Enhancing My Competency: A Path to Sustainable Growth

What is competency, and by what criteria is it evaluated? I believe competency itself is a very difficult metric to visualize.

A certain competency of one person might be essential in one group but unnecessary in another.

Should we then evaluate a person's competency by visible metrics like lines of code, number of commits, or review counts?

If so, it could lead to a situation where people simply churn out a lot of meaningless code, and I believe the premise of winning by quantity doesn't hold true in software.

Unless a certain amount of repetition is more efficient than abstraction, and thus left as is, legacy systems should generally be minimized.

It is unequivocally desirable to pass them on to subsequent generations.

What we can learn here is that competency varies from organization to organization and from individual to individual, and I believe everyone has at least one area that suits them.

Someone might be an absolute master in area A, which I'm not familiar with, but the moment they enter area B, which I am familiar with,

I will feel the same way about them as I felt about myself when I saw them in area A.

That's why there's also the saying, "Don't compare yourself to others." Because everyone's path and direction are different.

How to Enhance Competency #

So, how should we enhance our competencies? Let's start by deciding which direction to go.

If you just wander aimlessly and then pick one path and stick to it, you might get lucky and succeed, but the risk of not succeeding is too high, and the probability of failure is also very high.

Therefore, let's put our hand on our heart, close our eyes, and drink a cup of chamomile tea, and clearly define what we want to do right now, what technology we are interested in,

and whether the reason for that interest simply stems from other people, or if we genuinely like the fundamentals and direction of this technology,

and also if it seems like the best solution for the area we are currently responsible for at work. Let's make that clear.

If it's an external factor, that direction cannot be a basis for it being right for you. It must originate solely from yourself.

However, if, through a syllogism, the mission given by the company seems to be derived from and suitable for you, then a direction aligned with company work can also be suitable for you.

Consequently, if a DFS leads to you, and the number of explorations is less than 3, it would be appropriate to consider it as derived from you.

So, you've set a direction? #

Once you've set a direction, you need to index it. No matter how well you've set a direction, learning a discipline is vast and extensive.

If we're not careful, cognitive overload (a state where there are too many missions and things to learn, making it impossible to start anything) can occur, so we need to clearly define our path and create shortcuts.

I find this cognitive overload truly frightening. Cognitive overload is very difficult because the opponent is so vast.

If the difficulty is too high, we cannot immerse ourselves, and if there's too little interest, we also cannot immerse ourselves. The concept I want to introduce here is the Goldilocks Rule.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Goldilocks+Rule&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The Goldilocks Rule states that "it should not be too difficult, nor too easy." For us to immerse ourselves in an activity,

it suggests that there should be a certain level of difficulty and a certain amount of frustration mixed in, creating a state of tension.

It is said that humans experience maximized immersion when they challenge themselves at a level approximately 4% beyond their current ability.

In other words, setting a direction and indexing means creating a path tailored to you!

Career paths and roadmaps created by others, which divide average competency levels into beginner, intermediate, and advanced, are convenient because they don't require investment and have some validity,

but I don't pursue such growth methods. I seek the highest efficiency: what's easiest for me and leads to the most growth. Such efficiency is easy to find. I know it without even looking.

Let's be honest with ourselves, and then your shortcut will appear. There's no need to be ashamed. Only the cells in my head will point fingers at me...

Tailored to me #

As I wrote the above, I realized that, in any case, setting a direction, deciding how to proceed, and setting goals,

the source for gathering the data that forms the basis for judgment is none other than myself. I must know myself, what I want, and what I'm good at.

I generally believe that what I want is an extension of what I'm good at. This is because humans want to remain in environments where they excel and are recognized.

People who strive in environments where they are not recognized mostly do so because they want to avoid not being recognized (either by escaping or by solving it through effort).

Therefore, if you fundamentally want to enhance your competency, first understand yourself, set goals, and index. This is because even a 1-degree deviation from your desired point will lead you to a completely different destination.

Sustainable Growth #

Lately, I've been spending time thinking about sustainable growth.

At one point, I wanted to grow by 400-500 percent a day. When I read a book or learned a concept, I wanted to grow incomparably more than the person I was yesterday.

In fact, if it were possible, I'd still want to, but now I know it's impossible. If such a thing were possible in the first place, I'd consider the magic of compounding a trivial term.

You've probably heard phrases like "1 percent growth a day," or "1 percent growth more than yesterday." From books like "Atomic Habits" or mottos from well-known senior developers derived from it.

The magic of compounding seems excellent everywhere. Like the anecdote where Warren Buffett mentioned that the best investment is self-development, and investing in self-development eventually brings a lot due to the compounding effect,

or stories about people depositing money into compound interest products at a certain percentage and holding billions after decades—the compounding effect is tremendous.

However, humans always want to achieve many results in the short term. Aren't they often called "day traders"? But this clearly has a peak.

Even if you sometimes break conventions and achieve insane returns, the risk you'd bear if luck wasn't on your side is enormous. I want to have no risk, only profit, and achieve the most optimal efficiency.

And I realized that the magic of compounding, growing by 1 percent, sometimes 2 percent, is the way.

It was quite embarrassing and funny. I disliked slow compounding growth and sought other paths, only to realize that this was the most efficient way after spending too much time.

How to achieve sustainable growth #

Although it's said that growing little by little is good, why do people generally want to achieve many results?

It's because the formula for human reward is as follows: Happiness = Outcome - Expectation. This usually happens because expectations are high.

Wasn't it said that happiness is a state of desiring nothing? That's why there's a state of enlightenment, and the direction monks pursue would also be this kind of direction.

Therefore, small habits inherently involve small expectations. After all, you don't expect big results.

However, we are unaware of the hidden magic of compounding. At some point, these results will grow exponentially, and we will experience extreme happiness.

Competency is the same; it's about a certain moment. That moment might be felt during a retrospective or a series of events. Hoping for that day is also a joy,

and the fact that I can avoid a negative outcome, through my growing self and the satisfaction of having done something, is very significant.

Small habits are like that. They cost little, prevent negatives, and at some point bring enormous positives.

I actually think maintaining 'invariance,' where nothing changes, is an act of positive gain. For example,

consider the act of saving: it's not that the money in your account doesn't change, but rather that the amount saved becomes a positive gain.

If you think this way—that a positive exists, it's just hidden—then you can view small habits more positively and attractively.

Conclusion #

In conclusion, let's boldly abandon the path of trying to achieve many results at once and "cheat," which consumes excessive energy, easily leads to burnout, and has a significantly low probability of realization.

Let's start easily with goals, directions, and methods tailored to our essential selves. Let's minimize the energy consumed for our growth and accumulate it.

Realize yourself, anticipate the magic of compounding, and feel attracted and motivated by your daily growing self.

I believe that is the path to becoming the strongest.