If You Want to Learn, You'll Stop Doing This.

This week I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of the more renowned  flight instructors in the upper midwest.   Tom Berge, owner of RV Transition LLC, graciously granted me time on his schedule to get some instruction in an aircraft that is very similar to the one I have been building and hope to fly sometime in the next couple of months.

Tom is very thorough; as he talked about the various aspects of flying a high performance homebuilt like the Van's RV series, I listened intently.    As he spoke, I was able to connect bits and pieces of what he was explaining with my own experiences in other types of aircraft to better understand the material he was presenting.   I was impressed with his knowledge and ability to explain the material.

After the lesson, on the way home, my thoughts drifted to something I had seen some years ago.   A cocky young pilot and his instructor were talking nearby and I thought back to their conversation.   It seemed like every word from the instructor was met with some know-it-all response or perhaps a statement phrased as a question designed to impress the instructor with the student's knowledge.   The instructor let it go, but the student was almost too much.   As I recalled that conversation, I couldn't help but think how odd that someone would pay an instructor to teach them only to try and impress the instructor with their own knowledge.   I wonder how much more quickly the lesson might have gone had the student simply shut up and listened.   And, I wonder, how much time and money the student might have saved by not having to repeat lessons.

I've seen this scene repeated elsewhere by many different types of people, in many types of situations.   And I've seen it enough to know that it is not uncommon.   Try this - next time you are in a position of learning something new, take a moment to observe how you act.  Do you listen intently, or wait to ask the person you are learning from a question which was designed to demonstrate your own vast knowledge?    Do you really want to learn, or is your desire to learn combined with a desire to impress others?

Fortunately, that brash young pilot from years ago learned the errors of his ways, and today is much better at being quiet and soaking up wisdom from those who are willing to offer it.  And, I'm happy to report, that same pilot is well on his way to being able to competently prosecute the flight test program for his Van's RV-6A in the not too distant future, thanks to the tutelage of a wise instructor named Tom.

How to Become an Expert in Three Simple Steps

Everyone needs to have some specific area of expertise.   While broad knowledge is useful, one or two areas in which you are deeply knowledgable are important for career and personal growth reasons.   These areas of expertise become what you are known for professionally, and will have a direct impact on your financial growth and security.

Fortunately, the steps required to become an expert in almost any subject are pretty simple:

1) Learn - really learn -  everything you can about the topic

Anyone can read a book or take a class on a particular topic, but that is only where the learning begins.   What periodicals do you read?   What conferences, seminars, or other gatherings do you attend to learn more from other people?   Which blogs do you follow?     These and other sources of information plant the seeds for new thought patterns around the subject and stretch your sphere of knowledge a little each time.

Be careful not to disregard newcomers to the topic or those who know far less than you.   Even if you know 95% of the available information and they know only 10%, their 10% might include the 5% you don't know.

2) Practice the topic daily in some way shape or form

This isn't practicing in the form of mindless repetition each day, but rather thoughtful, intensive application of your knowledge into something real.   You might work on a computer program, work on your car's engine, or some other productive activity.   This can be either professionally or as an avocation, but the goal is to use your knowledge to do something real and practical.

Another approach would be to teach a course or write a book.   Depending on the topic, your local community college may need someone to teach a night course on your area of interest.    Learning by teaching is a time honored way to increase your knowledge of a topic.

This exercise is important because it demonstrates the difference between theory and practice.    Remember, theory and practice are the same in theory but not in practice.   Learning the difference deepens your expertise.

3) Repeat steps 1 and 2

Learning and doing, if done once or twice, may give you a better understanding of a topic but they will not make you an expert.     Malcom Gladwell, in his book "Outliers", states that mastery of a subject requires about 10,000 hours of practice.      This is, obviously, a considerable amount of time - it would be approximately five years worth of full time professional work.   ( At this point, I'd like to specifically point out that I said it would be simple, not easy).

While many forms of advice are given every day about securing your financial future, consider this:  almost all of them assume that you have some area of deep expertise which serves as the engine to power future success.    If you don't have one yet...why not?

Software engineering is my chosen area of expertise, and I can say that with 20+ years of experience, I am still learning new things each day - literally.   Find something you're interested in and go for it!

The Value of Being Wrong

Success.  Winning.  Being Right.   These are things that are highly valued, sought after, and are generally pursued by most people, and rightly so.   However, I think that too often we overlook the inherent value of being wrong once in a while, and that we do so to our detriment.   Just as there is value in success, there is also value in failure - you just need to know where to look.

Knowledge:   The very first commercial software package I conjured up entirely on my own was called "Back In a Flash" and was, I thought at the time, very well done.   Only it didn't work very well - while it generally did a good job backing data up, it was less successful when it came time to restore said data.   It also didn't work with large systems, and was particularly slow.   It was a failure.  The next package I wrote was called "Back Again/2" and incorporated many lessons I had learned from the first time around.   It became the cornerstone of a company a friend and I founded in 1994 and ran successfully until I sold in 2000.      Without the initial failure and the lessons it taught me, I could not have been successful later on.

Practice:   One of the smallest parts on my experimental aircraft is on the tail and is known as the trim tab.   The trim tab is a thing of legend among builders of this particular type of airplane; the angles required for the various bends vex even the most dedicated builder.   I was no exception; I had to build it three times before I got it right.   However, I gained valuable experience in forming aluminum sheet metal, drilling out rivets, and more.      

Perspective:  In the midst of a seemingly important task, project, or other endeavor small problems may seem huge.   Any entrepreneur can attest to this - many problems can seem like catastrophes.     During my time at my first company,   there were many such "catastrophes" which turned out to be nothing more than a minor irritant.   In the midst of the issue, however,  it was next to impossible to recognize that.   The stress and heartburn that was repeatedly experienced (and meted out, too) was not necessary and at the time probably did more harm than good.     Without those problems, however, I would not have gained the perspective that some problems are more important than others, and other problems may in fact not be problems at all.

Humility:  This is perhaps the hardest thing to take away from failure, but it can also be among the most valuable.   Humility isn't about being meek or timid; rather, it is knowing ones own limitations.     I had the opportunity to join an internet startup a while back as a side gig.   I thought it would be exciting, and it was, but I learned the hard way that it is nigh impossible to juggle a full time job, a family, a homebuilt airplane project, and a startup commitment while remaining sane.   I didn't succeed in that endeavor, and I learned where my limits are.   There are folks who could do all that without breaking a sweat, and my hat is off to them - I cannot.

Although success is the ultimate goal, don't discard as useless the failures you encounter along the way.   They may prove to be nearly as valuable as your successes, and perhaps more so - if you're not making mistakes, you're probably not making anything.

One of my worst failures has been failing to learn everything that I could from failed attempts at various things.   How about you?

Use It or Lose It

I thought about this recently when a friend invited me to go target shooting.   Several years ago,  I went to the range often and achieved (and least in my own mind) some level of competance in the shooting sports.   I was always at the top of the class in terms of shooting skills; the last class I took as part of a legal requirement saw my score recorded at twice that of the next student (250 points possible; he shot a 125).  

The hour on the range on Saturday reminded me that those days are long gone and won't be coming back without a bit of effort on my part.   The trip reminded me that skills can be fleeting; that an art not practiced is an art soon lost.   I shot no better, accuracy-wise, than the majority of folks there that day.   What happened?   Obviously, I hadn't used the skill and so lost it.

You have almost certainly experienced this phenomenon as well.   Quick, without looking it up, what it is the formula for finding the length of one side of a triangle if you know the opposite angle and lengths of the other two sides?    Almost everyone has had trigonometry at some point in their academic career but only a few of us remember it because most of us don't have the opportunity or need to use it on a day-to-day basis.   A skill not used is a skill soon lost.  This same pattern exists for many different kinds of skill sets and is a reason why those in roles that affect safety (pilots, police officers, paramedics, and more) are subject to rules regarding how often they must exercise their skills and training.   There are many other non-safety areas where such is important - guitar players practice riffs, for example, and military units do drills appropriate to their function.  

As a software developer, I constantly write software not only for my job, but also for the express purpose of staying current with the techniques and technologies associated with the task.     The exercise of refining a problem into its essential logical elements, translating those elements into a design to solve the problem, then translating that design into a specific technology (web page, mobile application, etc.) hones those skills far more than does reading or other study method (though those are important too).      Would you want to get on a plane whose pilot hasn't flown at all in the last year but has read lots of graphic novels about flying adventures?   I would not, so then why would I expect my employer, whose business may very well depend on the skill and accuracy of its software, ever considering doing something similar by hiring someone who has "read a lot about computers"?

Practicing your profession with dedication and intent sharpens your mind and trains your thoughts so that you can perform at your best when it counts.    Practice is also the mark of a professional - as the saying goes, "An amateur practices until he gets it right; a professional practices until he can't get it wrong.".     Too often, I see would-be professionals masquerading as amateurs simply because they haven't practiced their trade to the point of being able to fully exercise their potential.    Amateur, indeed.

As  Phillip Su put it,   "Athletes do drills.  Musicians hone difficult passages.  What do you do?"

Product Religion

Evangelists
Fanboys.   Zealots.  Fanatics.   These are words that have been used to describe groups of people who have a fervent belief or faith not in their God or moral belief system (well, ok, maybe sometimes) but rather in a particular technology or product.   Guy Kawasaki even brought it to a full-on professional title when he was "Chief Evangelist" at Apple - a title with all kinds of mixed marketing, emotional, and religious connotations.

Confession Time

Here is the point in the post where I make my confession:  I was a fanboy at one time.   Back in the early/mid '90s, IBM had an awesome piece of software called simply OS/2.   At the time, it was significantly more advanced than Windows and had the backing of the largest computer corporation in the world.   It seemed destined for legendary status and had allowed desktop PCs to do things that were previously either not possible or terribly expensive.   I even built a business on it with a friend and did some evangelism myself as part of a group known as "Team OS/2".    In the end, IBM changed directions OS/2 - and everyone who had depended on it - were left high and dry.    Although it was a great time in my life, I've wondered several times if I made the decisions within the right frame of mind.   If I had it to do all over again, would I make the same choices?    Maybe, maybe not.   I would, however, look at things from a slightly different perspective.

It's Not a Two Way Street
The problem with product religion is that the organization producing the product/technology/etc. is far less loyal to you than you are to it.     They may change their plans in a such a way as to negatively impact their loyal followers without any concern or regard for doing so.    It's been done many times over the years - TV producers abandoning shows such as Firefly, Jericho, and others with a small but vocal following,  the Houston Oilers abandoning Texas for Tennessee, and so on.

There is nothing wrong with being excited about a particular sports team, technology, or product.    The danger comes from making important decisions based on emotional rather than intellectual or logical reasons.   Although decisions can and perhaps should have an element of intuition or "gut feel", they must be backed by data and sound reasoning.

What product/technology/sports team are you fanatical about?   Why?  What would you do if the product was discontinued, the technology obsoleted, or the sports team was relocated tomorrow?

Time to Step Off the Trane

Moving On
All voyages have a beginning and an end, and for me today was the end of one such journey.    I first started with Trane in August of 2000.   Since then, I've been involved with a number of product development efforts  and eventually designed the basic software architecture used in most of the Tracer Evo embedded controls in addition to doing some R&D work on upcoming products and applied technologies.    Today, however, I bid farewell to my mentor/manager and coworkers as I prepare to move  on to a new and exciting opportunity at a startup in Edina called Jingit.

Why?

The obvious question is, "Why did you choose to leave?"   Part of the motivation for moving on was stagnation - there is only so much software technology involved with running a commercial building's HVAC system (but a lot more than you might expect).    When the opportunity came to move into a position at a much smaller, but more agile organization that is making use of mobile, social media, and other current technology trends, I decided that this would be a good move.      

While I took a fairly significant "haircut" in salary, I'm ok with that.    For me, happiness doesn't come from the amount on the paycheck.   Sure, it matters to a certain point, but day-in and day-out I am more engaged and motivated by challenges and the opportunity to help "put a dent in the universe".     And while some folks point out that a startup is less stable than a large company, I can't say a large company doesn't have it's share of layoffs, outsourcing, facility closings, and so on.   In the end, it was Jingit's value statement and leadership, in addition to the concept, that I found particularly engaging.  The basic idea is that a team of highly capable people combined with a fairly small set of rules and processes can produce excellent work at a lower cost more quickly than is typically done at a larger organization.    This will be an exciting change and a challenge at the same time.    It's exciting because given the team of people I'll be working with, I firmly believe that what took months to accomplish previously can be accomplished in weeks.   It's a challenge because what would have taken months previously must be done in a much shorter time.   That's the excitement and challenge of working at a startup.   I think Jingit has some excellent folks and a great vision accompanied by a realistic plan to get there, and I don't think I've been this excited about starting a new position since ... well ... ever.    Check it out at www.jingit.com.  

Looking Back
There's a certain amount of melancholy that goes along with this move - some of the brightest people I've had the opportunity to work with along with the best manager I have ever had have been at Trane.    I really value the time I spent at Trane and am grateful for the things they taught / re-taught me:

• Leaders innovate change.   Managers copy success.    The roles are not interchangeable, and finding the right mix is key.
• Sometimes, it's more valuable to help a team fail faster than to try and convince them about how to do something differently.  This allows everyone involved to internalize "the wrong way" of doing things and therefore builds the notion of "we won't make that mistake again" in the group's collective knowledge base.
• Working on "the project from hell" and succeeding really polishes a development team - it's the whole "shared adversity" thing.   I know of no team-building substitute which is as effective. 
• You can't be a prophet in your own village.     Know when to seek others' help on getting a particular message across.
• Avoid those who believe process solves all problems.    As Phillip Su wrote, "Don't fear process.  Fear bad people dictating process.  Fear process trying to make up for bad people". 
• "Visibility" is often identified as the thing needed for advancement.    I don't agree - I think visibility is a byproduct of innovative and excellent work.    If you produce innovative and excellent work, you will naturally advance within an organization.
• Forced collaboration is a harbinger of doom, but organic collaboration is simply delightful.   The capabilities of a team whose members collaborate organically aren't added together, they are multiplied.
• Analysis paralysis is death - bias must be towards action.   At the end of the day, the team must ship a product.
• Don't sweat the mistakes, learn from them.   If you aren't making mistakes, you probably aren't making anything.
• A company can espouse ethics, integrity, quality, etc. all they want, but who is placed into leadership positions and how projects are run will reflect the actual value system of an organization.
• Nobody is good at everything, but everyone is good at something.    Matching someone's capability to a need is a win for everyone and brings great satisfaction to all involved.
• The best technical ideas often come not from a leadership-directed investigation, but from someone who is engaged and asks, "What if...".    The best managers are those who allow you ask the "What if..." questions and then constructively challenge you on your answers.

I'm really excited about what the next page of my career might bring and the things I will learn from my new coworkers!    What have you learned from your coworkers recently?

The Curse of Knowledge

Try This
Try this with a friend - using only your fingers, tap out the rhythm to five or six well known tunes - The Star Spangled Banner, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells, etc.     Have your friend write down the names of the tunes without giving them any hints or suggestions.    Once they have done that, write down your estimate of how many of the songs they got correct.   Compare notes.

The Problem
I recently finished reading "Made to Stick", an excellent book by Chip and Dan Heath on why some ideas seem to find traction while other ideas disappear.   The book references a Stanford study performed by Elizabeth Newton in 1990 which used a similar scenario and found a significant difference between the number of times the "tapper" thought the audience identified the song and the number of times the song actually was identified correctly.   Chip Heath refers to this as "The Curse of Knowledge".   Essentially, the more you know about a topic, the more difficult it is to communicate meaningfully about that topic to those less informed.    The knowledge you have seems so obvious that the audience is assumed to have it as well.     The audience, for their part, doesn't want to seem ignorant or naive and so rarely ask clarifying questions.

The Curse in Action
I have observed this phenomena a number of times in different situations: discussions at work between software developers and non-technical staff, car buffs describing their hot rod, and even Sunday morning sermons.   I've seen others do it, and I've participated myself in both presenter and audience roles.   In each case, the expert (the one talking) referenced concepts or things not familiar to the audience and thus presented an obstacle to knowledge transfer.    If I were to tell you that I had been studying the Gospels, you might not know what I was referencing if you were not brought up in a Christian home or had that faith as a component of your life.    To someone who had that life experience, however, they would immediately know that I had been studying the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.   In this example, "the Gospels" can be considered to be technical jargon - something that is already known to someone who possesses a level of knowledge about the topic but unfamiliar to those who do not.

The Solution
Like most problems, this is easily dealt with once identified and understood.   My approach to solving this problem is to avoid using technical terms, and using analogies  to relate the topic or idea to something else in the listener's realm of knowledge.    I find that although it takes slightly more time to explain something using this approach, the other person is able to understand the idea more readily.

Some would argue that I have thus not been contaminated with knowledge.   How do you share knowledge with others?

Curiosity

Curious...
A couple of years ago, during my annual performance review with my manager, we were discussing some of the different things I liked and disliked about the working environment. One of things I noted was that I was perplexed as to why a segment of the engineering staff always wanted to be sent to training to learn new technologies while the other staff did NOT want to be sent to training. Both groups wanted to learn the technology in question (Javascript) but some felt that it was better to go to a formal class while others wanted to learn on their own.


Wash, Rinse, Repeat
The thing that stuck out in my mind was not the differences in learning styles (both are valid) but rather that the majority of folks who wanted to be sent to the class seemed to be missing a natural curiosity about the topic. Curiosity is something that I value highly in others around me; it is what drives them to ask questions and thus drives me to ask other questions. The answers often raise other questions, which leads into a neat cycle of learning. Curiosity leads to questions, questions lead to answers, answers lead to knowledge, and knowledge leads to curiosity.

An Example
Last year, my curiosity led me to an interesting place. Normally content in the technology / software / hardware areas, I stumbled across a reference to an article in the Harvard Business Review. As I read the article (it happened to be about a specific approach to innovation), I became interested in learning more about related topics such as R&D strategies, budgeting and scheduling when the task is not clearly defined, and more. The cycle of curiosity had taken me in an entirely new direction, and I have benefited from the knowledge gained in both my personal and professional lives.

Nurture It
Although I think I was a naturally curious person previously, that experience demonstrated to me the importance of curiosity. I think it is important to find the answer to some question each day. Many people make a point of walking or running on a regular basis to keep their body in shape. Learning is exercise for the mind, and as such I don't think it is important if the knowledge gained from the answer is immediately useful or not - the benefit is the mental exercise. It's almost a bonus that in doing this, you know more than you did previously. Even better, there is virtually no downside - no one ever threw their back out by reading a book (except my friend Bill, but I digress...).

So what have you learned recently?

Learn to Fly, Learn to Live

I recently saw a poster entitled, "Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten".    I don't recall too much of my time spent in kindergarten (except that Tim Brown liked my plastic Lear Jet toy so much that he tried to take it), but I have learned a lot about life from working on and flying small aircraft.  

1.  Attitude is Important.
Whether rotating at takeoff, configuring for cruise climb, descending for an approach, or flaring to land attitude is key.   Life is like that as well - a good attitude can make a bad situation a little better and can make a good situation great.   

2. Attitude + Power = Performance
For any given aircraft, placing the aircraft in a specific attitude coupled with a specific power setting will result in a specific level of aircraft performance.    Five degrees positive pitch in a wings-level attitude with full power in a Piper Arrow, for example, will eventually yield an 800 foot-per-minute cruise climb at about 115 knots indicated airspeed.    At work and in life, it's not enough to have the correct attitude - success also requires some effort to move forward with that attitude.    To be clear, I'm not referencing political power etc. here but rather plain old hard work - there really isn't any substitute for it.   Also, understand that setting the attitude and power may not result in the desired performance immediately - it can take a bit of time to settle into that cruise climb if you are just coming out of a power dive - but it *will* happen.   

3. Have a Plan, but Be Flexible
I'm not sure that I've ever completed a cross-country flight that went exactly according to plan.   Whether it was a deviation around building weather or ATC advising me, "Arrow One-Niner-Five, Chicago Center, I  have an amended clearance for you.  Advise when ready to copy.", something always pops up.    The key is to be ready and able to accept change.   Don't go charging straight into a thunderstorm just because your plan had you draw a straight line on a map - go around it.   For me, this means living comfortably below our means and saving/investing the difference.  That enables us to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves or deal with unexpected expenses without incurring undue stress.

4. Be the Pilot In Command (PIC)
Section 91.3 of the Federal Aviation Regulations states "The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft."    You, not anyone else, are the PIC for your life and are therefore responsible for it - not your parents, not your boss, not the government.   


5. Maintain Directional Control
Every pilot has a certain capacity to control his aircraft - it starts with the pilot's very first flight and continues to build as he or she gains experience.    Sometimes a situation occurs which exceeds the pilot's abilities and instead of trying to correct the situation, the pilot freezes.   At that point, the pilot is simply along for the ride, occasionally resulting in a starring role in an NTSB report.    No matter what the situation is, be proactive about improving it.   Don't just give up and passively go along for the ride - you might not like where you end up.

6. Superior Pilots
An old adage about superior pilots goes something like this: "A superior pilot is one who uses his superior judgement to avoid needing to rely on his superior skills."      Often, this means studying and thinking about a situation instead of having a knee-jerk reaction.     It also means getting both sides of a story before making a decision, or knowing when to speak and when to shut up.   The best way to win an argument is to not have the argument in the first place, instead finding a solution far enough upstream so as to avoid the conflict entirely.

What about you?  What hobbies/avocations have taught you a life lesson or two?