Earlier, I had written about the new flows and new structures which confront you whenever you change jobs or organizations.

Today, I was reading an article about feelings of ‘mastery’ (and actual ‘mastery’), and how they vanish when you change careers.[1]

Interestingly, it ended up becoming a story about transferable skills, and how you develop blind spots as you become entrenched in your 10-year or 20-year (or more) career.

For me, I discovered that I had learned how to look at a software project, see the flow, find the risks, and then work to route around and/or mitigate them. Perhaps more relevantly, I found this was an uncommon skill. Interestingly, being new and not knowing the project in as much detail probably helps me more easily see the bigger picture.

I haven’t noticed any new blind spots, but I’ll continue to watch. (I also try to ferret them out whenever I see them in myself, but I have no idea how well I do at that.)

In the article, the author says:

”
In radio, information is not your goal. Someone can talk and talk and talk, but unless they talk in the right way the tape is useless to you. If they are distracted, or overly theatrical, it won’t work. (That was the problem with the first oil guy we interviewed: he was always putting on a show.) The aim is to get them to relive all the emotions they felt at the time, which will translate in their voice. This can be achieved only if you are patient and open, and take the time to establish a real connection.
”

about how she learned to give people space in an interview, to help them stop ‘putting on a show’ and actually express their inner emotions.

For me, this quote best captures why I think changing things up can be such a powerful tool:

”
Then there’s the larger matter of how you practice. In “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” author Cal Newport says that what makes ridiculously successful people so successful is they’re experts at practicing — they can push themselves to the exact limit of their skillset and thus expand their abilities day after day. If you’re not expanding yourself in such a fashion — called deliberate practice in the org psych lit — you’ll never be ridiculously successful.
”

[1]For those who have not heard of the ‘10,000 hour rule’, it’s from Malcom Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’. There are also some who dispute the magnitude of the importance of the rule.