Continuously Resolve To Learn
I don’t know about you, but everyone keeps asking me about New Years’ resolutions. Frankly, I don’t really do New Years’ resolutions because I believe pretty firmly that any day is a good day to make a change. Humanity would be pretty doomed if you could only do so once a year. Regardless I’ve been asked probably fifteen times in the past week or so, and so I’ve given it some thought: is there something that I want to resolve to do or that I want to do differently? The answer is… not really. I mean, like most folks I’d like to get in better shape, but I don’t really feel like I need to “resolve” to do that. I mean, I should just probably eat less snacks and dessert and for the most part things would probably take care of themselves.
I have always heard them referred to as New Years’ Resolutions. As in, they are the goals of the new year. Possessive. New Year Resolutions sounds like something a cave man would say.
Does this mean my life is perfect? No. Far, far from it; but I don’t see anything that I can do imminently that would make wild improvements. I think like most substantive things, life change is about investment and reaping those rewards down the line. Real improvement doesn’t happen overnight. I’m currently reading Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone, and if there’s one thing that the book makes clear it’s that Amazon didn’t become a behemoth overnight. It was years of investment in ideas and opportunities that sometimes the outside world called crazy or stupid. The investments in things like AWS, Amazon Fresh, and those little Echo robots that sit all over my house that my wife argues with all the time were all years in the making. They weren’t just willed into being on January 1 and became immediate billion-dollar ideas.
Life change (or career change) is the exact same thing: there are no overnight wins. Let me be absolutely clear: you will reap in ten years what you invest in today. If you’re investing in nothing today, then you had better be prepared to reap nothing (or at least nothing more than you currently do) in a decade.
So, how do you invest in yourself? How do you plant seeds that you can take the benefit of in a decade? You learn. You learn something new that expands your skills. Are you a Jedi Master at IP networks? Awesome – how are you at NSX or other SDN tools? If you’re not a master at that too - learn it. If you’re great at storage, you should learn some HCI skills. If you’re a vSphere genius, you should make sure you learn Kubernetes. (Could I recommend you get hands-on with Tanzu Community Edition?) My point is that you should be learning something new to keep growing and to keep your skills sharp and modern.
Once again, folks: I am at the mercy of the free stock photography. Living and learning are great. Loving is often great, too. Alas, that topic is far outside of the scope of this blog.
While it’s not a resolution, per se, this is something that I strive to do continuously and advice that I give fairly often when I’m asked. In fact, I was recently asked during a VMUG Twitter Spaces event what my best advice for 2022 was and I said with almost no hesitation that the best advice is to learn something new that is different from what you already know. I stand behind that advice for two reasons.
The first reason – perhaps most obviously – is that IT is a field marked by consistent change, and regardless of where you fall in your organization’s hierarchy you are only as valuable as what you can do for that organization. If the market moves from Novell to AWS and you’re still relying on your knowledge of Novell, you’re in trouble as your skills are likely not relevant to your employer – and maybe not even other employers. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking this only applies to “hands-on” technologists; this is just as true if you’re very senior in your organization. You cannot set a winning technology strategy if you are thinking about the state of the industry half a decade ago.
The second reason is perhaps more nuanced. Knowing more than one skill with some depth can make you the rare “pi-shaped” person. No, not shaped like a piece of apple crumb topped pie, but shaped like the Greek character: π. The idea is that the top of the π – the part the looks like the top of a table – represents a wide breadth of knowledge, and the two legs represent depth in two separate areas. This is distinct from the ‘T’ shaped professional, who has broad knowledge of their domain, but deep expertise in one facet. The professional who strives to be π shaped will often be able to link those two domains, and can often command a premium in the labor market. Also, they can usually do some really cool things. Imagine how game changing the early sysadmins were that knew how to access REST and write some Python. Only, you don’t need to imagine because the world has recognized a better way of operating.
I am a big believer in education. While everyone’s circumstances are different, working towards a degree that you’re passionate about is often a fantastic investment.
My only other thought is that you shouldn’t leave what you learn up to your company or your boss. You need to take the initiative and define the future of your career. Don’t leave it up to anyone else, even if you have a great boss who is trying to keep pushing you to grow your skills and career. Work with them to define some goals, but take the initiative to figure out what you’re excited about learning on your own. And by the way, it’s okay if it’s not hard-core technology. As an example, I got really into finance and that helped propel my management career as well as give me more opportunities within volunteer groups that I care a lot about.
On the other hand, if you happen to lead a team make sure you’re talking often and loudly about how important it is to be growing skills. I am a strong proponent of training for everyone on my team. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I always have at least one training, certification, or skill-building goal on each annual performance review for everyone on my team. I do this not because I’m a benevolent boss, but because I recognize that I have a responsibility to ensure that my team continues to be relevant in the future. Also, if my team is behind the curve – so am I. Even worse - that likely means so is my employer, and I never want that to be the case.
So that’s my advice for 2022 (and 2023, and likely 2033) – learn something new. Go into 2022 with or without resolutions, but go with intent and purpose. Learn something new for your own benefit. And hey, if you happen to read this on March 16th, that’s just as good a time to start as January 1 or January 5. The important thing is that you continue to learn and grow. By the way - if you can, once you learn something, share that with others thus making the entire community better. After all, those are some incredible investments in yourself and the people around you.
Questions
Do you find the New Year is an opportune time for resolutions? Why or why not?
What’s the last entirely new thing you learned? Why did you learn it and how did you use it?
How do you like to learn? Do you prefer to play in a lab or read up on a topic?
