Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge - Darwin

Have you ever watched on tv or listened on the radio to one of the spots on Stupid Criminals? The premise is those criminals that get caught because the things they do are just plain dumb. For example, here in Texas a man convicted of robbery worked out a deal to pay $9600 in damages rather than serve a prison sentence. For payment, he provided the court a check... a forged check. He got 10 years. If you have time... do an internet search... and laugh.

A research paper pubished in 1999 is very relevant to this topic and I thought I would share. The postulation of the paper is that in cases where one is ignorant, that same ignorance keeps you from realizing your ignorance. The graphs in the paper are very telling regarding people's regard of their own abilities. Even after tests were administered people still felt they were in the quadrants that they were not.

So... why is this relevant in a technically focused blog? I bring this up because if you consider the rate at which technology moves it requires a near constant diligence and research to stay current. So far Moore's law that processor speeds will double and halve in cost every 24 months has tracked fairly close. Software architectures seem to have an average lifespan of 2-4 years. As processors get quicker more and more levels of abstraction are able to be added and new algorithms are enabled. Bill Gates has often been attributed with saying "640k aught to be enough for anybody"? (He denies having actually said that BTW) Now we have services that handle thousands of transactions per second with message payloads of well over 10x that.

The meaning in all of this is that work in technology needs to be one of constant improvement. Both in ourselves as well as our systems. We need to be constantly learning, innovating and expanding. We can't let ourselves individually or as a company become complacent and be ignorant of the fact that we are ignorant. We need to be blissful because we love what we are doing and are growing as part of something larger than ourselves... not because ignorance is bliss.

Assume that your skills need to be refreshed every two years... and act accordingly.