NO PAIN - NO GAIN

This is not only valid for training in the gym. From time to time it's important to leave your comfort zone to get into latest technology, especially when you're employed at IT. Sometimes, when a new technology is released and I heard about it I thought "Naah, I will come along without that framework." Just because I didn't understand it on the spot and was afraid of learning that new thing.

Oh, I can write plain PHP. That worked out for the past 10 years, no need for Laravel.

Nooo, vanilla JS does it, I don't need React at all.

.NET Core is just a trend, let's stay at .NET Framework for new projects.

I bet you said that once in the past. For sure, not every trendy framework or database or server software has to be learned, for some topics it is enough to scratch the surface. But what happens when you act like that all the time?

Basically, there are two things that will happen:

1. You forget how to learn new things and the boundary that has to be crossed becomes higher and higher.
2. You'll be at the bottom of every line.

I bet you can find yourself in that story, too:

Some time ago I got asked to conduct a workshop for my colleagues about git. Before I even thought about it I heard myself responding: "Yes, of course." What have I done? I'm far away from cutting the edge at git, I used some basic stuff but thats all. I, once, had conducted a workshop for a small group of people but I even forgot how to do that or how that stuff works. Leaving all that discrepancy in my mind behind, I just started creating a markdown file which was supposed to lead the way through my workshop. Assuming to be a member of the workshop I was just creating, I started researching and writing down stuff that would be helpful. I put that in a order the knowledge I would teach would stack up with the time of participating in the workshop. The workshop took place and it was fantastic to deliver what I was preparing for. I got positive feedback and it felt awesome!

Not that I just boosted my colleagues knowledge. While researching I started understanding things better for myself.

Sometimes a rash answer can be the solution to learn something new or improving on something. Having that experience reflected, I began moving out of my comfort zone more often.