What in the world does this have to do with computers? Well, nothing. And, a lot. Its really more about knowledge, the past, the present, and, the future. (See, theres a reason I put commentary on the title.) Seriously though, have you ever wondered why some people can pick up a tool, a language, a product, and, seemingly know it without ever having seen it? Is it because they are bright? Probably to some extent. Are they some sort of computer savant? Perhaps. Have they made a deal with the devil...or some unnamed executive to have supernatural insight into how machines work? Maybe.
We all know people like this and wonder how they do it. One of the keys to answering this question lies in understanding what they did before they picked up this machine. To play off the big image right above, you have to know what is in their rear view mirror. Many of these people have, in essence, discussed all of the major ideas in their area of expertise, and, not only have they discussed them, but, they have truly mastered the essence of each idea. These essential ideas have been made their own, conglomerated with the rest of their knowledge, and, made a part of their whole.
Now, there is some of the Pythagorean truism, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts," going on here. When people clearly have some keen gift for translating past knowledge, and, experience, to new technologies there is some analogous knowledge transfer going on. But, being myself, I like to peer under the hood of this a bit. So, lets take a simple example. If you have some who, having become a master in Perl, were to pick up PowerShell, this mastery would allow them to become an expert in PowerShell in a fraction of the time it would take a normal, uninitiated person (think your brother or sister in law who calls when the printer stops) to become a master.
Part of the issue lies in the fact that these "masters" have been exposed to a broad array of issues, both conceptual and actual, for which they have come to an understanding of how to deal with things. The novice still has yet to have such conversations. In our analogy, the master has plenty of road behind them. Ideas have been explored, lessons learned, tips, tricks, tools, patterns, insights, and, nuances have all been laid to rest. For this expert, a new language, like going from Perl to PowerShell, becomes less a conceptual question and more one of syntax. The how is more about the language than the application of the language.
Looking back into their wealth of experience and preexisting knowledge they can look at similar situations from their past experiences and translate this forward. This way the issue isnt how to solve the problem. Rather it is how does PowerShell allow me to solve this problem. In what way can this tool (language) be used to solve (provide a solution) to this issue. With this in mind I am looking for ways to expose myself to seemingly irrelevant concepts. Finding excuses to re-solve basic computer science questions myself (travel down the road) will help me get past the conversations (problems) I am currently discussing (struggling with) to new, deeper and hopefully novel problems.
While practical work, like scripting, may hardly seem like a good place to explore basic questions of computer science, it is simple conversations that prevent me from getting to the truly interesting ones. Just in what I know, I have seen things I could have done much faster, more easily, and more effectively had I the right conceptual tool at the right time. Unfortunately, there have been things I have never known I needed until I needed them. At that moment you want to simply have to learn how to use the tool (having already become familiar with it) rather than having to learn the tool exists. Ironically, I feel like, as GI Joe used to say, "Knowing is half the battle." Sure, they leave it wide open as to what the other half of the battle is...but, knowing 1/2 of the battle is still 50% better than not knowing. Hopefully, learning to look back can help me move forward.
