Why you are scared new technologies and how to overcome

I usually post only tech articles, but in this post, I share about "Why you are scared new technologies and how to overcome" tips, as my friends ask this question so many times.

When and why you feel scary

It's simple. We feel scary when we encounter something we don't know (yet). Especially when you hear more than two unknown words in a single sentence, you totally lose the context.

Let's imagine if you are C# developer, who knows nothing about other language and your friend or customer asks you :

Do you know if TypeScript can prevent having bugs due to dynamic type?
You maybe panic as you don't know either Typescript or dynamic type.

But if you are asked the following question, you may feel a bit better:

Do you know if Typescript supports async/await?

Because, even though you don't know about Typescript at all, you are familiar with async/await concept as C# developer.

By the way, the most scary question I had last 10 years was:

Does Dynamics CRM 2011 supports RESTful Endpoint with OAuth and CDN?

You can easily imagine my knowledge limitations at the time as Microsoft engineer :P

How to overcome

Again, it's simple. Just learn the meaning of the terminology. Once you understand that Typescript is just another tool to enable strong type (which is natural to C#) to JavaScript (which is dynamic type base) so that developer can write code like C#.

Not only you are not scared Typescript but you are now comfortable with it as it is actually very close to your expertise.

How to learn?

The remaining question is how to learn. This is the most tricky part as there are multiple uncertain steps to complete the task.

You are uncertain if it worth learning. New things may take long time to understand.
You are uncertain where to start.

My answer for these uncertainties are:

Consider scary or uncertainty as Uncomfortable zone. Then it becomes your opportunity to grow as go outside of comfortable zone is one of the keys of Growth Mindset
Just ask someone around you to start learning. The reason why your friend asked the question to you is that s/he thought you may know it. Then it should be close to your expertise anyway.
You can stop learning anytime if you don't think it's worth learning.

How often you should feel uncomfortableness

I say, at least, once a week. If you could survive without any uncertainty for the week, it's a sign that no-one challenged you for that week. Then jump in to YouTube and randomly pick-up any technologies related video, and play if you feel uncomfortable by seeing the title.

I strongly recommend you to watch series types of YouTube channel which talks variety of topics.

Ken