Applying IT principals in none IT environments

In my last blog I talked about how through IT I’d learned about the benefits of explaining a problem and how it can help you understand the problem better yourself; this blog follows on with that theme.

Throughout my IT career I’ve never been afraid to take-on or learn about new technologies, though I’ve specialized in databases and data in general, I’ve also, when needed or given the opportunity, learned about, and delved into the detail, the operating systems and storage, backup and networking layers.

Much like I am with IT I’ll have a go at things at home. Early in my married life if I could not workout how to do something, often with help from family of friends, it would not get done, we had to be very choosy about what trades people we got in.

I was lucky to be in the position to be able to buy a new build home and then even luckier to be able to extend very early in its life, while the builders were still around. We did not use a builder I managed the process my self and we carefully chose which trades we would get in and which I’d try and emulate. To do this I used to go and watch the trades people at work on the building site and by doing so learned how to prepare a flat roof to be felted, how to erect a pitched root and then how to felt and tile it and much much more.

With the arrival and growth of the internet, virtualization, blogging, etc the learning experience has got easier. What I was doing while watching trades people was no different to watching them on a YouTube video, the only real differences were that I could not re-wind and they were not undertaking the task in a fashion designed to teach.

The moral of the story, the advent of the internet has made learning so much easier so don’t be afraid to learn new skills be they IT or non-IT, just prepare carefully, do your research and workout how you’re going to test your new and developing skill in a safe and recoverable way.

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