Saturday, September 02, 2006

The average curse 2: Not having a niche

Earlier on this channel, you read about the average curse and how it has impacted my life. Recently, I changed companies, and the average curse has comeback to hit me with a vengeance. But this time, it has more than one dimension. While earlier I only cribbed about having friends who could do things better than me, I now face an entire battalion of more-capable people, that too in my favourite areas of CS.
I was having lunch with some of them, and was simply amazed at the depth of their knowledge and the sparkle of their intelligence. There were many topics being discussed - from the organization of files in Unix to the way malloc works, to database queries, and database-object oriented round-tripping. Each of those persons held their own in their topic, and that was when it struck me.
I have no niche of my own.
Now, that, my dear readers, is the real disaster of the average curse. Not knowing what you're good at. Not having a niche. Not being able to hold forth in any area of your choice. And how much time has it taken for me to realize it!!!
Anyway, another 'get it off the chest' post.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ever wondered how many of us felt this way when you spoke of technical stuff...

Gops said...

Heh heh, flattery, eh, Sandeep?
Sorry, even though you're improving, you need to do better. :D
Seriously though, there is a difference - what I know are facts, there is no insight in them. There is no application of intelligence. It is plain and simple regurgitation. What these guys have is deep insight. And that is so cool!

H said...

Guess it takes some time if you are in the industry to find a niche :) .

Gops said...

Well H,

Yes, it does, but I guess I've been in industry long enough to have found mine, which I unfortunately haven't.

Ananda said...

Well Gops, think it out in this way..

You find interest in things you want to learn, want to try and build expertise. Once you are an expert.. well you end up helping others to become like you..

I think it is better having a "average curse" than "i do not want to know".

Gops said...

The problem is, Anand, that I'm not doing any of those. :)

I agree that it is better to have the "average curse" than to say "I don't want to know", but I'd rather have the "expert curse" than the "average curse".

Guess that was what I was rambling on about.