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Growth is never a result, but a cumulative effect, but also a habit. Everyone is always accumulating, but the strength of growth is far from each other. The reason lies in the specific objective environment, it is all kinds of constraints that lead to their inability to break the habit and unable to adhere to it after breaking. To make a breakthrough, we need to start from the two battlefields inside and outside work. Inside work is the best place for growth, while outside work is the experimental field that cannot be provided inside work, where we can have more dabbles and verify ideas.

The essence of growth is breaking through the ceiling

Growth is a difficult thing to figure out and quantify. Completely different environment and subjective consciousness combined with completely different action measures can either make a person become a top expert in a certain field quickly or completely opposite. Before starting the discussion of this paper, we will first look at a few cases. I launched a public welfare activity called “Scott Front-end Early Chat” in 19th (you can add wechat: CodingDream if you are interested). During the two hours of commuting, I communicated with students who were confused in the industry by voice. After the communication, they would make written notes.

  • Talk about growing up anxiety in the early 1-3 years
  • Talk about the job-hopping confusion of young students in the front of the two to one year
  • How to get out of your comfort zone
  • Talk about 3-4 years out of the front or home idle
  • Talk about the trauma of getting a 5-4 year diploma
  • Talk about what to do in the first 6 to 4 years of frequent job hopping
  • Talk about 7-4 years of front-end non-technical courses how to advance
  • Talk about 8-2 years of frequent job hopping how to break
  • Talk about 9-2 years facing occupational crisis
  • Talk about 10-2 years of repetitive front-end work how to break

Almost everyone faces the problem of growth limitation, growth bottleneck, and confusion. The reasons for each person’s background are different, such as:

  • In a large company, the business and team environment tends to be stable, and there is no growth opportunity. There is also a gap with peers. I am unwilling to break the situation and cannot see clearly where to start and stick to it.
  • I have been engaged in the front end for one year, and the company’s business is outsourcing type, without the organization and supervisor to take direct responsibility for myself. I have a weak sense of belonging to the team and slow growth, and strong job-hopping willingness. Recently, I have sent many resumes, but the effect is not satisfactory.
  • Working in the front end for 4 years, I have the opportunity to transfer to management, and the technology belongs to the rising stage. At such a crossroad, I am already proficient in business and have a lot of thinking but cannot find the power point. I feel that I have met the career bottleneck and hope to get out of the comfort zone.
  • 14. After graduation from high school, I found that I preferred code after 4 months of UI training. Then I taught myself to switch to the front end, and then I taught myself PHP, JAVA and other basics, but the results were not very ideal.
  • Graduated in 2017 with two years of front-end experience. In the first year, I worked in two companies respectively, facing the career development problem of frequent job-hopping.
  • I have worked in an Internet company related to real estate for nearly two years. The technical department is not leading. Although the front end of the team is business leading, there is less cooperation between each other, and infrastructure construction and team configuration are relatively backward. Recently, business is busy and manpower is not enough, and technical improvement is very limited.

At ordinary times, I also receive a lot of puzzles like this on wechat:

Big guy, I want to ask you a question that has been bothering me recently. I want to ask you how you see the conflict between heavy business, which is built on the very old technology like jquery, and personal technical growth, and the leadership requires stability, which limits the possibility of technical growth in the business… At the same time, the growth of personal skills is very important. After all, people will not ask about product business at the front of the interview, but only about some technology, which causes a very serious contradiction. Is it only possible to find a team of like-minded people who are equally focused on technology and technology growth?

All of them have similar results with different backgrounds. That is, if you want to improve, you don’t know how to make efforts or even start. There is no clear plan for the Action that needs to be carried out immediately.

Understand the costs and barriers of technology

Most of the time, we will be very like zhuifeng chase trend, actually I was no exception, but nearly 10 years, I finally realized that the technology roots traced the pursuit of nature is the most important, but more importantly than that in their own time distribution and how to choose, your time is worth far more than you think to much, please cherish it.

How to choose for themselves behind us again to discuss, see first time distribution, we know that any technology has its advantages and disadvantages, also has its learning to fit the cost, so the cost combined with their own business scenarios, there will be further the implementation of the cost of complexity, its application scenario is also a cost, the cost we should have some predictions, such as in the very early, I sorted out this picture for my team members:


By then, the list of business applications and the technologies behind them was bewildering, and picking out the technology directions to bet on was a long stack process. Then we put together a second chart:

After combining the two, we found that for different business scenarios, different technology stacks have a certain period of time from unfamiliar to usable and skilled. For example, for ordinary front-end engineers, it takes more than one year of experience to master H5 or small programs, while it takes longer for iOS/Android. Therefore, which technology stack is relatively acceptable in terms of time length, that is, which learning cost can be acceptable is what you need to think about. After thinking clearly, you can choose with more emphasis, and then look at the different technology learning cost behind which is more suitable for you.

Know who you are before you can change

Who am I? Who am I? What do I want to do in the future? What can I do now? What am I good at? What else do I need to learn?

Such as the ultimate torture, I suggest you in every sleepless night, ask yourself, in every party drink, ask friends, its answer is always changing, and never change, the longer the time to think about the more experience, will be closer to its most true answer.

Such as “I am a the front end of the small dishes, four cities to Beijing north drift three and a half years in a small company to do marketing activities page development, in the future I want to be a singular senior front-end, the moment I can project experience, I’m good at find the team and the problems in the work, I also need to learn many popular front-end framework and basic knowledge” this proposition, You can find a piece of paper to write down the question (important: do write it down by hand) and start analyzing it:

  • Do I want to be that front end or not? Do you just want to, really want to, or really want to?
  • Do I know what a senior front end is? Is to know some framework, know some ideas, what framework, what ideas?
  • Do I know what it means to be alone? Do you work on projects independently, lead people, complete assignments independently, or have a lot of experience?
  • What are my strengths? Besides finding the problem, what else? How about problem solving, deep thinking, communication skills?
  • I come to Beijing for what, go to Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen and Hangzhou? What is holding me back and binding me, is a friend or face or courage?
  • Which of my previous job changes or projects has influenced me the most? What influences me, the collaboration process, the people, or the event?
  • Have I been happy these years? What is happiness for? What’s the point of being unhappy? What unhappiness is the hardest to let go of? Which memories are sweeter?
  • Has my initial intention to do the front end changed? For a better user experience, for a great product, for a living, for programming?
  • What is the most consistent thing I can do? Sports, music, movies, trance, lounging, reading, douyin, Weibo, travel?
  • What am I gonna do to survive out of the front end? Write a book, do operations, transfer products, go back home to open a shop, find someone to start a business? Am I confident?
  • What is my biggest pet peeve? Framed by others, the strong business side, the boss’s indifference, the partner or no sense of achievement?
  • React/Vue/React/Vue/React/Vue/React All the time is compressed clean, or no tenacity nibble no move to give up?
  • I know programmers need to socialize. Why don’t you go out for years? Have I become satisfied with my life or have I lost my motivation?
  • I know ability weak meeting salary can but see others take high salary why can unhappy? Do I want more for less, or is everything happening to me unfair?
  • .

In fact, there are too many questions, we can try to ask ourselves, but we often ask others, will choose their own heart and the future has nothing to do with the topic, such as I choose framework A or B, I should restructure or maintain, I should switch to product or management…. Actually all the answer depends on the concrete actions I next 3 ~ 9 months, these answers from my impulsion and planning the optimal or the executable path, but once we have eyes to see the results after September, while ignoring the executable path, or even ignore my motive force, the result became very sorry, That is, my whole thought process, I have no idea what I really want and what I’m really capable of.

Habit formation and goal setting

After deliberation to set the goal of successful probability is bigger, the head and ran out of a hot goals tend to be ruined, soaked to the right, it will make himself in setting goals – perform too difficult – – to set goals that infinite loop, confidence and a sense of achievement from day to day frustrations, become today’s himself, Night to tens of thousands of road in the morning to walk the original road, more and more numb more and more discouraged.

My suggestion is that, when set a goal, for example, after six and a half years is about to see the framework source code or blog, then consider whether to read the code and the habit of writing blog, if no, then the goal would be a little aggressive, to look at the code, for example, effective approach is to force yourself first in 2 weeks, up to a month time, In a relatively fixed period of time to read the source code, if use two or three weeks, he found himself completely insist on not down, then the target will be revised, if they insist on a couple of weeks slowly formed the habit of reading the code, and also benefit to obtain some interest and a sense of achievement, at this time is to set goals, because at that time, your habits are formed.

When you have a habit of being established or mature habits, but also set specific goals, you can set specific plans, plans is a guide to action, to the board to implement, resolutely can not be careless, it is best to write down one by one, such as:

  • Every week at 10 p.m., spend 20 minutes reading the source code for the React lifecycle function
  • Spend 1 hour every Saturday to sort out and summarize the 5 days’ reading of the source code and the notes taken at that time, and draw functional diagrams or schematic diagrams
  • Spend 2 hours every Sunday doing in-depth research on the problems encountered during the week reading source code, and simulating or even mimicking native code testing

Then break this regular task down into each day. Check a check box for each day to complete the task. Give yourself an incentive if you complete the task, for example, if you complete it for 5 days in a row, you can reward yourself with a weekend movie. Finally, add them to the daily schedule of mobile phone/computer/smart watch to give yourself strong reminders. I believe that if this can be maintained for a month, that is, nearly 100 days, a habit will be formed, and you can set a second goal to develop the second habit.

Habits and so is the relationship between target and plan, set goals as far as possible before get into the habit of a potential, to their own bottom line test, and then adjust the target, and dismantling its target formation regularity of the plan, and finally finish this project with rewards and punishment, and through the hardware and software to interact with themselves to remind, it is doomed to be a slightly tedious process, But the more you stick with it, the more fun it will be. It’s only when we get the rudiments of habit training that we’ll really start growing.

Practice a steady path of thought

Face yourself before we have a more objective cognition, also cultivate the habit of the target, the two conditions is established, also the lack of the third thing, is a stable path of thinking, and the simplest way of thinking is the end to the most rigid type of questions, which is in front of him recognize here, I use the list to this problem, to make their own continued close to a certain truth, So you can do this with any kind of dilemma. In fact, when you’ve answered dozens of questions at once, you can go on to write more soulful questions, and the answers will often emerge as you go along.

It’s a much simpler question, What Why How, What is the problem, What is the current truth, Why did it happen, Why did it come to this, How to solve it based on those reasons, whatever it is, force yourself to think about it, to think about the context of it, Gradually, I will find that I will become a person who likes to think and is good at thinking. I will no longer be the reckless boy who only sees the negative and only sees the phenomenon and only sees the surface.

Knowing yourself, forming habits, and training your mind are three things that need to be done over the years, and when these things become abilities that grow in your body, the problems you face will not make you as anxious as before. After this long preparation, we will look at how to achieve sustained technical growth.

Technology growth in and out of work

All of us if the brochure read all articles, there must be a lot of inspiration, but for the technology to grow it, still feel missing something and business busy what all is not enough, for 2 months in a row may be chaotic past 1 years may unknowingly passed, or oneself always swing in technology selection, A month goes by, or a month goes by when you can’t do what you want to do. Believe me, I have experienced all of these experiences, and I believe that almost all engineers have.

Before starting the discussion, I must highlight my core point: growth often fails to meet expectations. Keep in mind that it often fails to meet expectations, because expectations are subjective and inaccurate, and growth is just the accumulation of a process, not a very intuitive result.

With this background, we hope to reach a consensus that whether growth is expected or not, I hope to continue to grow, and hope that a miracle will happen to me — that much more than expected growth will happen to me.

Most of the growth in the workplace comes from projects

With this expectation, when we go back to work, we will find that the most core process indicator of growth is project experience, which can be precipitated naturally in work. Then how to precipitate or dig the growth point?

Many people are asked the question “What was so difficult about your project?” in an interview. Maybe people will limit their thinking to what is difficult about the business I do and what great technology I use to solve the business problems. I’m sure most people don’t have the experience to find this question difficult to answer. So this question can be extended to how do we find problems and grow in our work and business?

How to implement a business is not a problem in most cases, but how to abstract the relevant components, logic, and so on from the business that can be reused is a problem. You can learn by learning the code of your colleagues who are better than you, or by learning how the best libraries in the industry are implemented, which is learning and growing on the job.

You will use a variety of libraries and frameworks as you implement your business. So when we are familiar with the library, we should try to understand the common library implementation principle. We can read the article to understand, can also read the source code to understand, this is also in the work of learning and growth.

, in fact, most of the work in the scene, on the depth of his thinking thinking will bring a larger technology grow continuously, but usually we don’t have the patience and motivation to do it, because there will be employment mentality, you pay me the salary, what I want to break the scalp to grasp how to optimize it, this is tantamount to stop himself in the pool, Company pay (no matter how many) is to buy your time, and your growth is based on the time how to skills in learning to swim in the pool, pool size water depth and shape you are difficult to control, but the breaststroke backstroke freestyle free diving even these are to decide, if the play slip, go to any pool can be like a duck to water, isn’t it?

We’ve already seen a lot of examples of finding a technical breakthrough or opportunity in a business, but here are two more simple examples to illustrate the idea that opportunities for growth are everywhere in the workplace:

If your team every release should be on the server, in addition to publishing system, can contain a reminder email and nailing, pushed to related people, to the push function is it possible to make an independent middle office system, alerted to the fact that any release both front and rear end can access the platform, and then on the platform configuration, and application of the relevant person Any release will trigger this message alert service and close and practical, to develop such a system has both the front-end and back-end, if all is diy, even after work overtime to do it, also not be great, since it is a job to make the close function, also big probability not met with resistance, at the same time it still has value, its technology can also have more try, It’s a win-win.

If the business is a bit far above, it can be close to a layer, from a project’s development, alignment, test, online, monitoring the whole link, will find countless processes serial link of the construction of the team is currently a lack of, such as side dishes from began to write in RN APP, in fact, every link in the following figure has a problem, However, it was not until more than two years of use that we began to realize and develop all of its full-link tools and connect them in series that a complete R&D flow of APP end was formed. All students involved in the development achieved great technological growth:

Therefore, in your work, you should not only rely on patience, but also have a mind that is not afraid of losing, and also have a good eye for discovery. There are countless opportunities in front of you, which can continuously bring growth, and bring more efficiency and experience improvement to your team and yourself.

Growth outside of work comes mostly from experimentation and thinking

Growth outside work is easier and easier to operate, which is usually technical reserve, technological experimentation and summary thinking. Part of technical reserve is for my own career consideration, such as learning RN/Flutter/Go, etc. On the other hand, it can also be for the future possibilities of my company’s business. Such as NodeJS, Taro, MPVue, etc., all of the areas of interest can be stored.

Another is his idea, he could be turned into reality, such as a small tool, schedule to remind a girl sister wake up little tool, a tool automatically generated weekend recipes, and so on, any life pain points and ideas, can begin to implement it, can do together before and after the end, technology stack can be aggressive, All these experiments will bring the expansion of technical vision, but also bring the precipitation of technical depth.

The most worthwhile is thinking and summary, any learning framework, read a book, the project I have done, even solve bugs, can be organized together, put these into text and graphics, to strengthen their memories of past technology, all of the memory, the more the number of repetitions, for their understanding and operating the more skilled, Often the slowest is the most effective.

summary

Growth is an eternal topic, the Internet for decades, countless new people ask growth, also countless new people become old, some mixed into a big master, some mixed into screw foreman, regardless of the economic environment, industry trends and company management, more depends on our growth is some learning methods, More fundamentally, it is still our understanding, planning and persistent implementation of ourselves, which is not luck but strength. It is not the growth brought by the environment that chooses you, but that you choose to grow in any environment. With the choice, what remains is nothing but planning, implementation and persistence.

Finally, this article, as a warm-up, aims to output for you on the following topics: The team to the wild, automated operations from 0 to 1 output growth course summary to the community, help more small team little detours Convergence in the form of a kind of can be quantified side front confusion, precipitation and method of the path, brings to the team more creative achievement Cut into the team management from the perspective of more side/technical evolution in the process of personal growth, Explore the maximization of the value of team of engineers If you are interested, we side front team, will be the collective wisdom condensed together, writing together and launch a front-end career growth, technology and team growth of small volume, feedback to you, remember to leave a message after the text reviews and demand oh, and don’t forget to add Scott WeChat ha: Codingdream.