Technology Innovation

This morning I met with the head of development for a large technology organization and we talked about some of the latest trends in software development. I work in a research and development group and so my team constantly looks at emerging products and how they can best be used to solve problems. The person I met with came with questions about how his organization can leverage some of these new tools to increase efficiencies and streamline software development.

I find it interesting that I found myself championing technology innovation. I am one of those people that resists change and that is one of the problems with the staff of the organization I met with. Software developers get comfortable with the tools and languages they know. The longer someone uses a technology, the more they resist moving to something else. While Java is a great software programming language, there are problems that can be solved quicker and with less effort simply by choosing Python or Erlang.

I have had to force myself to constantly ask if there is a better way of doing something. A simple example is when I had to cut up some old rags this past weekend. I had a dull pair of scissors and a large pile of rags to cut into smaller sizes. At first I tried to make a quick snip with the scissors and then rip the fabric. Things sped up when I simply just got another pair of sharp scissors. Taking 30 seconds to change my tool cut my project time in half.

Looking for a better way to do a task is not something I developed on my own. I have surrounded myself with people who are always looking for a better way of accomplishing things. I have tried to remember to ask for help but often times my coworkers volunteer better ideas for me. That takes a bit of humility but I find it also saves a lot of time. Sometimes if it wasn't for them, I would still be retyping everything instead of cutting and pasting.