A Network Artist : The Mythical "Networking Expert" Unicorn

Thursday, May 28, 2020

The Mythical "Networking Expert" Unicorn - Part 1

" Expertise is a Myth " - Yes you read that right !!!

Recently there were couple of different posts/threads going on over Linkedin where people were asking a very common question that most people in Networking/Technology industry struggle to answer and in most cases it only causes the them anxiety - " Since there are just too many new Technologies & Solutions those have surfaced in last couple of years, how do I stay relevant moving forward and what should I focus on? "

While the easiest answer you always hear from people would be " It depends" and they are probably right (Let's keep it for another post as it's not really as hard as a problem if you apply some science to it, "Yes there are proven methods" and you don't necessarily need to completely depend upon "what your gut tells you" which is what I guess 99% in real world would people rely upon, if you ever doubt that - Please be my guest to show me how you plan your career decisions in terms of a structured approach you follow to make those decisions).

Perhaps the 5 Ws is a good place to start.

Now on the same linkedin thread, many people suggested to follow T-Shaped skill set which essentially says - Be an Expert in few selective areas while continue to me a generalist in rest of areas.

Sounds plain, simple & logical - isn't it ?

But that leads us to another interesting question which is "How do I know if I am an Expert in a certain area?" - Since in general no one tells us how to gauge our expertise or perhaps the real question is "Does Expertise exists for real ?"

Here is what Wikipedia says - "An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field."

Now as you can see, while those are some good statements and sensible ones too, they still don't tells us ways to measure expertise correctly. So still what we are struggling with is quantification of our Expertise persona.

Now obviously it just can't be unsolvable problem. But answer essentially lies in "How far you want to go on a quest to find these answers?" since it has its roots in Psychology, Critical thinking and many other places including:

- What's you motivation to be seen as an Expert ? Ever thought about it?

In general it has it's roots spread across - Emotional Reasons, Psychological

reasons, Social reasons, Financial reasons and so forth.

- Are you really trying to solve the real problem or just trying to address

that in the realm of your own area of experience/expertise ?

- And in real world in order to do what I just mentioned above, you got

to step out of your comfort zone, So are you willing to do that?

- Since every environment has its own set of nuances involved including

its own set of constraints, one solution won't meet everyone's needs.

- Are you good at interacting with people or you are just comfortable

talking to Network devices and consider yourself as an introvert?

- Are you keen to learn but more importantly put in practice lot of those

non-technical but essential skills which you would actually need to first

understand the problem landscape correctly?

- Are you keen to do actual hard-work to gather data points and validate

your understanding and hypothesis on a given topic or problem a

statement? - Trust me, this is where 99% people usually fail as in most

cases they have lot of hypothesis and solutions which only they think

makes sense with no validation and Data to prove their point. And in

many cases the data in question is too generic.

- Are you keen to constantly challenge yourself for good? (Since at times

it's a restless & never ending process - Though many enjoy that

pain being nerd)

- How do you find balance between Life, Work and Passion (Do you have

a method/approach to apply?)

- Do you have plans or just aspirations? (In my personal view aspirations

are 1000 kg a $ and plans are expensive)

- Are you another victim of Dunning Kruger effect or Big fish little pond

effect ?

- Are you in love with Problem or in love with Solutions? Unless a problem

is very well defined, it can't really be solved or else your solution in

most cases would be just another duct tape which will fix something

temporarily but increase complexity by large margin.

- Are you open to listen and learn from other or you are the smartest

person in the room that knows the answers always? The most complex

set of problems are solved best collectively rather than by just throwing

your point of views into the equation.

L&D Cartoon – Too Busy To Learn | L&D Generous

- And last but not least - Are you willing to fail many times before you

succeed or even partially succeed?

So as long as you have answers to those questions, that's a pretty good place to get started. :) , and if not - Keep continuing to play giant pretending game by projecting yourself as an Expert. :) ... since many people still love illusions or perhaps enjoy living under the rock.