Energy and memory

Early in my career I had a seemingly endless supply of energy to throw at ideas. If I wasn’t sure how to do something I could be sure that through hard work and time I could figure it out.

This worked for many things, and was a huge boon to my desire to get good at my work and create things that were appreciated by potential customers or clients.

Now, in what might be considered the middle part of my career, the energy is somewhat lessened (though not absent), but what I have are skills built on skills from nearly two decades of tinkering and learning and receiving validation in the marketplace.

When I approach a project I can bring a mix of energy and knowledge, and an unending curiosity. Instead of throwing brute energy at the problem I can look for workarounds, time savers, drawing from what I’ve learned before.

If I’m working on a problem, and in some ways I’ve done parts of that problem before, I can lean on the previous knowledge to shortcut the process and quickly get that part out of the way.

There is, of course, some danger here. I could refuse to allow new or better ways to come in. I struggle all the time with the tension between what I know and what I want to learn. But with the right balance you can leverage your background and remaining energy to do some amazing things.