Do you routinely attempt projects out of your comfort zone?
While I think it is the right thing to do intellectually to expand my
knowledge, I often think that I waste a lot of time trying to do fairly
simple tasks in areas where I have limited knowledge or experience.
I think challenges can be rewarding, and I enjoy them. "Anything worth
doing is hard." I think is the phrase.
I try to do the necessary research, background reading, start from the
ground up before attempting to do anything. I still find that getting
your hands in it, ie learning by doing, seems to help the process along.
With all this being said, it sure is frustrating and the rewards come
slowly. While I DO like instant gratification, I don't expect it. I do
expect that the payoff, it terms of reward vs time spent is reasonable.
As my available personal free time has been less and less lately,
making sure that I'm not just wasting my time is important to me.
Do you find that you spend most of your time on projects that are well
within your knowledge and experience, or most of your time learning
about new technology/skills/programming language/hardware/etc to
facilitate accomplishing a new project?
Thanks
Keith