Embracing technologies rather than solving problems

belhassen07

Belhassen Chelbi

Posted on February 26, 2019

Embracing technologies rather than solving problems

One of the worst mistakes I've ever done in my career is that I embraced technologies so much that I became a learning machine for trending and cool technologies even though I didn't see the problem they're trying to solve but they were so much hype around them.

Another Javascript framework and blockchain based product

I think that's harmful for two reasons:

  • First, that will make your learning journey as a life-time learner so overwhelming and stressful. I bet you do see how infinite the technologies you need to learn and it's breaking you apart.
  • Second, you most probably will be making technologies centered products that solve no particular problems that users need to solve, but rather less interesting products around the hype of a new technology.

So what should we do? 

For the learning dilemma part, accept the fact that you can't learn every single technology that's coming, whether it's a programming language, a library, a software, a tool or what ever. It doesn't even matter if it's a technology, it could be some concept. You can't learn everything and that's okay. In fact, you're not supposed to.

Embrace the fact that you're trying to solve a particular problem to ease the life of someone. It can sound idealistic but it's real. Sometimes it's obvious but sometimes you have to dig deep to find it.

In fact what we're doing doesn't have a human "side", it's human in its core and that comes natural for me as a product designer but I believe no matter what you're doing you can always be rediscovered.

So from now on, if a technology comes out or became trending, ask yourself this particular question:
Is this going to help me solve the kind of products I'm interested in or does it solve a particular problem that I am having, for my workflow for example?
If not, don't learn it and focus about the technologies or tools you already know. Don't be jack of all trades and master of none! And I'll be talking about that in the next article.

💖 💪 🙅 🚩
belhassen07
Belhassen Chelbi

Posted on February 26, 2019

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