Sometimes the best thing to learn is that
I am doing something stupid.
So I spend the Thursday and Friday in a elasticsearch class. I find elasticsearch very useful and Lucene very cool. But really what I found most useful was the three really stupid things I had been doing with elasticsearch.
I have one colleague I have worked with who is very bright and often makes a comment along the lines of "we all think we are the smartest person in the room." And at times I feel this is his goal, to be the smartest person in the room (one he often succeeds at when discussing certain technical topics).
But my goal has always been to be the dumbest person in the room. Why? Because then I can learn from so many people and they can compensate for my weaknesses (which are many).
One of the cultural issues I feel hold people back from learning is being afraid to look bad or to make mistakes. The question I have is how can we install in our students/co-workers/etc a sense that its okay not to know? In fact its good to admit ignorance, then you can get past that and try and learn something.
Cheers,
Stephen
