Learning

A problem with working in tech -- even as, now, a leader and not as much a doer -- is the constant requirement to learn new stuff. (This is even more pronounced now that I work in the field of tech education, for reasons that should be self-evident, but also for other reasons--this is a new field for me and there is a lot of deep domain knowledge in our organization that I feel I need to catch up with.) This need/requirement stands at odds with a desire for craftsmanship. I enjoy learning something thoroughly, going deep, having a sense of mastery. 

There is also the need/requirement to ship. Shipping requires learning new things quickly, and often incompletely, in order to Actually Get Shit Done™. This isn't only the domain of tech, but it does feel more pronounced in tech. Every year there is a new language, every month a new framework, every week a new tool that either promises to assist one's efforts to ship or worse is absolutely required by the same.

There is a part of me that just wants to learn one thing as thoroughly as I possibly could. It wouldn't matter what that thing was to be. But I literally cannot. I cannot spend the time required. If I did, I would not be providing the value I must to the organization that compensates me for that value; I wouldn't create value in the organizations where I am part-owner; I wouldn't be of use to my family, my children, my legacy; I wouldn't be able to sleep and would rather quickly become useless anyway.

Compound all of this with my general curiosity regarding all the things. I find it difficult to say no. I find it difficult to not follow the rabbit hole from New Yorker article to Wikipedia to these three books on the subject that I'll either add to my reading list or even buy, but never read. It's a cloud of unknowing but instead of the philosophical type it's a literal type, just a cloud of all the things I could know but don't know, hanging over my head day and night.

I'm the Joe Btfsplk of learning.