The White Belt

Despite your inexperience and precisely because of your inexperience, you bring some unique qualities to the team, including infectious passion. Don't let anyone dampen your excitement about software craftsmanship, it's a valuable asset that will accelerate your learning. As a software developer, you will inevitably be part of a team and work on that basis. In any organizational structure, there is a tendency to conform to norms, especially for new people. Most teams don't have an overheated passion for technology. To be sure, they are all focused on delivering the next project or improving some aspect of the software development cycle that is giving them headaches. As a result, passionate apprentices often succumb to outside pressure to keep a low profile. They either repress their passion entirely or let it manifest itself only in the absence of routine work. Unleashing passion in a relatively well-established team is, of course, risky. If morale is low or the team doesn't welcome new people, you may get a dirty look behind your back. For those who believe that competence is more important than the ability to learn, there is no doubt that you will leave a bad impression, especially if you expose your ignorance. Like any model, this one should not be applied blindly. Team dynamics are always a consideration. If you find yourself in a group that doesn't embrace your passion, then you'll need to do something to nurture it.

Diversity of ideas should be seen as a key element of collective intelligence. An intriguing study of the collective psychology of aircraft carrier fleets shows that newcomers play an important role in the complex, coordinated operations required to safely maneuver a giant ship from which fighters constantly take off and land. The researchers found that a team made up of people with different levels of experience was healthier. When different levels of experience are correlating, for example, when novices with nothing "taken for granted" interact more frequently with old-timers who think they've seen the whole picture, everyone's understanding of the problem deepens. It is true that in a healthy community it is good to be polymorphic.

As you transition into the role of a journeyman, you will become less dependent on those skills and gradually others will start hiring you based on your reputation, the projects you've worked on before, and the deeper qualities you bring to the team.

Expertise is a byproduct of the long journey we have taken, but not a destination.

Pursue excellence and success will find you. -- Three Idiots