The downward spiral of technical & detail-driven people

I’m fascinated by learning why and how certain things work. The problem I’ve had is the difficulty in deciding what information I should learn, and what information I should block out. When you’re always wondering about the systems and processes going on, it’s easy to get caught up in technical details and doing too many things you shouldn’t be doing. This will slow your progress and deviate your focus. Our time is valuable. Be selective on what information you should learn yourself vs what information you should let others learn, or risk falling into a downward spiral of costly, time-wasting nothingness.

Are you trying to build an online business? Create a website? Freelancing? Providing services to clients? Or are you just interested in learning a new skill? Whatever it is, be careful of how far you go into the learning process. Figure out if you should stick to principles and overviews, or go into the details.

My personality and technical background always gives me that hunger to “find out more”. I like answers and details, because I want to see the big picture and be informed. I love Henry Ford’s quote: “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” I’ve always wanted to do such a good job for people, that I felt the need to figure out and do things myself. No one could ever do it as good as me, right? Wrong. These personality traits can be detritmental to your entire life if you don’t learn to control it by being selective when it comes to learning new information and skills. I ask myself a few questions on a regular basis:

1. Is this something I would enjoy learning?

This one is harder to answer than you think. Sometimes you could falsely convince yourself that you would enjoy learning something, and that it would be “sooo much better” if you knew X, Y, and Z. It’s easy for technical people to enjoy learning many things, because that’s what’s in our DNA. We love details. Enjoyment is a requirement, but we need to go deeper than that.

2. Is this something that fits into my future goals?

Information and skills should play a big part in your future goals and lifestyle plans. If you’re a website designer and plan to own your own web design business in the near future, should you really be taking classes on how to repair automobiles? Instead, why not start researching and reading some blogs on how small businesses are marketing themselves online. If you’re a personal trainer and want to own your own gym someday, should you really be building your own website? Have someone build a website for you and spend your time figuring out how to build your personal brand instead.

3. Is this something that should be left to a professional?

This was the key for me. I finally decided to look at every subject and think to myself, “are there professionals out there doing this already?” In 99.999% of cases, there was. So why should I spend my valuable time jumping into an industry or subject that could potentially take me months, or years to learn? Well, my brain tried to justify why. As I mentioned above, I thought “no one can do it better than I can”. But the reality is that right now, other people CAN do it better than you and you’re doing a disservice to yourself, and your clients. You can’t become a professional overnight and you should leverage the resources of other professionals instead of reinventing the wheel.

Another reason I tried to justify doing things myself is that I could save money. That may make sense on paper, but the truth is you’re most likely costing yourself money. How much is your time worth and how fast do you want to complete a project? If you try to learn something from scratch and do it yourself, prepare for the possibility of missing deadlines and goals, wasting time and money, and getting nowhere. Does this happen all of the time? No. But it will blow your mind how much more productive it is to avoid certain things.

Another good one is “what if I don’t have the money to spend on a professional?” I’ve found that in almost any subject, someone has already figured out a cost effective, “good enough” way of doing things. You just have to find it. Google Search is your best friend. Instead of immediately hiring a professional, search around the web and talk to people first. If you want advice, you could join Linkedin within seconds, ask a question and get 20 responses back in a day. Say something like “I need a website but I don’t know where to start. Any advice?” I guarantee you’ll get a dozen resources pointing you where to go. Heck, most of the time someone probably already asked the exact same question as you, it’s just a matter of finding it. I believe I originally found Linkedin through Google because I typed in “I need answers to my questions”.

The bottom line.

Sort knowledge into 2 categories: general knowledge that is good to know, and specialized knowledge. And be very selective for what specialized knowledge you actually choose to learn.

Driving your car vs repairing it yourself.
Using website designers vs building it yourself.
Hiring a chef and eating gourmet food vs taking culinary classes.

Whatever it is, decide what’s worth learning and what’s not.

Don’t bog down your life with details you may not need. Learn the general concept of things and enrich yourself with fun and interesting skills. Learn how to dance, take self-defense, learn about astronomy and history, learn what the Internet is and how it plays into business. Remember, your time is valuable. Leave out the details sometimes and leverage the resources that are available in the world. Try not to reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.