On differences in the level of experience. (life lesson 5?)

I had a capstone group meeting with my professor today. We talked about some errors we ran into and the state of our project. I told him my problem was that when Python spawned a subprocess, it would execute successfully but the executable wouldn’t run. I was really baffled. He said to run ‘ls -lrt’ in the folder with the executable. Apparently it was a permission issue. Only the creator of the executable can run it and in my case, the Python file ran ‘gcc’ which told the terminal to compile and make the executable, thus making the terminal the owner. No script would be able to run the executable.

So what’s the big deal? My professor knows a lot? That’s normal right? Well yes, but for me, it clearly illustrated the power of experience. I felt overwhelmed that a problem I couldn’t solve for a whole day was solved in seconds by my professor. I asked him later about how he came up with a fix so quickly. He said he ran into a similar problem before while doing backend work. So here’s my advice for all you readers out there.

When you see someone who seems ‘superhuman’, realize they are merely a well stocked tool shed. If you feel your tool shed is lacking, don’t fret. Let the ‘superhuman’ be your guiding light, a source of inspiration and a point of aspiration. Dabble in everything. I have come to realize many problems that may seem completely unrelated can have similar solutions. A good way to learn how to connect the dots is to immerse yourself. For example, if you want to learn more about programming, immerse yourself in the world of web development. Then dive into API development. Mix it up with mobile development. You get the idea.

So what are you waiting for? Go out there and immerse yourself!