Getting Better On Purpose
Some years ago, I stepped into a batting cage that was hurling baseballs at 80 miles-per-hour and attempted to hit one. For the entire first set of pitches I failed miserably. I never even made contact. I didn’t understand it. After a couple of pitches, I was able to get my timing right. I kept my eye on the ball. I swung level. I kept my right foot planted. Whiffff!
I angrily slammed another token in the machine. I was not going to give up, especially when at one time I was a pretty decent hitter. Oddly enough, I started hitting the ball. Nothing spectacular, but I made contact and drove a couple of them right back at the cursed machine.
Afterwards I pondered what just happened. Why was I able to hit the ball on the second go when I had so soundly humiliated myself on the first? It occurred to me that the first time I was focused on technique. I assumed if I just followed the rules for a good baseball swing, then success would follow. The second time through I actually wanted to hit the ball. In effect, I willed myself to hit the ball. It was a complete mind shift that was almost palpable.
At the time I thought I was nuts. I had read about people doing that sort of thing, but I always thought it was just more self-help mumbo-jumbo. I had certainly never experienced it before, but now that I had it was exhilarating and weird at the same time.
Getting Better
In recent years I have been doing some reading on cognitive psychology and have discovered a massive amount of research into human learning and, in particular, how we improve our skills. It turns out that what I experienced is not weird at all. It’s actually how we improve. We get better on purpose.
Many people are familiar with the “10,000-hour” rule. K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist whose research interest is expert performance, formulated the rule based on his research into how the highest performing athletes and professionals achieve their other-worldly levels of competence. According to Ericsson, it takes 10,000 hours of focused, deliberate practice to achieve the highest levels of performance.
Popularized by Malcom Gladwell in books like Blink and Outliers, the 10,000-hour rule has become a hard limit, which is unfortunate because Ericsson himself cautions that the number of hours is an estimate, a swag of the grossest kind, and may vary wildly from person to person.
What doesn’t vary among all the experts is the question of intent. Without exception, the person who achieves the highest levels of performance in any field is the person whose intent is to become the best.
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Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Wayne Gretzky did not spend thousands of hours practicing with the intention of “making a good living,” or “living well,” or even “providing for my family.” They had one goal: to be the best.
And all of their practice was focused on that one, overriding goal. Of course, along the way, they made a good living and provided for their families, and maybe that provided the impetus to become the best. But at some point the drive required to perform at the levels at which they performed are inexplicable except to say they wanted it.
They wanted it badly.
The Deliberate Coder
What does this mean for us as software developers? I don’t know where you’re at in your journey, whether you’re a senior programmer attempting to go from good to great, or one with less experience trying to up your game. Maybe you’re a career-changer and just sticking your toe in the water to see if the water is fine and if this swimming pool is for you.
Regardless of where you are on the scale of development being, your true journey begins with the answer to this question: Do you really want to get better? Are you willing to do what it takes to become the best developer you can possibly be?
If the answer is yes, then you can go about the business of figuring out exactly how to improve. But until you decide your really want to get better, all the tips, techniques, and exercises in the world will be of little use.
Let’s assume that if you’re still with me that you have decided to get better on purpose. Now what?
Subsequent articles will deal with exactly that question. My passion is to get better as a software developer and to help other developers do the same. Ok, that’s two passions, but in my mind, they are the same thing.
Let me assure you, I’m still on that journey. I have been playing this game for almost thirty years, and I still miss the ball more times than I am willing to share. Even after all this time, though, it wasn’t until I got serious about improvement, about getting better on purpose, that my skill, knowledge, and career have taken off.
Yours can too!
