Stagnation occurs - in my opinion - when you no longer have the energy to continue learning something new at least every day. Unfortunately with projects like my home renovations and the contract with Tobyhanna Army Depot I am unable to devote as much time as I'd like to my own knowledge development. However, I find plenty of time to share the knowledge I have already acquired with colleagues at the job site.
I am learning plenty of things about ASP.NET that I hadn't known before. But I'm learning on the .NET Framework version 2.0. And here, Microsoft has already begun working on .NET version 4.0. How is a guy to keep up? Microsoft's pace is certainly not a fault, however, I've noticed that many "Microsofties" spend so much time keeping up with the most recent Microsoft technologies that they have no idea how to use CSS. Or... anything else for that matter.
I don't fault those people for these things. I do however, blame Microsoft at least a little bit. The problem is that Microsoft is enabling</em> them to put the blinders on while Microsoft handles the heavy lifting. Microsoft provides themes, GUIs, and other tools to reduce the amount of actual code</em> that a developer needs to be concerned with.
I consider myself a different breed, though. I am one of those .NET developers that rarely</em> uses "Design Mode." Design Mode in my opinion is sacriligous. I need</em> to be able to see everything that is going on. I live</em> in the source. If I can't understand what is actually going on behind the scenes then I'm not learning. I'm not expanding my thoughts. If I were to just settle for using the same old Microsoft provided controls, and the same old Microsoft provided interfaces, then I'd be like one of those zombies in the Matrix. I've got the lining pulled over my eyes. They're spoon feeding me my regulated dietary requirements. My wings will never be spread, my legs never stretched, my eyes never to see</em>.
So I'm glad I have a somewhat different perspective. So maybe I'm not a Microsoft MVP - yet - but I am damn good at figuring out how and why things work. Then by transferring that knowledge, I help improve everyone's condition.
And with that... I'm out. It is about 23:23 and I'm already awake 2 hours and 23 minutes past my bed time.
Comments
comments powered by Disqus