.
4.) Once again, circa 1977, there WASN’T a reason for an individual to own a computer in their home.