The Buckblog

This is the second article in a series titled “There is no magic, there is only awesome.” The first article introduced the “four cardinal rules of awesomeness”.

If you’ve ever watched someone make string figures, it’s pretty obvious that the tool set includes a loop of string, and your fingers. But if you haven’t played with string figures much, you might be surprised to learn that you’ve got a lot more than string and fingers at your disposal.

There are figures that require the use of your wrists to hold the string. Some require you to use your lips, teeth, tongue, or nose. I know a few that use the neck. There are some that use the elbow, knee, foot, or toes. A few require you to set the figure down on a flat surface to manipulate it.

There are many figures that require the use of another person, or several people. Some figures actually require multiple strings. Some require additional props, such as sticks.

Different figures might require different types of string. Some, like Eskimo figures, work best with a thicker, shorter, stiffer string, while those of the Pacific islands tend to prefer longer, more supple and slippery strings.

With so many variables, and so many ways of combining them, how then does one ever excel at string figures? Is it hopeless?

Of course it isn’t. As with any other activity, there are simply a set of tools to be employed, and the expert will be well acquainted with them. It’s rule #1 of being awesome: know thy tools.

Knowing vs. Knowing

But what does that mean? It certainly doesn’t mean just “knowing what your tools are”, otherwise you’d all be on your way to string figure mastery, just by reading the above paragraphs. Knowing your tools necessarily means knowing, deeply, how to use a tool. It means knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, knowing why a particular tool is best in any given situation, and knowing how to learn more about them.

In fact, those statements can be generalized into four questions that can be used to gauge the depth of your knowledge about most anything:

1. What does this do best?
2. What does this do worst?
3. Why should I use this in particular?
4. When was the last time I learned something new about this?

We’ll hit those four questions in each of the articles that follow, but for now, I’m going to apply them specifically the tools of my own professional domain: writing software.

The tools of computing

If you write software, step back for a minute and think about the tools you use every day. This includes your operating system, your text editor, your command shell, your SCM. It’s your web browser, your terminal client, your email and IM clients. It includes command-line utilities you probably use without thinking, every day: grep, sed, awk, find, ls and cd, to name a few. It’s even your hardware: the keyboard you use, your mouse, your monitor, your computer. It probably includes many other things that I’ve completely overlooked! (Note, though, that programming languages will be covered separately; they are certainly tools of the trade, but they’re such spectacularly important tools that they deserve their own rule of awesomeness. More on that when we hit rule #2.)

So, now it’s your turn. Go ahead and grab a scrap of paper. Make a list, right now, of the tools you use every day. I’ll wait.

Done? Okay, awesome. Now, go through each item on your list and ask yourself each of the four “knowledge gauge” questions:

1. What does this do best?

Compared with similar tools, what does this tool do best? Don’t use a pre-recorded, generic answer. Think about it. Consider it carefully. Be specific. For particularly powerful or flexible tools, there may be multiple answers, and that’s okay. Your answer may quite possibly be debatable, and that’s okay, too. The point here is that you need to have an opinion. If someone asks you why in the world you choose to use Vim instead of Emacs, don’t let the silence stretch awkwardly. Know your mind!

2. What does this do worst?

Related to the previous question: At what is this tool particularly bad? Again, this is in comparison with similar tools. And there is no such thing as a perfect tool, so there’s no point trying to skip this question. That’s a cop out. If you don’t have a few pet peeves for each tool in your toolbox, then chances are you aren’t familiar enough with your tools. Have an opinion.

3. Why should I use this in particular?

Given all possible alternatives, why am I using this tool in particular? Was it recommended to you? Are you using it “by mandate”? Perhaps it was it a gift, or a hand-me-down? Have you personally tried any of the alternatives? The real test of this question is having someone ask you for a recommendation. If you were to recommend this tool, and they were to ask “why” in return, what would you tell them? Similarly, if someone were to ask you about one of the alternatives, would you be able to give them an educated opinion? (You do have one, right?)

4. When was the last time I learned something new about this?

In many ways, this is the most important of the four questions. It’s purpose is to make you aware of potential stagnation. Certainly there is a point at which you say can that you know a tool “well enough”. It gets your job done. It suffices. Perhaps you’re even something of an expert, with deep knowledge about the tool. But no matter how well you know a tool, if you stop learning and instead put your expertise on “cruise control”, you’ll stagnate. Expire. Rot. Guaranteed. To be exceptional, you must be active.

Don’t stagnate. Seriously, just don’t. If it’s been a while since you learned something new about one of your tools, take a good look at that tool. Look at its documentation. Find tutorials or blog articles. Books, videos, podcasts, whatever. Try to find something new about it, something that you didn’t know before. Perhaps it’s a feature you weren’t aware of. Maybe it’s just a new application of the tool. Perhaps-now, don’t freak out here-it’s another tool altogether! Never be afraid of replacing your tools when something better comes along. (It’s actually really, really valuable to continually experiment with similar tools, even if you’re satisifed with what you already have. It’s like learning a foreign language: it gives you a new perspective, and can introduce you to things, to which you might otherwise have never been exposed.)

Keep in mind, too, that “something new” does not have to mean “something mind-blowing”. In fact, such discoveries will be the exception. The point here is to simply be proactive, regularly flexing your knowledge muscles. And then, you must apply that new bit of knowledge in your workflow. Otherwise, it’s not really learned, is it? It’ll atrophy if you don’t exercise it.

Try to find at least one new thing per day. It may be cliche, but it’s also true: “practice makes awesome.” Or something like that.

Have an opinion.

These questions are intended to make you think about your tool set. It can be hard, at first, to step back and “meta-analyze” yourself and your habits, but you really can’t have a meaningful opinion if you don’t think about things. And trust me, you want to have opinions. People without opinions are, frankly, boring. They’re pretty much the opposite of awesome. Blindly accepting recommendations, mindlessly reciting others’ claims, and cargo-culting others’ solutions might be an okay place to start, if you must, but it’s always a lousy place to finish.

Get first-hand experience. Learn. Expose your hidden assumptions. Ask “why”. Have an opinion.

Know thy tools.