Good enough, good, awesome: Thinking about what I want to get to

Posted: - Modified: | learning, plans

You don't have to be awesome in everything. I'm not even sure you can. Time spent one thing is time not spent doing everything else.

I like deliberately deciding that I'm going to be okay but not stellar in a particular field. Then I don't beat myself up about the gap between what I can see and what I can do.

2014-02-27 Art #goals #drawing

2014-02-27 Art #goals #drawing

Drawing / Art
Goal: Good enough
Currently: Mediocre / good enough

I don't need to draw realistic, impressive drawings. In fact, simplicity helps me make things less intimidating. As I tell people, I want to draw just good enough so that people think, “Hah! I can do better than this!”

Some ways I can improve are:

  • Practise lettering and playing with letter forms
  • Get better at showing visual hierarchy through space, size, weight, and decorations
  • Practise drawing everyday objects
2014-02-27 Automation #goals #automation

2014-02-27 Automation #goals #automation

Automation
Goal: Awesome
Currently: Good enough; better than people around me

Life is too short to waste time on boring, repetitive actions. Besides, it's fun turning a task into a program or process. If I can't eliminate time-consuming tasks, I may as well figure out how to automate them.

Some ways I can improve are:

  • Really dig into AutoHotkey and other tools
  • Learn more about Python for scripting
  • Explore Ruby gems for dealing with various APIs
  • Look into using Selenium to automate more browser actions
2014-02-27 Delegation #goals #delegation

2014-02-27 Delegation #goals #delegation

Delegation 
Goal: Awesome
Currently: Good enough; better than people around me

I also want to get really good at working with other people to make stuff happen. I think this involves having a great process library, building a team, breaking through my hang-ups and excuses, and setting up systems that require less attention. I'm particularly curious about using delegation to improve my skills by exposing and experimenting with differences.

2014-02-27 Design #goals #design

2014-02-27 Design #goals #design

Design
Goal: Good
Currently: Mediocre / good enough

I don't want to be awesome at design, but being good at it would be nice. I want people to feel like I've thought about them and taken their needs or interests into account. I want people to feel at home here.

There are lots of things I can experiment with in terms of improving my blog, so that's one way I can learn more about design.

2014-02-27 Development #goals #coding

2014-02-27 Development #goals #coding

Development
Goal: Good
Currently: Good enough; possibly falling behind to mediocre

I probably won't be one of those rockstar build-worldchanging-framework-from-scratch developers, but good development skills can save me a lot of time and frustration. I like making tools, and I want to get better at that. Being more organized and professional about development will also pay off.

Ways to improve:

  • Do more documentation and testing.
  • Learn new frameworks or go deeper into the ones I know.
2014-02-27 Learning from people #goals #my-learning

2014-02-27 Learning from people #goals #my-learning

Learning from people
Goal: Good / Awesome
Hmm. Actually, I might downgrade this to “Goal: Good enough”…
Currently: Mediocre

If I want to learn more than I can fit into my own lifetime, I've got to learn from other people. Besides, other people know lots of interesting things, but they struggle to share those things with other people. Since I'm comfortable with writing, trying ideas out, and now podcasting, maybe I can help people get good ideas out into a form other people can learn from.

2014-02-27 Writing #goals #writing

2014-02-27 Writing #goals #writing

Writing
Goal: Awesome
Currently: Good enough

I want to help people learn faster and do more effective stuff. Writing is a good time-saver. If I get the hang of organizing and editing my writing, people can learn without wading through all the text.

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