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Success transforms people a lot, it makes people feel that they are successful only because of their intelligence. By attributing success to their intelligence, people over the course of time regard themselves way too higher than their peers. This makes them feel that they are superior and sometimes not so appreciative of the knowledge and work of the new comers or the relatively inexperienced ones.

I observed that success was largely due to being at the right place at the right time and from then on it was a matter of hanging on to it. Just like a discovery is an accident meeting a prepared mind, success is also an accident meeting a well prepared mind. Some studies on IQ shows that intelligence is very much overrated. A person with an IQ of 110 can possibly do any job and excel at it with some deliberate practice and discipline. On an average, one in every four individuals have an IQ of 110, which means out of four people one person is capable of doing any work and excel in it like any other top performer in that field.

Below is a ted talk which talks about how humans perceive themselves to be superior when they have more wealth compared to others.

The talk also mentions that people do not do it knowingly. If we give those nudges and pushes at the right time to make people understand that they were at the right place at the right time to be at this level, then people will stay humble throughout their successful journey. Wealth is very easy to measure, so any individual looking at their wealth could easily know what their worth is. Knowledge and skill is not so easily measurable and hence people can get into a wrong sense of accomplishment and success. If that wrong sense of success gets into the head, it will lead us into a learning stage called “Expert Beginner” as mentioned in this blog [Expert Beginner]. In short “Expert Beginners” are the ones who have learnt something and before progressing to become competent they stop learning looking at the rapid progress and success they had in their new initiative. Growth stagnates from there on.

We just need to remind ourselves that a successful career may be just because of being at the right place at the right time and there is lot more to learn and lot more to do than to feel entitled and be on top.

Two things define you – Your patience when you have nothing, and your attitude when you have everything

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When beginning to work out for the first time, the first exercise I tried to do was to use the dumbbells to build up my arms. That is when the instructor caught hold of what I am doing and explained the difference between useful core strength and body building. I should first look to build my core strength before I could bulk up the muscles and flex it, also there is a risk of muscle detachment or broken bones if done wrong. My idea of building up muscles to flex was wrong and counter productive if taken the most obvious and easy route.

The scenario is also similar when I look at the choice of technologies when choosing to implement a new software project. The technology choices are often a trade off after considering so many concerns, some of the concerns may not even be technical in nature. If we chose a technology only because it is cutting edge or the latest one, then once the development hands over to maintenance; they may face lots of trouble because of the choice made.

The choice of technology should never be something that is analogous to flexing the muscles. It is always context specific, if the project’s main goal is to show case technical prowess and the software may be replaced within a short period of time with another one written from scratch; then there is no problem to use the latest and state of the art technologies so that we can flex our muscles.

There are too many questions to ask ourselves and consider the trade offs before we settle on technology decision. We have to consider maintenance team’s capability, fault tolerance, performance, life time of the software, scaling, frequency of maintenance and enhancement releases, which country and kind of internet connections will users use. There is no one size fits all or new kid in the block to address all the concerns at once, the choice is always a trade off.

Image courtesy of clker.com | Clipart

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Are we going in circles? We first had a single large computer, then we had multiple terminals connected to it and used it. Later personal computers helped breakaway from large ones and dumb terminals. We were able to work in our computers all day without internet, now computers without internet is like fish without water. People worked in large open floors then cubicles gained popularity and again open plan offices were used; now people are debating whether open plan offices are beneficial or not.

Vacillate

Why do we vacillate? If you have heard or read the “The retrospective prime directive“, the answer lies there. We are dealing with increasingly large systems with a cause and effect so interlinked and having delayed feedback that we will only be able to realize in hindsight. As times change so do the environment and the abilities, so what worked well few years back is questionable for a current situation. So the best is to keep looking for the right fit for the given condition and it is not vacillation, it is just we are getting tuned to current state of the system.

The adjustment to the current state looks like we keep vacillating between the choices, but we are not vacillating. We are just adapting.

Image courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net