"I do not understand"

I noticed that the most mature and experienced developers I have ever worked with are among those who most often say “I don't understand” when they listen to a technical explanation. This was the case with colleagues at Fog Creek and Khan Academy .

On the one hand, it is contrary to common sense. Shouldn't the “seniors” already know everything? But it is quite logical. Those who are most confident in their abilities are also people who can recognize that they have not fully understood the essence of anything. Young developers admit that their lack of understanding is their own fault. They do not want to distract the rest because of their imaginary failures.

Young developers should try to realize how frequent misunderstandings are. In most technology stacks, a line has already been passed, after which it is impossible to keep all code in mind, especially in companies that are recruiting employees. And if this border is crossed, more and more you can hear about a new Javascript rendering framework, or the last MapReduce pipeline, or a bug in the deployment script, or a plan for a new caching template, and the quiet voice in your head already wants to say: “Wait ... I don’t understand this . "
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“I don't understand” is the perfect answer. You do not insult anyone. You do not show weakness. You build a culture of respect for the knowledge of others, because after a couple of minutes of explanation you will understand everything.

Either that, or you will not find an error. I like to see this “I don't understand” as a kind of opportunity to use the duckling method . Only here this duckling appears in the flesh and demands, and quacks, and marking time, and I understand all over your keyboard, forcing you to explain various questions.


"I do not understand."

So say the best, and decades later they become masters. We young developers should follow their example and get rid of any negativity associated with these words.