Know Your Bubble

While many of us try to break out and understand others’ points of views, it’s natural to want to hang out with people who think like us. Who doesn’t like being right? And who better to validate your opinions than someone who thinks like you?

A lot of my career success has come from seeing “the other side” and building bridges between teams or different business functions. Despite this, I definitely have a few “go to” people who I love talking with at work because I know that they see the world as I do. Until recently, I thought the bounds of this group was my little bubble. I was wrong.

I recently listened to a few books about tech for business leaders who have no concept of software development. The books were quite enlightening. Not in the way that they were meant to be, of course. I already knew the technical concepts and best practices that were being described. Listening, however, to what the authors chose to explain and how they framed some pretty basic concepts totally blew my mind. My horizon has expanded and I’ll be better at my job for it, even though all my colleagues have a better understanding of software than the target audience of these books. I’m excited to find more ways to expand my thinking and see beyond my bubble. I challenge anyone reading this to do the same.