Turns out this whole learning from experience thing actually works
This post is part of a group writing project on the theme of "What I Learned This Year" being spearheaded by Ben Yoskovitz at the Instigator Blog.
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Professionally, 2006 has been a really interesting year.
First and foremost, I was lucky enough to be able to spearhead a project—on my employers dime, no less—that embodied a lot of my personal passions, interests and beliefs.
Besides being lots and lots of fun this was also quite a challenge.
One of the things I learned along way was how alarmingly easy it is to lose sight of your convictions when you're focused on execution and all of the minutia it entails. It wasn’t until I slowed down and came up for air that realized I had been drifting away from some of the ideas and principles that had intially inspired me to take the project on.
And even though I eventually caught myself drifting and cranked the wheel hard to get back on course, I remain surprised by the experience.
And humbled.
And there’s more—an extra layer of irony to really drive it home. You see, foremost among the convictions I ended up losing sight of was a belief in the importance of remaining relentlessly focused on the user.
Which is exactly the opposite of what started to happen as I drifted towards myopia.
So anyhow, I think there are a few worthwhile lessons in there. Lessons about the difference between theory and practice, vision and execution. Lessons about human fallibility and our capacity for self-deception. And lessons about stones and glass houses, too.
Here’s hoping each and every one of them sticks in my rusty ol’ noodle.
Tags: lessons, insights, whatIlearned, what_i_learned
- - -
Professionally, 2006 has been a really interesting year.
First and foremost, I was lucky enough to be able to spearhead a project—on my employers dime, no less—that embodied a lot of my personal passions, interests and beliefs.
Besides being lots and lots of fun this was also quite a challenge.
One of the things I learned along way was how alarmingly easy it is to lose sight of your convictions when you're focused on execution and all of the minutia it entails. It wasn’t until I slowed down and came up for air that realized I had been drifting away from some of the ideas and principles that had intially inspired me to take the project on.
And even though I eventually caught myself drifting and cranked the wheel hard to get back on course, I remain surprised by the experience.
And humbled.
And there’s more—an extra layer of irony to really drive it home. You see, foremost among the convictions I ended up losing sight of was a belief in the importance of remaining relentlessly focused on the user.
Which is exactly the opposite of what started to happen as I drifted towards myopia.
So anyhow, I think there are a few worthwhile lessons in there. Lessons about the difference between theory and practice, vision and execution. Lessons about human fallibility and our capacity for self-deception. And lessons about stones and glass houses, too.
Here’s hoping each and every one of them sticks in my rusty ol’ noodle.
Tags: lessons, insights, whatIlearned, what_i_learned
Labels: lessons, what I learned
