Technical
Intuition
July 20, 2001
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While training plays a part in all high tech careers, your
high-tech intuition plays an important role, as well. Your ability to
work a technical problem from start to finish, evaluate new technologies
and apply them in new and different ways is something that can only be
gained through "hands-on" experience.
Ignore at your peril
You have all probably felt it at one time or another. Some system isn't
working but you seem to know exactly where to start your search for a
solution. Or you get a presentation on a new technology and there is a
nagging feeling that something is missing. Maybe you have a feeling that
there must be a better way to do something. This nagging feeling is your
intuition trying to tell you something.
Whether you call it a gut feeling, a hunch or something else, intuition
is your sub-conscious mind trying to get your attention. The worst thing
you can do is to ignore it. Both your career and your life will quickly
prove to you why it is almost a crime to ignore your intuition. I have
many bad experiences that were a direct result of ignoring what my intuition
was trying to tell me. I can guarantee that you will kick yourself afterwards.
Perhaps your boss wants to install the latest & greatest software,
but you have a hunch that it is missing something important. You could
just go along with your boss's wishes, but you would be better advised
to find out what is making you feel odd. Nothing is worse than installing
100 or more copies of a software application only to have the users find
a fatal flaw within the first week.
Hard to say
While your intuition can help you, it can be difficult to communicate
your concerns to others. The best solution is to try and locate the source
of your concern before taking it to your boss. Bounce the problem off
your friends and co-workers and do some research on the web. This will
allow you to turn your hunch into something more substantial that you
can present to management. Of course, this research might also help to
allay any concerns you had. Perhaps you simply didn't have enough information
and this is why your intuition gave you a warning. You don't want to be
seen as someone who is always "crying wolf", but similarly,
you don't want to allow problems to occur when a little thought and research
could have prevented them. You will quickly find that the most annoying
problems are those you foresaw, but didn't take the time to stop.
Building on experience
Most high-tech workers have a fairly good intuition for high-tech systems,
but there are ways to improve it. Every problem that you face, every solution
that develops is a building block for your intuition. You should have
some way of storing your past solutions and recalling them when needed.
A lot of this information is simply retained in your head, but a simple
database can be very useful, especially as you gain more years of experience.
The more esoteric a solution, the more important it is to write it down.
There have been several occasions when I had to really wrack my brain
to remember a solution that I worked on over a year ago so I could help
a co-worker in a current situation. If I had written it down somewhere
it would have been much easier. You can't keep everything in your head.
Keeping your solutions in some written form also allows you to quickly
and easily pass your knowledge on to others. Your knowledge, whether in
your head or in your files, will be a major factor in being effective
in any job. You can use it to build your status in your current company
or lay the groundwork for your next job.
Regardless of how you use your intuition, never ignore it. Whenever you
feel that something is not right, there is a reason. Whether it is a true
problem or simply a case of not having enough information, you should
allow your intuition to be your guide. Cultivate it at all times. It will
serve you well in any high-tech career.
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