You should always improving, but should you strengthen a strength or improve a weakness?
Getting better is difficult. You need to make time to improve. I’m pretty good at that. What I’m not good at is picking an area to work on.
On any given evening, I’ll think to myself, “Should I strengthen a strength or should I improve a weakness?” It’s a tough question. There’s no definitive answer.
In fact, I read between 3 and 10 books at a time (There’s a lot of benefits to this!). In any given evening, based on my challenges of the past day or my mood, I’ll pick up a different book. I’ll read a few pages. I’ll learn something new or interesting. Then, I’ll write some notes in my notebook.
Some nights I’ll read a book that will help me get better at something I’m good at. Maybe this would be front end development or management. Other nights, I’ll work on something I know I need to improve. These days, this is usually something like executive presence, strategy, or infrastructure.
I’m currently working towards a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering at Harvard University’s Extension School. For weeks, I’ll go back and fourth on which courses to take. Should I work on something that will help me improve my day to day work? Should I work on something that I have no knowledge of whatsoever? Should I put every class in a top hat and pick one at random?
Last Fall, I decided to take a DevOps course. It focused mostly on AWS and its services. I learned about S3, EC2, VPCs, Internet Gateways, Nat Gateways, Cloud Formation, Ansible, Jenkins, and a few other technologies and services. This was a textbook “improving a weaknesses” strategy.
Earlier this Spring, I took “Internet Applications using Node.js and Angular“. This was textbook example of the “Strengthening a strength” strategy. At FINCURA, I wear multiple hats. One of those hats is the frontend architect – and we use Angular. Needless to say, I learned a few interesting tidbits about Angular I didn’t already know. It was also fun to learn more about Node.
This Fall, I’m getting out of my comfort zone and taking two classes! I’m going to strengthen a strength (Data visualizations with a focus on d3) and improve a weakness (Java! “Java, Hadoop, Lamba Expressions, and Streams).
It’s your call if you want to strengthen a strength or improve a weakness. There’s no right or wrong answer. You can even be like me and do both depending on your mood.
The key is to always be improving. Always try to get better. People often overestimate what they can do in a week, but underestimate what they can do in ten years. Keep moving. Keep improving.