A few weeks ago I was called up to do a data acquisition (DAQ) job. The moment my boss tell me about the job I was feeling bad inside. I thought another data acquisition job. As soon as I get out of the meeting I was dragging myself to desk thinking I have to do the same boring task that I am doing for years.
I am good at these types of tasks. I have vast experience and can do without any hassles. But still, I hate it.
Sound awkward?… Something you are good at and you hate it!... But Why?
I hate it because I am done with it. Doing a monotonous job is boring as hell.
There were days when I feel challenged when doing DAQ jobs. I solved many problems and posted articles about them.
We are programmers. We like creativity and we hate routine. Doing a similar type of job in a routine is boring for us.
One of my friends is working on android apps development in another organization. Whenever we meet I like to talk about android development because I love android development and have developed/published apps as my side projects.
Guess what my friend said about apps development? He does not like it.
For him, there is no more challenge in app development. App development has become a routine for him. He is more interested in the kind of work that I do.
Also, from research, I found that sticking to one technology domain will make you a dinosaur. If you do not learn new things you will perish.
You might be thinking that 'Hmmm... what happens to the phrase: “Jack of all trades and master of none”. How will you achieve skills and ability if you do not stick to one technology?
There are two approaches. I will discuss them briefly.
1) Be the Ultimate Master in One Thing
Be so good in your field that nobody matches you. It's like the number one player in sports. Or the number one surgeon of ‘XYZ’ body part.
If you are the best you will always be called upon. This is the approach that we are most familiar with.
2) The idea sex--Be good enough in two or more fields
The second approach is to be good enough in two fields and combine them. This is a new idea and popularized by the Matt Ridley in his Ted Talk.
It says that combine the experience of two fields and get something useful. Or if you know about more than one technology you are more useful because now you have the toolset to solve more problems.
For creative people like us, the second approach is more helpful. I found a piece of advice that is very helpful for software developers:
"Focusing on one technology is better for getting a job. Learning multiple technologies is better for building a career. Decide which of the two is what you want, and go from there."
But in the technology world, new technologies emerging and disappearing day by day. How would you select, learn and apply a new technology? That I will discuss in the next email.
Finally, have you ever feel like me? Getting tired of the monotonous programming job. If yes tell me your stories in the comments or at my blog.
Top comments (7)
Couldn't agree more Umair. I became a Android developer back then because I wanted to create apps with freedom and ideas. It was fun, until I made it into a career that building apps became like the news anchor following the scripted content on screen.
I can’t agree more with the problem of the rotine. I feel the same. Great post.
Nice addition Muhammad! I’ve definitely been there (lots of times) with you. There are two things that helped me:
1) I really got into software craftsmanship for a while there. It makes even the routine tasks much more interesting because there’s always more to do and explore. It’s kind of Zen like.
2) I got into tech leadership in a big way. It turns out, for me anyway, that humans are endlessly interesting and challenging. And I still get to be as technical as I want to be.
I bet a lot of folks here have other ideas too!
I am fighting routine by trying something new every time I have to do „the same“.
There are still quite a lot of options to test, before I run out of things I can try.
Best of luck in your journey!
Thanks a lot!
heh, I thought you are going to say you swapped jobs with your friend and each of you mentored the other in finishing it.