I once made a deal with an ex-girlfriend during the time we were dating. We were not allowed to make fun of anything the other person liked unless they had fully experienced or test driven that thing. This came about, back when all the girls were raging fans of the Twilight movies and there was team Edward and team whatever the other guys name was and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing. After this rule was agreed on, I then had to sit through 2 hours of this movie to gain the rights to criticize it. At the end of the movie I still hated it but one thing I walked away with was how ignorant many of my previous criticisms of a movie I had never watched was.

I see a lot of "new" things show up in the tech ecosystem. In the beginning when I learn a new language or a framework every new thing that shows up is exciting but after a while I start to grow cynical. Usually due to a combination of things, at this point I have been hurt by languages, frameworks or systems that I had invested time into but they evaporated and became useless or I had become very comfortable in the current language and system I am using so I was too lazy to change, but the worst sin I have found myself commit is the one of assuming I already know what this new technology is all about.

In the recent past I have made this mistake about Wordpress, I have made this mistake about NodeJs and I have made this mistake with Android. By ignoring my instinct and jumping into using these technologies with no bias but to honestly to learn, I have learned many new things, which have made a better developer today. I still dislike some of the technologies and tools I have tried, but now in a conversation I can give clear examples and valuable feedback why I do not like it and not some phrase I read from my favorite tech blog.

I find as we gain experience in things, we tend to start relying more on our hunches than on actual evidence. This can be great when we need to make quick decisions, but this can turn dangerous when we fully rely on these hunches to decide if something is worth learning or not.

Growing old is unavoidable, but never growing up is possible. I believe you can retain certain things from your childhood if you protect them - certain traits, certain places where you don’t let the world go.- Johnny Depp

I have found growing older and gaining experience steals the curiosity of learning new things, which comes naturally to a child. Taking our assumptions as facts and losing our curiosity stops our growth in life and any field we pursue. So I have decided although I will continue to grow old I consciously will refuse to grow up.