One of the most sited concepts is the idea of becoming an expert or a master after 10,000 hours or practice or work:
A Better Way to Practice
What Mozart and Kobe Bryant Can Teach Us About Deliberate Practice
Don't Just Learn - Overlearn!
This idea of the "10,000 hour rule" is also mentioned in Robert Greene's book, Mastery.
I learned about Robert Greene's book via 'The First Key to Mastery: Finding Your Life's Task"
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After reading the above articles and book, my thoughts drifted towards two occupations: musicians and IT workers. Why? Because I strived to make a career in both fields.
Obviously, musicians must practice consistently and constantly, but I believe this also applies to IT workers. With the constant change in the computing and networking fields, practice and further education are absolutely necessary in order to stay relevant and capable.
Much like a musician who learns multiple techniques to make music, a network technician or engineer must also learn about the multiple technologies available to design, maintain and troubleshoot a computer or a network. For example, it is important to learn the advantages and disadvantages of the different Internal Gateway Protocols (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF) for the different topologies (hub-and-spoke, star, etc.) and transport methods (Ethernet, Frame Relay, MPLS, Serial).
Practice methods are pretty straight forward for musicians (for example, taking lessons, listening to different genres of music, watching educational DVDs from their favorite musicians, reading sheet music, instructional books, and most importantly, actually playing their instrument). What practice methods are available for IT workers and network technicians? Strangely, some of the exact same methods:
- Educational books and classes
- Training videos (youtube, CBTNuggets, INE, TrainSignal, etc.)
- Various websites (www.freeccnaworkbook.com, etc.)
- Simulators/Emulators (gns3)
- Home lab equipment
Practicing the actual implementations and configurations on real equipment would be similar to a musician playing their instrument instead of just watching or reading about it.
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"To know but not to do is really not to know." -- Steven R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
We can read all the books and websites we want, but until we actually get on the equipment and implement the configurations and see what works (and more importantly, what doesn't work), we don't really "know".
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Another great book that talks about mastery is Jim Collins' "Good to Great". In this book he talks about the "Hedgehog Concept" which involves three circles: what you can be best in the world at, makes money and what you have a passion for. Where the three circles intersect is your "Hedgehog Concept". In the context of mastery, I believe that the three circles also pertain to mastery. Where the three circles intersect is also lies the possibility of mastery.
The first circle is the toughest: What can you be best in the world at? That's a tall, tall order.
Jim Collins uses the following analogy (which I will paraphrase): Imagine you take the SAT and score highly on the math portion. Does this mean you should pursue a career in mathematics? Not necessarily. There are people who are "genetically encoded" for math. Their brains are just wired for math. The same would apply to musicians and network technicians.
If we spend the "10,000 hours" to move toward mastery but are not "genetically encoded", can we realistically become a master? I don't know, but after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, I think one would at least be considered an expert or (at least) highly competent.
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Another concept Jim Collins brings up is the idea of "Pushing on the Flywheel". Once we find our "Hedgehog Concept", the next task is to consistently push on the flywheel and build momentum over time. Any tasks outside of "Hedgehog Concept" take momentum away from the flywheel.
Mastery is not just about the amount of time spent, but also the quality of time spent. If we spend those hours just mindlessly reading the same books over and over (and I'm guilty of this), we may not be moving towards mastery as quickly as we would like.
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Another Jim Collins' book "Great by Choice" discusses the idea of a "20 Mile March" where no matter what one pushes to march 20 miles a day regardless of the weather instead of marching 40 miles in good weather and 2 miles in bad weather. A synopsis can be found at the artofmanliness.com: What's Your 20 Mile March?
The idea of a "20 Mile March" or "Pushing on the Flywheel" also ties back into one of my favorite motivational tactics: Don't Break the Chain as taught by Jerry Seinfeld. I think it is important to be consistently pushing towards a goal (such as a certification or to start learning about new technologies).
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In conclusion, I'd like to paraphrase a quote from Bill Walsh (the former San Francisco 49ers head coach) from his book "The Score Takes Care of Itself":
"Mastery is a process, not a destination."
Sports, music and even networking are all similar in this regard. True mastery is never achieved. There is always some aspect of our skills that needs to be improved and worked on.
Moving towards mastery in the IT fields is about learning more about current technologies (depth), learning about new and emerging technologies (width) and consistently moving towards our goals (20 Mile March/Pushing on the Flywheel).
My hope is that those of us who are pursuing Cisco certifications are pursuing them for the right reason: to learn the material in pursuit of mastery (even if mastery can never be fully achieved).
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