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Leitura de 9 min

Embracing Confusion

Summary

The episode begins by questioning what it means to be confused, asserting that confusion doesn’t exist outside of someone’s mind—it’s a problem of perception rather than an objective reality. The host explains that confusion can lead to learning and curiosity, especially in children, but in professional settings, we often view confusion as a sign of weakness or lack of preparation.

The discussion explores how we all have gaps in our knowledge and moments of confusion, even about subjects we once understood well. The host suggests that our perceptions change over time, and we should be kind to ourselves and others when experiencing confusion, even inviting it as a pathway to learning and growth.

Practical strategies are offered: regularly exposing yourself to new experiences that force different thinking patterns, which helps build empathy for the beginner mindset. The episode also recommends involving recently-begun developers as mentors alongside experienced ones, as they better understand the confusion of being new.

A key exercise involves walking through and validating assumptions when someone expresses confusion, considering that their confusion might reveal something you’re missing. The host emphasizes reducing the stigma around admitting confusion, lack of knowledge, or need for help, challenging the outdated model of going it alone.

The episode concludes by encouraging listeners to be quick to raise their hand when confused, promoting a collaborative approach to learning and problem-solving that acknowledges confusion as a natural part of the growth process.

Recommendations

Tools

  • Linode — Cloud infrastructure provider mentioned as episode sponsor, offering hosting solutions starting at $5/month with worldwide data centers and S3-compatible storage options.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to confusion and perception — The episode opens by asking what it means to be confused and exploring how confusion relates to perception. The host introduces the premise that confusion doesn’t exist outside of someone’s mind—it’s a problem of perception rather than objective reality. This sets the stage for examining how we experience and respond to confusion in professional contexts.
  • 00:01:52 — Confusion as opportunity for learning — The host discusses how confusion can lead to learning and curiosity, contrasting how children approach confusion with curiosity versus how professionals often see it as weakness. The point is made that we all have knowledge gaps and moments of confusion, even about subjects we once knew well. The suggestion is to be kind and invite confusion as a regular part of work.
  • 00:03:33 — Practical strategies for embracing confusion — After the sponsor message, the host offers practical ways to embrace confusion: exposing yourself to new experiences that force different thinking patterns to build empathy for beginners, and involving recently-begun developers as mentors alongside experienced ones. The emphasis is on understanding what it’s like to be a beginner and creating supportive environments for confusion.
  • 00:04:49 — Walking through assumptions exercise — The host presents a key exercise for situations where one person is confused and another isn’t: walking through and validating assumptions. The suggestion is to test both your own assumptions and the perception of the confused person, recognizing that their confusion might reveal something you’re missing. This approach challenges the idea that confusion indicates limited understanding.
  • 00:05:33 — Reducing stigma and promoting collaboration — The final section focuses on reducing the stigma around admitting confusion, lack of knowledge, or need for help. The host challenges the outdated model of going it alone and owning entire features independently, advocating instead for collaborative approaches that acknowledge confusion as natural. The episode concludes by encouraging listeners to be quick to raise their hand when confused.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2020-02-14T10:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:06:40

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] What does it mean to be confused? What exactly is happening in our brains and in reality?

[00:00:15] I want you to give this question some thought while you’re listening to this episode.

[00:00:21] And then I want you to imagine how this might apply to your interactions with other developers,

[00:00:27] perhaps your manager, or if you are a manager, your direct reports, the company you lead.

[00:00:36] I want you to think about the role of perception in the work you do.

[00:00:42] My name is Jonathan Cottrell. You’re listening to Developer Tea.

[00:00:45] And the goal of this show is to help driven developers find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers.

[00:00:51] So think about this question. What does it mean to be confused?

[00:00:55] A simple assertion to kind of guide you in this is to recognize that confusion doesn’t exist outside of someone’s mind.

[00:01:12] And in this we are including the fact that animals can become confused, but confusion is a problem of perception.

[00:01:24] And it’s not even real.

[00:01:25] It’s not really a problem when you look at it from this frame because it’s very easy to see that confusion can lead to learning.

[00:01:34] Confusion, for example, in a child might lead to curiosity.

[00:01:41] But in our professional lives, we tend to see confusion as a sign of weakness or perhaps a lack of preparation.

[00:01:52] The truth is that we all have gaps in ourselves.

[00:01:55] We all have gaps in our knowledge, that we all have moments of confusion, even about things that perhaps at one point we actually knew a lot about.

[00:02:05] It’s possible that our perception has changed about even the same subjects that we have developed knowledge around in the past.

[00:02:14] And so it makes sense that we should be kind and perhaps even invite confusion to be a more regular part of our work.

[00:02:25] So how can we do this for ourselves and for others, perhaps most importantly?

[00:02:33] That’s what we’re going to talk about right after we talk about today’s sponsor, Linode.

[00:02:36] Whether you’re working on a personal project or managing your enterprise’s infrastructure,

[00:02:41] Linode has the price, support, and scale that you need to take your project to the next level.

[00:02:46] With 11 data centers worldwide, latency is not going to be a serious issue.

[00:02:51] They have S3 compatible storage options.

[00:02:54] And their next generation network.

[00:02:56] Linode delivers the performance you expect at a price that you don’t.

[00:03:00] And they’re going to give you $20 worth of credit just for being a listener of DeveloperTea.

[00:03:05] Now, their nano plans start as low as $5 a month.

[00:03:09] And of course, that goes all the way up to dedicated CPU plans or GPU compute plans, block storage.

[00:03:16] Go and check it out.

[00:03:17] Head over to linode.com slash developertea to get started today.

[00:03:22] Use the code developertea24.

[00:03:23] Go ahead.

[00:03:24] Hit 20 worth of credit.

[00:03:26] That’s developertea2020.

[00:03:29] Thanks again to Linode for sponsoring today’s episode of DeveloperTea.

[00:03:33] So how can we not only be kind to ourselves and kind to others when we experience something like confusion,

[00:03:42] but also invite it?

[00:03:45] Invite confusion because we know that after confusion often comes curiosity and learning.

[00:03:53] It helps to regularly experience confusion yourself.

[00:03:57] Try to expose yourself to new experiences that force you to think in ways that you’re not necessarily naturally going to think in.

[00:04:07] This experience of confusion will remind you what it’s like to be a beginner again.

[00:04:13] So you’ll naturally kind of build some empathy up for that beginner mindset.

[00:04:18] But it’s also important to understand that sometimes,

[00:04:21] the best people to understand confusion,

[00:04:25] the confusion of being a beginner,

[00:04:27] are people who were more recently beginners themselves.

[00:04:30] So if you’re running an organization,

[00:04:32] it might make sense to not only allow much more experienced programmers to be mentors of younger or less experienced programmers,

[00:04:40] but also to allow the ones who were beginners not very long ago,

[00:04:46] allow them to be mentors as well.

[00:04:49] The final exercise that I want you to employ

[00:04:53] when you are in a situation where one person is confused and another person is not,

[00:04:59] is walk through your assumptions.

[00:05:02] Walk through your assumptions and verify,

[00:05:05] validate those assumptions.

[00:05:07] Test yourself against them.

[00:05:09] Test the perception of the person who is confused,

[00:05:14] who is expressing confusion.

[00:05:16] Perhaps they are seeing something

[00:05:18] that is confusing that you aren’t seeing at all.

[00:05:22] It’s very possible that confusion is a more appropriate response

[00:05:26] to whatever reality you’re facing together

[00:05:29] and that you are the one who has the limited vision.

[00:05:33] Ultimately, work to reduce the stigma

[00:05:37] around admitting confusion,

[00:05:40] admitting a lack of knowledge,

[00:05:43] admitting the need for help

[00:05:45] or the desire for a different perspective.

[00:05:47] The idea that we can go it alone,

[00:05:51] that we can own our entire feature,

[00:05:54] this is based on an old model of thinking

[00:05:58] and it doesn’t really reflect all of the learning

[00:06:01] that has been done about collaboration.

[00:06:03] Be quick to raise your hand when you are confused.

[00:06:09] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:06:12] Thank you again to Linode for sponsoring today’s episode.

[00:06:15] Of course, you can get $20 worth of course,

[00:06:16] $20 worth of credit

[00:06:18] by heading over to Linode.com

[00:06:20] slash Developer Tea

[00:06:21] and using the code

[00:06:22] DEVELOPERTEA2020

[00:06:24] that’s DEVELOPERTEA2020

[00:06:26] all one word

[00:06:27] at checkout.

[00:06:29] Today’s episode was produced by Sarah Jackson.

[00:06:31] My name is Jonathan Cottrell

[00:06:33] and until next time,

[00:06:34] enjoy your tea.

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