Change terrifies me.  Hands down terrifies me.  Always has.

A few months ago I took a phone call from a recruiter on a new job opportunity.  I agreed to talk to them purely because the guy on the other end of the phone is one I spoken to in the past and I respect him.  Over the course of the last few weeks I slowly came to the conclusion that changing  jobs may actually be a good idea.

The problem is that I love the job I currently have and the team that I am with.  The new place offered me options that were better for my family than where I am currently at.  Eventually I put in my notice and discovered that I am a valuable asset to the company.  This should not have come as a surprise to me, but it did.  They gave me a counter offer that leveled the playing field as far as benefits and the family situation.

Now what do I do.  I discovered that when the field was leveled and the decision was purely about me and what I want for myself I froze up.  How do I make a decision like this.  Leaving a place I love, for the unknown of a new company.

Finally I read the following quote from a woman who I respect and has been in the background of my life for many years whispering in my ear, as any good muse should!

 While I realize change can be scary, there comes a time when our “good enough” isn’t “good enough” anymore and we have to leap past our fears with courage and boldness to live the life we want and deserve.

I never quite know what I want out of life.  Even after two months of contemplating leaving, it wasn’t until today that I realized I am making the right decision.  What become clear to me is that if I don’t take the leap to something new I will not grow in the direction I want to.  While the team I am on now is awesome, I feel like the opportunities offered at the new company will help me to grow in my career in a way that my current job will never be able to do.

Saying goodbye to the great team I am with now will be difficult.  But looking forward to whats coming up has me excited to see whats around the corner.

Learn the basics deeply.
Review the complex shallowly.

By learning the basics of development and programming languages deeply it will give you the foundation needed to create well formed solid software.  By reviewing many complex theories shallowly you know what is possible, expanding your toolkit and general knowledge base.

A person only has so much brain power.  We learn new things every day.  Old concepts and skills slowly degrade when not used.  We fill the space that is created when our old skills disappear with new knowledge.  Spending time carefully choosing what that new knowledge will be is an important part of our development as software engineers.

Spend your time focusing on truly deeply understanding the basic fundamentals of the tools and languages you use on a daily basis.  Learn to build a small piece of simple software properly with clean code, unit tests, proper documentation, and a simple clean user interface. Being able to do this will help a person better in the long run than being able to use a single piece of complexity that they will never need again.

Instead of trying to learn a complex piece of information completely, take the time to skim over many different complex pieces of information only studying them as deeply as is needed to understand why they are out there.  This helps you to build up a toolkit to understand what is possible and what has already been done.

When the time finally does come that you need to understand the complex. Make sure you understand the basics of what it is before you try to use it.  Really understand its purpose.