Something has changed. I got the sense a couple of times earlier this summer. And when I this week upgraded Yarn — it became impossible to not notice that something has changed.

It feels like I am swimming at the deep end, when I didn’t know that I could.

I didn’t know before now… 🙃

• what I am capable of figuring out on my own.
• the extent of what I can learn within a couple of hours.
• how I can dig into something unknown and end up getting it.
• that I could branch out and absorb new knowledge at this level.
• how all that previously incomprehensible documentation is actually well within what I am able to read, understand and use to solve hard problems.

But now I do. And it has been a serious boost. I will not limit myself to only attempt solving problems in the vicinity of what I already know. I will no longer accept copy/pasting commands that I don’t understand. And I will make it a priority to be less impatient with what I try to learn.

So… why did this change for me? 🤔

• I have been thinking about how to learn more on purpose.
• My team has recently had a lot of discussions around when people should ask for help, and when to invest time in figuring out problems on your own.
• It had been explicitly repeated that it’s okay to use work hours to learn.
• Circumstances meant it felt perfectly fine to set aside what I originally planned to work on that day. No one was waiting for any specific delivery from me.
• I reflected upfront over how this was probably going to be really uncomfortable, and made a conscious decision to practice being okay with having that feeling. ✌️

Now I know that I can swim at the deep end — and I can’t wait to see what comes next.