You Aren't Instantly Awesome, and That's Okay

Learning is a process. When we're new at something, we have a tendency to be embarrassed about our lack of skill. But we shouldn't be. We should be proud to show that we're learning and progressing.

For those of you who missed the news, I got a banjo back in January:

Forget the "Buy now with 1-Click®" button. Amazon really needs a "Are you sure you know what you're doing?™" button. pic.twitter.com/KM3FAcs0vK

— Jeremy Clark (@jeremybytes) January 19, 2015

Five months later, I've found that this is something I enjoy. And I've been taking it to developer events as an object lesson.

We aren't instantly awesome at new things.

It takes time to get proficient.

When we're learning, we need to expect this.

And just to show how much I believe this, I will play my banjo badly in public. It's not to show off my musical skills but to show that I'm not embarrassed to show people that I'm still in the learning process.

I ended up with an audio recording of that at the So Cal Code Camp this past weekend. Here's a chance for you to enjoy that:

Link to mp3

Keep learning, keep exploring, and don't be afraid to suck when you pick up something new.

[Update 10/15/2015: I have been getting better. Check out You Aren't Instantly Awesome, But You Can Get Better with Practice to hear the latest.]

Happy Coding!