"Friday and the sea knee-deep": 5 skills that do not require talent
Little can stop a talented person from achieving their goals. However, the researchers found that success depends not only on talent. Rather, he is almost completely independent of him.
In addition to natural endowments, there are several other qualities that can develop skills in any field of activity, including the development of services and software. In this article, we offer you five skills that do not require talent, the development of which can have a positive impact on your working success.
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/ photo Shabai Liu CC
Situations are very different, so it is not always possible to come on time to work or to a meeting. And there is nothing bad in it - after all, it’s not for nothing that humanity came up with the special word “late”. It happens. However, time management expert Diana DeLonzor does not advise you to make a habit out of it.
She found that people who are always late are usually suffering from procrastination. Yes, postponing cases for later may be useful, but most often this behavior causes only problems with self-control and concentration. One has only to see how the people of Ghana work - they consider it normal to come to the meeting a few hours later and not warn them that their potential interlocutor is late (at least in the field of IT).
Programming is a hard mental work, to some extent an art, therefore the “loss of focus” can negatively affect the quality of work. Striving for punctuality is also worthwhile for team members in leadership positions. In some situations, your lateness may affect the productivity of your subordinates, and not to mention the fact that you are showing a bad example.
In her research, Diana notes that everyone who is late is not willing to get rid of the habit, so she offers her own way of fighting: “Paint everything on the floor for a month, including washing dishes and eating food, indicating how much time they should take. Then write down how much time it actually took and compare the results. This simple exercise will allow you to more accurately build forecasts. ” Also, some useful tips on planning are given by web developer Alexander Fedorenko - you can find them here .
Coming to work on time, you reserve time to do useful things in the morning — this is the moment when the productivity of most people is at its peak. This will allow you to do more tasks in a shorter period of time. We understand that there are times when you need to stay longer on the “service” or take tasks for the weekend, but it’s better not to abuse it. Jason Fried, one of the founders of Basecamp, asserts that when a person spends less time at work, he is more attentive to it and concentrates on what is truly important. That is why Jason works only four days a week.
If you are interested in reading about the principles of Basecamp, which gave the world the Ruby on Rails framework, its founders wrote three books on this topic. The authors believe that the priority should always be the development of a real product, and detailed plans, reports and meetings are secondary.
I would also like to remind project managers and the companies themselves that you should not evaluate the work of an employee by the amount of time invested. Look at the result - quality can be achieved in a short time. On whether to force developers to work overtime, we even wrote a separate material in his blog on Habré.
To master any skill, you need to spend on improving it a certain amount of time. Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist and sociologist, writes in the Outliers book that this threshold is 10,000 hours. As an example, he cites Bill Gates, who sat all day and night in a computer classroom. In the end, after tireless work with computers, he founded the company Microsoft.
At the same time, it is necessary to understand what this time is spent on. If you play the piano only dog ​​waltz, then you are unlikely to be invited to the conservatory. If you write programs on templates, you will not start to "grow." Thoughtless repetition of the same task undermines self-confidence and causes boredom, therefore, when developing software, try to entertain yourself, to invent (where it is possible and not prohibited) an original, but effective solution. The management of the company in this case should not be blamed, but on the contrary, encourage the creativity of employees.
We live in the digital world when information is no further from us than in a couple of clicks of a computer mouse. Because you should not neglect the tips that are shared by colleagues in the craft. Today, many programmers and developers maintain their own blogs. Here is a short list of the most popular ones.
It is equally important to learn to develop teamwork skills. Patrick Lencioni, president of The Table Group consulting company, describes three “virtues of an ideal team player”: focus on the success of the whole team; the desire to do everything possible for the benefit of the team; effective interaction with partners. It is necessary to break the old stereotype that a developer is a person sitting in a basement behind a computer.
“People have different desires, characters, approaches to work. Said JustGiving lead developer Michal Franc. “A good team player knows how to use these differences for the benefit of the team, he knows how to ask people about something, how to communicate with them.” A well-coordinated development team moves forward much faster.
An excellent example of the result of teamwork is the Basecamp mentioned above: four of its founders worked remotely, being in different time zones. At the same time, they consider trust to be the basis of the team’s success (for other features of remote work, see the book Remote )
All of us have heard more than once how important it is to play sports and eat right, everyone talks about it, but such obvious and basic things provide our body with the necessary energy.
Anthony Robbins (Tony Robbins), an American writer and entrepreneur dealing with the topic of self-development, considers oxygen and water to be the main sources of energy. “The lungs and the lymphatic system are responsible for the metabolism and cleansing of the body. Proper - not superficial - breathing depends on the food eaten, the amount of fluid you drink, exercise, and your ability to manage stress, says Anthony. “Regular aerobic exercise, such as running and cycling, helps strengthen the lungs, heart, and blood vessels.”
Water stimulates blood circulation. Due to this, the body receives nutrients and gets rid of harmful particles. Approximately two liters of water should be taken daily and foods with a high fluid content, more often fruits and vegetables, should be consumed more often.
Thus, a healthy diet and fresh air can support your mental activity, which is not superfluous when writing code. If you're interested in this topic, here are some tips from Todd Motto, the founder of Voux, about how to be a healthy software developer.
The historian Yuval Harari, in his new book on artificial intelligence, states that in the near future the main work will be done by machines. Because no one will know what to learn at the university, because it is not known what skills we will need. Nevertheless, the author notes that the basic ability will still remain the ability to learn, so you need to use any opportunity to learn something new.
The world of technology is changing rapidly, so we all try to constantly learn. Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University agrees with this in his book The New Psychology of Success.
For this reason, managers should encourage self-education of employees. It is possible, even to allocate additional time for self-development. Since, as Michal Franz points out, a software developer needs a lot of time to update his knowledge in his field and to supplement his knowledge in other areas [this is a technical field]. ” In the future, when an employee’s competency level rises, both the company and the programmer himself will benefit.
It is also worth noting that as a tool for training and developing development skills, according to Radek Pazdera, a programmer from Kano, open projects are well suited. “Many advise developers to learn one programming language per year in order to absorb new paradigms, ” Radek says . - I am inclined to add to this also the launch of one open project. This allows you to experience all the features of product release from the beginning to the end, which can be hidden from your view when working in a large company. ”
To summarize, what skills that do not require talent will allow you to work better:
Punctuality and time saving . Constant lateness and procrastination cause only problems with self-control and concentration. Coming to work on time, you reserve time to do useful things in the morning. Since most people are at their peak at this time of day, you will be able to do more in less time.
Diligence and perseverance . Try to come up with original solutions to "shake things up" and dispel boredom.
Communication skills Read the blogs that lead programmers, learn from the experience. You should also learn to communicate with the team in order to avoid destructive differences. A well-coordinated development team moves forward much faster.
Energetic . Healthy eating stimulates high mental activity, which is useful when writing code.
Learnability The ability to learn will always be one of the main skills. The world of technology is changing rapidly, so it is necessary to allocate time to “refresh” their knowledge. A good workout will be regular work on open projects, which will allow you to “feel” the entire product launch process and learn how to attract contributors.
In addition to natural endowments, there are several other qualities that can develop skills in any field of activity, including the development of services and software. In this article, we offer you five skills that do not require talent, the development of which can have a positive impact on your working success.
')
/ photo Shabai Liu CC
1. Punctuality and time saving
Situations are very different, so it is not always possible to come on time to work or to a meeting. And there is nothing bad in it - after all, it’s not for nothing that humanity came up with the special word “late”. It happens. However, time management expert Diana DeLonzor does not advise you to make a habit out of it.
She found that people who are always late are usually suffering from procrastination. Yes, postponing cases for later may be useful, but most often this behavior causes only problems with self-control and concentration. One has only to see how the people of Ghana work - they consider it normal to come to the meeting a few hours later and not warn them that their potential interlocutor is late (at least in the field of IT).
Programming is a hard mental work, to some extent an art, therefore the “loss of focus” can negatively affect the quality of work. Striving for punctuality is also worthwhile for team members in leadership positions. In some situations, your lateness may affect the productivity of your subordinates, and not to mention the fact that you are showing a bad example.
In her research, Diana notes that everyone who is late is not willing to get rid of the habit, so she offers her own way of fighting: “Paint everything on the floor for a month, including washing dishes and eating food, indicating how much time they should take. Then write down how much time it actually took and compare the results. This simple exercise will allow you to more accurately build forecasts. ” Also, some useful tips on planning are given by web developer Alexander Fedorenko - you can find them here .
Coming to work on time, you reserve time to do useful things in the morning — this is the moment when the productivity of most people is at its peak. This will allow you to do more tasks in a shorter period of time. We understand that there are times when you need to stay longer on the “service” or take tasks for the weekend, but it’s better not to abuse it. Jason Fried, one of the founders of Basecamp, asserts that when a person spends less time at work, he is more attentive to it and concentrates on what is truly important. That is why Jason works only four days a week.
If you are interested in reading about the principles of Basecamp, which gave the world the Ruby on Rails framework, its founders wrote three books on this topic. The authors believe that the priority should always be the development of a real product, and detailed plans, reports and meetings are secondary.
I would also like to remind project managers and the companies themselves that you should not evaluate the work of an employee by the amount of time invested. Look at the result - quality can be achieved in a short time. On whether to force developers to work overtime, we even wrote a separate material in his blog on Habré.
2. Diligence and perseverance
To master any skill, you need to spend on improving it a certain amount of time. Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist and sociologist, writes in the Outliers book that this threshold is 10,000 hours. As an example, he cites Bill Gates, who sat all day and night in a computer classroom. In the end, after tireless work with computers, he founded the company Microsoft.
At the same time, it is necessary to understand what this time is spent on. If you play the piano only dog ​​waltz, then you are unlikely to be invited to the conservatory. If you write programs on templates, you will not start to "grow." Thoughtless repetition of the same task undermines self-confidence and causes boredom, therefore, when developing software, try to entertain yourself, to invent (where it is possible and not prohibited) an original, but effective solution. The management of the company in this case should not be blamed, but on the contrary, encourage the creativity of employees.
3. Communication
We live in the digital world when information is no further from us than in a couple of clicks of a computer mouse. Because you should not neglect the tips that are shared by colleagues in the craft. Today, many programmers and developers maintain their own blogs. Here is a short list of the most popular ones.
It is equally important to learn to develop teamwork skills. Patrick Lencioni, president of The Table Group consulting company, describes three “virtues of an ideal team player”: focus on the success of the whole team; the desire to do everything possible for the benefit of the team; effective interaction with partners. It is necessary to break the old stereotype that a developer is a person sitting in a basement behind a computer.
“People have different desires, characters, approaches to work. Said JustGiving lead developer Michal Franc. “A good team player knows how to use these differences for the benefit of the team, he knows how to ask people about something, how to communicate with them.” A well-coordinated development team moves forward much faster.
An excellent example of the result of teamwork is the Basecamp mentioned above: four of its founders worked remotely, being in different time zones. At the same time, they consider trust to be the basis of the team’s success (for other features of remote work, see the book Remote )
4. Energetic
All of us have heard more than once how important it is to play sports and eat right, everyone talks about it, but such obvious and basic things provide our body with the necessary energy.
Anthony Robbins (Tony Robbins), an American writer and entrepreneur dealing with the topic of self-development, considers oxygen and water to be the main sources of energy. “The lungs and the lymphatic system are responsible for the metabolism and cleansing of the body. Proper - not superficial - breathing depends on the food eaten, the amount of fluid you drink, exercise, and your ability to manage stress, says Anthony. “Regular aerobic exercise, such as running and cycling, helps strengthen the lungs, heart, and blood vessels.”
Water stimulates blood circulation. Due to this, the body receives nutrients and gets rid of harmful particles. Approximately two liters of water should be taken daily and foods with a high fluid content, more often fruits and vegetables, should be consumed more often.
Thus, a healthy diet and fresh air can support your mental activity, which is not superfluous when writing code. If you're interested in this topic, here are some tips from Todd Motto, the founder of Voux, about how to be a healthy software developer.
5. Learning
The historian Yuval Harari, in his new book on artificial intelligence, states that in the near future the main work will be done by machines. Because no one will know what to learn at the university, because it is not known what skills we will need. Nevertheless, the author notes that the basic ability will still remain the ability to learn, so you need to use any opportunity to learn something new.
The world of technology is changing rapidly, so we all try to constantly learn. Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University agrees with this in his book The New Psychology of Success.
For this reason, managers should encourage self-education of employees. It is possible, even to allocate additional time for self-development. Since, as Michal Franz points out, a software developer needs a lot of time to update his knowledge in his field and to supplement his knowledge in other areas [this is a technical field]. ” In the future, when an employee’s competency level rises, both the company and the programmer himself will benefit.
It is also worth noting that as a tool for training and developing development skills, according to Radek Pazdera, a programmer from Kano, open projects are well suited. “Many advise developers to learn one programming language per year in order to absorb new paradigms, ” Radek says . - I am inclined to add to this also the launch of one open project. This allows you to experience all the features of product release from the beginning to the end, which can be hidden from your view when working in a large company. ”
Conclusion
To summarize, what skills that do not require talent will allow you to work better:
Punctuality and time saving . Constant lateness and procrastination cause only problems with self-control and concentration. Coming to work on time, you reserve time to do useful things in the morning. Since most people are at their peak at this time of day, you will be able to do more in less time.
Diligence and perseverance . Try to come up with original solutions to "shake things up" and dispel boredom.
Communication skills Read the blogs that lead programmers, learn from the experience. You should also learn to communicate with the team in order to avoid destructive differences. A well-coordinated development team moves forward much faster.
Energetic . Healthy eating stimulates high mental activity, which is useful when writing code.
Learnability The ability to learn will always be one of the main skills. The world of technology is changing rapidly, so it is necessary to allocate time to “refresh” their knowledge. A good workout will be regular work on open projects, which will allow you to “feel” the entire product launch process and learn how to attract contributors.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/310628/
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