Good times ahead

As many/all people who read this blog know I have been doing freelance work on the side for the past five years. Many of those years I would say stupid shit like "once it gets a little bit busier I will go on my own." Realizing that is a bit like saying "once I get XXX amount of money I will be fine" (which is never true, btw) I worked out a middle ground with my lovely fiancee and am going on my own as a freelance developer/hacker starting on Wednesday. It is pretty exciting and scary all at the same time.

What does this mean for whoever reads this blog? Not too much. I will still post here but I am also going to be creating a company blog in the next few weeks. I am not sure if I will cross-post or what but I would expect that this blog will have a bit more of a personal flavor to it. Well wish me luck because I will need it! :)

My phases of growth (personal note)

Recently I have taken on a new job in a new field that I have wanted to get into for the past 8 years (which means quite a bit if you know my age :P). As, I am reflecting on this I have noticed a pattern in how I learn new fields of study (and I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't alone on this pattern). So, I just want to do a quick brain dump on my process to see if it changes as I get older.

1) Confusion / Information overflow (i.e. Oh shit I am too dumb to even know this stuff)
2) Grasp of basic concepts and building of resources
3) More and more field specific vocabulary and start to be able to communicate with people that have been in the field for awhile
4) Implementation of knowledge and starting to share it with others. I also start to learn about more specific things. At this point I start picking up books that look interesting and realize I already know half the stuff or my other books / resources cover the majority of this information
5) I really start to disseminate information to others and start to get a little bit comfortable (first plateau)
6) Get busy enough that it is hard to start growing more and have to take a step back and start to re-focus my attention
7) Realize that there is more than I thought and really where I was at on number five was 95% wrong and start to try and fix things (second plateau)
8) ??? I have never hit this step but I think in my new field I will hit this and go past it, I guess I will get to update this document :)

I have seen these phases in a few different fields. But mostly it has been in the security and development fields that I have really noticed it.