Early on, I was intimidated when someone knew more than me. I still am at times. However, I also actively seek it out and I know that working with people who are better than me at something means I’m growing—it means I’m in the right room. It’s not about competition on an individual level, it’s about learning and collaborating with others to create something cool!
I used to feel pressure to have all the answers, and (like the previous lesson), I still do at times today. However, I’ve come to realize that the real value often lies in asking the right questions (whether those are directed towards Google, AI bots, or people) rather than pretending to already know everything. My goal isn’t to retain the most amount of raw data in my head, it’s to be able to pull on my experiences and the information I can harness to come up with elegant solutions.
I’ve learned the hard way that it’s often smarter to see what solutions others have come up with before succumbing to the temptation of devising a design from scratch. Digging into the documented methods, reference schematics, programs, and procedures has saved me time and sanity and is now a core part of how I approach technical problems.