Do not think that this is all there is. More and more magnificent teachings exist. The way of the sword is unfathomable. The world is wide and filled with many teachings. Keep this in mind and never believe that you are the only one who knows.
- Yamaoka Tesshu
Beyond Expertise
Finally, after all this talk about expertise and becoming more expert, what lies beyond the expert? In an oddly circular way, the most sought-after thing you want to achieve after becoming an expert is... the beginner's mind.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.
- Shunryo Suzuki-Roshi
The professional kiss of death for an expert is to act like one. Once you believe in your own expertness, you close your mind to possibilities. You stop acting on curiosity. You may begin to resist change in your field for fear of losing authority on a subject you've spent so long mastering. Your own judgment and views, instead of supporting you, can imprison you.
I've seen a lot of this over the years. Folks invest heavily in some language, say, Java, or C++ before it. They get all the certifications; they memorize the fifteen lineal feet of books on the API and related tools. Then some new language comes around that lets them write programs much more concisely and more intuitively, test more thoroughly, achieve greater concurrency more easily, and so on. And they don't want any part of it. They'll spend more energy deriding the newcomer than in seriously evaluating it for their needs.
That's not the kind of expert you want to become.
Instead, always keep a "beginner's" mind. Ask "what if?" You want to emulate a child's insatiable curiosity, full of wonder and amazement. Maybe this new language is really cool. Or maybe this other, newer language is. Maybe I can learn something from this cool object-oriented operating system, even if I never intend to use it.
Approach learning without preconceived notions, prior judgment, or a fixed viewpoint. See things exactly as they are - just as a child would.
Wow. This is cool. I wonder how it works? What is it?
Be aware. Be aware of your own reaction to new technology, new ideas, or things you don't know about. Self-awareness is key to becoming an expert - and beyond - but it falls prey to the "old-habit-neural-highway" problem.
Be aware of yourself, of the present moment, and of the context in which you're operating. I think the biggest reason that any of us fail is that we have a tendency to put things on autopilot. Unless we sense some new and novel attribute, we zone out. Leonardo da Vinci complained about this 600 years ago: "People look without seeing, hear without listening, eat without awareness of taste, touch without feeling, and talk without thinking." We remain guilty of this all the time: we scoff down a hurried meal on the go without actually tasting or savoring it; we hear users or sponsors tell us precisely what they want in a product, but we don't listen. We look all the time without seeing. We presume we already know.
...
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
- Popular phrase after John Philpot Curran, 1790
Not only is eternal vigilance the price of liberty, but it's the price of awareness as well. As soon as you go on autopilot, you're not steering anymore. Maybe that's OK on a long straight highway, but life more often resembles a twisty, narrow road like the Road to Hana in Maui. You need to constantly reevaluate yourself and your condition, lest habits and past wisdom blind you to the reality in front of you.
Tip 48: Grab the wheel. You can't steer on autopilot.
Go ahead and grab the wheel. You have everything you need: the same brain as Einstein, Jefferson, Poincaré, or Shakespeare. You have more facts, fictions, and viewpoints at your fingertips than at any other time in history.
- Andy Hunt, Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
