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Leitura de 24 min

Introspection - Part 1 - Finding What You’re Best At

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cuttrell introduces the first part of a self-introspection framework designed to help developers understand their unique strengths and maximize their potential. He emphasizes that the goal of the show is not to provide specific answers but to equip listeners with the right questions and critical thinking skills to navigate their careers.

Cuttrell presents three key questions for self-examination. The first and most fundamental question is: “What are you best at?” He clarifies that this is not about what you do adequately or well, but what you have the potential to truly master and excel in. The answer should be holistic, encompassing a set of responsibilities or activities, such as leading small groups through projects, rather than hyper-specific technical skills like writing JavaScript.

The second question is: “What am I doing now that I don’t have the capacity to become significantly better at?” This involves identifying activities in your professional life where you will likely remain mediocre or subpar. These energy-draining tasks distract from your core strengths unless they are absolutely essential to enabling your primary talents. The host cautions against applying this metric to recreational activities but stresses its importance for career development.

The third and final question for this episode is: “What roadblocks have I placed in my own way that keep me from being better at the things I’m already best at?” This requires honest self-assessment to identify specific behaviors, attitudes, or past decisions that limit growth. Cuttrell encourages listeners to seek external feedback from trusted colleagues, spouses, or bosses to gain perspective on these blind spots. The episode concludes by urging developers to focus intensely on their one or two core strengths, eliminating distractions to achieve true mastery and provide maximum value.

Recommendations

Tools

  • Dolby audio codec for iOS — Promoted as a sponsor, this tool allows developers to deliver better quality audio in their mobile applications, games, and media delivery platforms by improving audio clarity lost during compression.

Websites

  • spec.fm/dolby-ios — The sponsor link provided to learn more about Dolby’s audio codec for iOS, including information about the free online encoder and integration with software like Adobe Audition.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the episode’s core question — Jonathan Cuttrell opens the episode by posing the central question: “What do you do best?” He distinguishes this from merely doing something well or adequately. He clarifies the podcast’s mission is not to give specific answers but to equip developers with the right questions and critical thinking skills to grow and make good decisions in a fast-moving world.
  • 00:02:16 — Introducing the self-introspection model — Cuttrell introduces a self-introspection model he’s been practicing to understand himself better. He frames it as proactively “turning the camera around” instead of learning about oneself only through life events like job loss. He announces this as a two-part episode with questions designed to help make life and career decisions, emphasizing that answers will change over time and that input from others (like a spouse or boss) is valuable.
  • 00:04:15 — Question 1: What are you best at? — The first introspection question is explored in depth. Cuttrell explains the goal is to identify what will maximize your potential, not just what you’re good at. He advises against hyper-specific answers (like “writing JavaScript”) and instead encourages holistic answers that encompass a set of responsibilities (like “leading small groups”). He suggests creating a small, focused list of 1-3 things you are trying to master, acknowledging that different modes of work might have different top talents.
  • 00:07:27 — Sponsor break: Dolby audio codec — A sponsored segment promoting Dolby’s audio codec for iOS developers. Cuttrell discusses the importance of audio quality for users and how the Dolby codec can improve clarity in mobile applications, games, and media delivery by addressing compression issues. He directs listeners to spec.fm/dolby-ios to learn more about the free encoding tools.
  • 00:09:47 — Connecting introspection to career value — After the break, Cuttrell connects the introspection exercise directly to career development. He argues that clarifying what you will be best at helps you understand where you can provide the most value. Aligning your career with these strengths leads to greater fulfillment and opens wider opportunities. He then stresses that the first question is useless without the next two.
  • 00:10:41 — Question 2: What are you doing that you’ll never be great at? — The second critical question is presented: “What am I doing now that I don’t have the capacity to become significantly better at?” or “What am I putting my energy into that I will always be mediocre or subpar at?” Cuttrell clarifies this applies to professional development, not recreation. He explains these activities drain energy that could be focused on core strengths, unless they are absolutely essential to enabling those strengths (like securing funding for a researcher).
  • 00:14:41 — Question 3: What self-imposed roadblocks are in your way? — The third and final question for Part 1 is introduced: “What roadblocks have I placed in my own way that keep me from being better at the things I’m already best at?” Cuttrell emphasizes the need for specificity—identifying behaviors, triggers, attitudes (like cynicism), or past decisions that limit growth. He notes this often requires external feedback, as it’s hard to see these blocks from the inside. He warns against overzealously cutting out good practices (like going to the gym) just because you won’t be the best at them.
  • 00:17:33 — The call to focus and eliminate distractions — Cuttrell summarizes the exercise’s purpose: to find the one to three things you can become truly great at that will provide immense value to your company, yourself, and your career. He urges listeners to focus as much as possible on these strengths and eliminate every other distraction they can. The goal is to achieve mastery in your chosen area by directing all available energy toward it.
  • 00:18:23 — Conclusion and preview of Part 2 — Jonathan concludes the episode by thanking the listener and the sponsor, Dolby. He previews Part 2, which will focus on asking “why” and “why not” to provide further context for this introspection journey. He encourages listeners to spend time answering these three questions over the weekend, thinking deeply about what they want to be great at and what self-imposed obstacles they need to remove.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2017-09-08T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:19:50

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] what do you do best this is such an important question note that i’m not asking you what do

[00:00:12] you do well i certainly am not asking you what do you do adequately or passably i’m asking you what

[00:00:20] do you do best this is a very hard question and it’s one we’re going to talk about in today’s

[00:00:27] episode of developer t my name is jonathan cuttrell my goal on this show is to help you

[00:00:32] become a better developer it’s very simple but it is not easy here’s the reality i don’t have

[00:00:40] it all figured out and in fact even the greatest developers don’t have it all figured out so you’re

[00:00:46] not here to hear from me all of the answers instead you’re here to learn how to grow you’re

[00:00:54] here to learn how to ask yourself and

[00:00:57] ask others the right kinds of questions that’s the kind of stuff that we talk about on this show

[00:01:02] so i’m not going to give you answers to every problem that you have and every situation is

[00:01:07] different and my goal in the show is to empower you to equip developers to make good decisions

[00:01:15] to equip developers to think critically and to think in ways they’re going to advantage them

[00:01:23] in the long run and advantage the people they work with the people they

[00:01:27] collaborate with the people they work for in the long run that’s the goal of this show so

[00:01:32] hopefully i’ve been clear about this in the past and i hope to continue being clear in the future

[00:01:38] that really the point of this show is not to give you specific answers to specific questions it’s

[00:01:46] not to tell you you know which thing to use that’s not what we do here instead it’s to talk about

[00:01:52] the difficulties and the ways of dealing with the problems that we’re facing and the ways of dealing

[00:01:57] with the problems that we’re facing and the ways of dealing with the problems that we’re facing

[00:01:57] with those difficulties and the ambiguities of being a developer in in a world that is truly

[00:02:04] moving at an exponential rate everything around us is moving very quickly so in today’s episode

[00:02:10] we’re talking about kind of a self-introspection model and it’s something that i’ve been practicing

[00:02:16] particularly recently that i’ve been doing to kind of understand myself better and this seems

[00:02:25] kind of odd unless you’re a developer and you’re a developer and you’re a developer and you’re a developer

[00:02:27] you’ve had the the uh encounter of learning something new about yourself in the past

[00:02:33] and all of us have had that kind of encounter but typically those things happen as a result of

[00:02:39] you know life situations right we learn something about ourselves as a result of losing our job or

[00:02:44] as a result of a new experience and what i’m talking about doing today is kind of turning

[00:02:51] the camera around right and looking inward and trying to understand

[00:02:57] yourself so this is actually a two-part episode i’ve got some questions some self-interrogation

[00:03:04] questions to give you to start thinking on this path these are questions that you’re never going

[00:03:10] to have a final answer to because the answer will change over time these are questions that

[00:03:16] are going to help you make decisions about your life that no one else can really make for you

[00:03:22] right we said this at the beginning of the episode my hope is to help you to equip you

[00:03:27] to make better decisions for yourself to make better decisions for your career and for the

[00:03:32] people that you work with and for so let’s get started on these questions these are not easy

[00:03:39] questions this is not going to be a quick you know write down the answer real quick these are

[00:03:44] difficult questions and sometimes these are questions that you need help answering you may

[00:03:50] need someone else who you are close to you may need them to provide insight to you for example

[00:03:57] i went to my wife i went to my boss i’ve gone to multiple co-workers asking them various forms

[00:04:03] of these questions and everyone has a different perspective each of the perspectives have been

[00:04:09] valuable to me in understanding myself okay so let’s get started on these questions the first

[00:04:15] one that i want you to ask is the one that we asked in the intro and it’s a little bit more

[00:04:20] involved than the way we worded it in the intro what are you best at and the reason

[00:04:27] that i ask what are you best at and not just what are you good at is because what we really want to

[00:04:32] get at with this question is what is going to maximize your potential and the answer to this

[00:04:39] question i don’t want the answer to be hyper specific right i don’t want you to answer i am

[00:04:44] best at writing javascript that’s not that’s not a holistic answer that’s going to support the weight

[00:04:51] of the rest of this exercise right instead i want your answers to

[00:04:57] compass potentially an entire set of responsibilities or activities so for example you may answer this

[00:05:05] by saying i am best at leading small groups of people through a project right this this is

[00:05:12] something that is relatively holistic you you have multiple responsibilities and activities as a part

[00:05:19] of that leadership position this says a lot about what you are good at doing and there’s a lot of

[00:05:26] ways to evaluate that and there’s a lot of ways to evaluate that and there’s a lot of ways to evaluate

[00:05:27] this question right what exactly are we using to measure what is best if you’re very talented at

[00:05:36] something that isn’t going to bring a lot of value to you as an individual or value to your career

[00:05:42] then does it fit in this discussion right perhaps you could shift your career to incorporate some

[00:05:49] of those things that you’re talented at but ultimately you know there’s there’s going to be

[00:05:54] two or three things that float to the top of that

[00:05:57] list and you really have to come up with a rubric of those of those two or three things a rubric

[00:06:05] to measure which one actually kind of takes that top spot and now i don’t you know i’m not going to

[00:06:14] be militant and i don’t think you should be militant about not allowing two or three things

[00:06:18] to go into that top spot for me i have two or three things that i believe i do best there’s

[00:06:26] different modes of doing it and there’s different ways to do it and there’s different ways to do it

[00:06:27] that i think in different modes that i work in and in each of those modes i have a a specific

[00:06:33] talent that i believe i can cultivate and become significantly better at that thing than any other

[00:06:40] thing that i do in my life right so it’s okay to have two or three things but the point of this

[00:06:47] is to create a very small focused list a very small focused list that at any given point in

[00:06:54] time you can point at that and say that is a very small focused list and i think that’s a very small

[00:06:57] focused list and i think that’s a very small focused list and i think that’s a very small focused list

[00:06:57] is the thing that i am trying to become better at doing i’m trying to master that set of skills

[00:07:04] that answer to what do you do best we’re going to take a quick sponsor break and then i’m going to

[00:07:09] come back and talk about how this this first question really feeds into two more questions

[00:07:15] that are critical absolutely critical for you to answer for the for the first question to even

[00:07:21] matter you have to answer these other two questions so we’re going to talk about that

[00:07:24] right after we talk about today’s sponsor dolby

[00:07:27] you know users today ninety percent of them in fact ninety percent of users they want better

[00:07:34] audio quality they say that audio quality is key it’s it’s important to them across all of their

[00:07:42] devices this doesn’t just relegate good audio to theater experiences or you know watching videos

[00:07:51] this also matters in applications across the digital ecosystem

[00:07:57] we’re including for example mobile applications whether it’s a game or even a productivity

[00:08:04] application and certainly media delivery applications all of these can benefit from

[00:08:12] good audio quality now the reality is you know when i record this episode of developer t and when

[00:08:19] you have assets that have been recorded in professional studios the equipment that that

[00:08:25] stuff was recorded on is probably not going to be the same as the equipment that was recorded on

[00:08:27] the equipment that that stuff was recorded on is probably not going to be the same as the equipment that was recorded on

[00:08:27] the equipment that that stuff was recorded on is probably very high quality

[00:08:29] and that’s not going to be your source of of a problem

[00:08:33] your source of the problem is very likely going to be in the compression in the encoding of that audio

[00:08:40] and that’s where dolby comes in dolby has created

[00:08:43] an audio codec

[00:08:45] that allows you to provide your listeners your users of your mobile applications

[00:08:51] with better quality audio what does that mean well it means they’re going to be able to hear

[00:08:56] things more clearly

[00:08:57] things more clearly

[00:08:58] right uh… the process of compression

[00:09:01] you could lose some quality in the audio

[00:09:04] and that means as some of the various instruments or voices

[00:09:08] uh… they may be lost right

[00:09:11] what a good codec can do for you is bring that clarity back to your audio

[00:09:16] go and check out what dolby has to offer

[00:09:19] spec dot of him slash dolby ios

[00:09:21] here’s the other thing that all of this encoding can happen for free for you

[00:09:26] you can use the

[00:09:27] dolby online encoder you can also use encoders and software that you already use like for example

[00:09:33] adobe audition so go and check it out once again spec.fm slash dolby ios thank you again to dolby

[00:09:39] for sponsoring today’s episode of developer t so we’re talking about self-reflection introspection

[00:09:47] as a developer you know this is going to help your career because and and this is this is key here

[00:09:53] this is going to help your career because you will have a clarified picture of what you will

[00:10:00] be best at doing and ultimately what you’re going to provide the most value doing right your role

[00:10:08] your whether it’s a future role or current role what you are going to be best at if you can align

[00:10:16] that with your career then your options in your career are going to open up much wider doors right

[00:10:23] you’re going to be much more fulfilled if you are operating in that specific area of things

[00:10:29] that you believe you are going to be best at doing so i want you to answer that question but

[00:10:34] that question is really not useful without these other two questions the first question once again

[00:10:41] is what am i going to be best at doing the second question is what am i doing now that i don’t have

[00:10:48] capacity to become significantly better at

[00:10:53] another way of asking that question what am i doing now that i will never be best at

[00:11:00] what am i putting my energy into that i will always be mediocre or subpar at now it’s funny

[00:11:09] that i use the term subpar because i don’t want you to get confused here there are things that

[00:11:15] we do like for example play golf i don’t play golf some people play golf not as a practice but as a

[00:11:23] not to become better at golf necessarily but instead as a recreation so i don’t want you to

[00:11:29] judge your recreational time against this metric necessarily of course you know everything is

[00:11:35] imbalanced so if you are you know spending a all of your free time outside of work in recreation

[00:11:42] then you may have a hard time truly becoming great at what you want to become great at

[00:11:48] but i want you to ask yourself you know in the things that you are doing

[00:11:53] for the sake of your career or for the sake of forwarding your professional life right we can

[00:12:00] just call this a career development the things that you’re doing for the sake of your career

[00:12:04] development i want you to evaluate which of those things you’re doing that you truly you you have no

[00:12:11] confidence that you will ever become great at those things whether that’s you know something

[00:12:18] that you that goes against your personality or maybe it’s something that you don’t really like

[00:12:23] and you don’t foresee yourself ever liking doing perhaps it’s something that is in direct

[00:12:29] opposition to some of your strengths right there’s tons of things that could fit into this category

[00:12:36] and in fact more things will fit into this category than will fit into the things that you

[00:12:42] do great right and this is so important because the things that you’re doing that you’re never

[00:12:48] going to become great at unless they’re absolutely essential to your career you’re never going to be

[00:12:53] to enabling you to do the things that you will be great at. Okay. That’s a, that’s an important

[00:13:00] caveat. We’ll come back to that in a second, but those things that you’re not going to be great at

[00:13:05] that you’re still putting your energy into, those things are taking the energy that could possibly

[00:13:11] be added to the correct place. Right? So I said, I was going to come back to this caveat.

[00:13:18] The caveat is, you know, if this thing is absolutely essential. So for example,

[00:13:23] if you want to do research inside of your firm, the thing that you may not be absolutely great at

[00:13:32] could be securing funding for that research. But for you to do the research, securing funding is

[00:13:40] kind of a non-negotiable thing. Now, of course, there’s all kinds of hypothetical situations that

[00:13:46] could break that argument down. But if you want to do research inside of your firm,

[00:13:48] the simple concept remains that, you know, you must take certain steps to support

[00:13:53] the things that you are great at, or you must have someone else who can take those steps for you.

[00:14:00] So you’ve asked yourself two very important questions. Number one, what am I actually

[00:14:04] the best at? What am I going to be great at doing? What am I putting in that, you know,

[00:14:11] that category of I could really be leading at this particular role? The second thing that I

[00:14:18] want you to ask yourself is, what am I doing that I will never become great at? What am I putting my

[00:14:23] energy into that is really ultimately headed towards a dead end, but it’s a long ways away,

[00:14:30] right? It feels like it’s the right thing, but ultimately it’s going into a black hole. I’m

[00:14:36] never going to be better at that particular thing. And the third question that I want you to ask,

[00:14:41] and this wraps up this part one of this introspection episode. The third question I

[00:14:47] want you to ask is, what things, what roadblocks have I placed in my own way that keep me from

[00:14:57] being better at the things that I’m already best at? What roadblocks are in my way that I have

[00:15:04] placed, right? This is an important piece of the puzzle. What roadblocks are in the way that I

[00:15:10] have placed in my own way? How am I holding myself back from maximizing my own potential?

[00:15:17] And I want you to be very specific here, right? The key to this is not just to motivate you or

[00:15:24] get you excited about maximizing your potential, but rather identifying the specific behavior,

[00:15:30] the specific behaviors and triggers that cause you to not grow, that cause you to be limited

[00:15:39] in your capacity. These things may be your own decisions. These things may be past decisions.

[00:15:47] You have to overcome. These things may be, you know, poisonous attitudes. We talked about

[00:15:53] poisons in the past on this show. You can go and find those. Of course, you know, for example,

[00:15:59] cynicism, you can find those on spec.fm. There’s tons of things that could fit into this category

[00:16:04] as well, right? One roadblock may be holding on to some of those things that you really want to

[00:16:10] be great at, but you’re not willing to accept that you won’t be great at them. And that’s a very hard

[00:16:16] one.

[00:16:17] Kind of a tough pill to swallow, right? Something that I have evaluated and perhaps

[00:16:24] others have helped me evaluate. They’ve given me feedback about my own self that I couldn’t see

[00:16:31] from the inside. They’ve told me something from the outside looking in

[00:16:35] that I am trying to do something, but ultimately they don’t see the potential in that.

[00:16:41] Or I don’t see the potential in myself to do that thing. And it’s difficult because it does

[00:16:47] take a lot of grit. It does take a lot of determination to push through that for everything

[00:16:53] you do. There is a time in your life or there’s a time in that learning process where you are

[00:17:01] still a beginner, where it’s your first step in that direction. So I don’t want you to be

[00:17:06] overzealous in saying that you don’t have what it takes to be a developer, for example, right?

[00:17:13] There are very, very few people who fall into that category.

[00:17:17] I don’t want you to be overzealous in cutting things out of your life that are good practices,

[00:17:21] that are healthy. Don’t stop going to the gym just because you don’t think you’re going to

[00:17:26] become an Olympic athlete. That is absolutely not what I’m proposing here. What I am proposing

[00:17:33] is that you find the things that you are going to become great at, that are going to provide

[00:17:40] immense value. If you were great at this thing, it would provide so much value.

[00:17:47] To your company, to yourself, to your own, to your self-perception, it would provide value to you

[00:17:55] very likely monetarily. Find that thing. And it’s not going to be easy, but find that thing

[00:18:03] and focus as much as you can. Eliminate every other distraction that you can possibly eliminate

[00:18:10] to focus on that one or two or three things that you think you can become truly great at.

[00:18:17] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Developer Tea.

[00:18:23] Make sure you listen to the second part of this episode. I’m going to be talking about

[00:18:27] asking why and why not. These are two very important questions. We’re going to

[00:18:33] give you some more context. Those sound very broad. We’re going to give some more context

[00:18:36] in the next episode. I hope that you’ll spend the weekend really diving into answering some

[00:18:44] of these questions and thinking about what you choose to do.

[00:18:47] Truly want to be great at and thinking about things that you can move out of the way that

[00:18:52] you have placed in your own path, moving those things out of the way so you can totally focus

[00:18:58] your efforts at becoming great at that one thing. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you again

[00:19:03] to today’s sponsor, Dolby. Dolby for iOS allows you to deliver better quality audio to listeners

[00:19:12] who want exactly that, to users who want exactly that.

[00:19:17] Go and check it out. You can use this on iOS. The new iPhone update is coming out next week,

[00:19:24] most likely, and they’re going to be supporting this. They already do support it,

[00:19:28] and the new iPhone will support it as well. You get a whole new wave of users

[00:19:32] that will be able to use and benefit from this codec. Go and check it out, spec.fm

[00:19:38] slash Dolby iOS. Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, enjoy your tea.

[00:19:47] Bye-bye.

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