For some reason, it seems taboo to say "I don't know how to do that". Even if I add "but I'm really good at figuring things out quickly", it doesn't seem to have much of an impact. All the person heard was "don't know how".
I would MUCH rather hire someone who is a quick learner and can adapt and figure things out (which in my opinion, is the sign of true intelligence -- "problem solving") rather than someone who is knowledgable in a niche area. Granted, there are exceptions, and if someone is designing a nuclear reactor, you can bet you want someone who is an expert at that one thing. But generally speaking, I think polymath abilities are much more useful.
It is taboo because most software projects tend to be short-lived, led by non-engineers, burnout common and hires seeing as resources (as opposed to individuals).
For a manager, running a project is about combining resources and getting a product in the end. So they get X developers with N years experience in `foo` and `baz`, allocate M months of salary and collect the product in the end. If you "don't know, but can learn", you don't even get hired, they cannot justify paying you a salary to learn.
I'm sure this is different in certain circles (SV, other startup hubs), where you have companies led by engineers or with an engineering mindset, but that's how the song goes for probably 90% of the world's IT industry.
Great point, it really is taboo, and it's great to have companies that embrace the capacity to admin "I don't know". You seem to understand how to hire effectively.
Great article, I feel like way more people need to be saying "I don't know." People appreciate honesty. I learn something new everyday. A lot of people call it "impostor syndrome" which has such a bad connotation, I prefer to call it the "Google / Stack Overflow Developer." You have a great concept of where to start, but theres a lot of stuff you don't know. And for that, there is Google & SO.
My coding beginning was actually when I started a business picking up dog poop (no joke) when I was 9 years old to buy an N64. I convinced my dad that I needed a website if I was going to be a "real" business, and he taught me my first HTML.
This post is spot on. When I was a kid, I got my start when my dad wanted me to sell some stuff in the garage on this new site his buddy's son was using called eBay. I remember looking at all the other posts and wondering how they made the text different colors and put borders on things and found this world called HTML. I still have the notebook I used to write down all the cool things you could do with the various tags. Those were the days of not knowing what I didn't know. Now I definitely know what I don't know, and it's pretty terrifying and exhilarating.
Definitely terrifying and exhilarating. Thanks for commenting - always fun to hear how other devs start out, sometimes similar, sometimes way different.
I would MUCH rather hire someone who is a quick learner and can adapt and figure things out (which in my opinion, is the sign of true intelligence -- "problem solving") rather than someone who is knowledgable in a niche area. Granted, there are exceptions, and if someone is designing a nuclear reactor, you can bet you want someone who is an expert at that one thing. But generally speaking, I think polymath abilities are much more useful.