I am learning a lot from being a parent. My 2.5 year old daughter is insisting on dressing by herself, among all the other things she wants to do by herself. She is getting better but she is still awkward at it. It takes her five times as long to get dressed by herself, she gets frustrated, she puts shoes on the wrong feet and starts over again, but she tries really hard again and again. She gets very upset at even the slightest offers of help. When she is done she is extremely excited and proud of herself.
In IT we do the same thing. At least I do. I strive to always use the latest technologies and do as much as I can by myself -- as if to prove a point to myself and the rest of the world that I can. But now I am beginning to realize that this excessive eagerness to always use the latest technologies and be the greatest software engineer on the market may very well be a sign of professional insecurity.
I am not as bad as I used to be in the early days of my career when I did everything I could to outdo my peers. If nothing else, as an adult and as a parent I understand that I can only handle so much workload and fit so much into my brain. Sometimes it is better to delegate.
