Get Out of the Comfort Zone to Win
Any seasoned programmer has experienced it at a job interview: struggling to impress. As much, as I’d like to tell you about breathtaking inventions or 3am heroics: fixing a crashed server, fending off a vicious DDoS attack, or otherwise riding in on the white horse to save the day (night in that case)…
Successful software development is rather uneventful and boring. The stuff just works — like your kidneys or liver.
No one brags about his/her healthy internal organs. Now, when their efficiency decreases, it becomes a different story. One desperately seeks a doctor. Good or least “expensive” is the patient’s choice. You get what you pay for. It’s your health and life longevity.
Whether CIO’s employment depends on the project/product success and quality, and if the working software is otherwise life or death critical for a given “IT organization” is a separate discussion. I covered it in my IT Meritocracy series here, on Medium. I’d like to talk about good doctors here, not their careless, silly, and plain delusional patients.
Software engineering has a lot in common with auto racing. Both are about two things: using 100% of your equipment and not making mistakes — rather than doing something dramatic to impress the spectators — IT bosses. Racing drama only happens at the back of the grid between rookies. Watching top racers leading the pack through the race is boring. They don’t show off. They simply follow the racing line and concentrate on being smooth. They know when to shift, when to brake, and when to get back on the gas. Firmly, but smoothly, precise to the millisecond — lap after lap after lap…
Expert Java developers leverage powerful tools e.g. Spring Framework to the fullest — like Michael Schumacher (with hopes of full recovery) operates F1 cars at their 100% capacity whether none of us, “spirited commuters” would even complete a practice lap without stalling it.
Unlike Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant, and other athletes that possess certain genetic advantage over the rest of the population, anyone can technically become a top F1 racer like Schumacher. Operating a car does not require any special strength or agility. Schumacher wasn’t born an F1 champion. He became such because others — given a chance — chose not to widen their comfort zone to calmly operate a car at higher speeds — processing the rapid stream of sensory signals: image, sound, and tactile feedback, even smell — yes, without making mistakes.
Any racer knows — get out of the comfort zone to win. Overcome the fear. Set the goal and meticulously execute. Provided you built the fastest car first of course.
