The title of this blog post makes is purposefully tongue-in-cheek, let me attempt to explain. As a kid football was everything, I played a ridiculous amount. Lunchtime and after school kickabouts, perhaps training twice a week and then two matches at the weekend. It was great and academia was not so great. I was a pretty average student – not the worst, definitely not the best and certainly not interested. So naturally I grew up and became a Software Developer.
What’s odd about this scene is that software development has an abundance of highly intelligent, talented people. They are thought-provoking, fascinating and challenging. Learning is at the heart of the development process and there’s an ever increasing list of books and articles to keep up with. None of which is likely to be associated with football anytime soon.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why I enjoy software development and what interests me and I keep finding comparisons with football. What I’m discovering is that I’m driven by self-improvement. Each time I play football there are aspects of my game I’m trying to change. A lot of the exercise outside of football I do with a view to being fitter or stronger the next time around. Similarly with software, I’m reading recommended books, going to tech events and collaborating and challenging those around me all with the intention of being a better developer. That self-awareness to improve takes a lot of getting used to - it doesn’t come naturally and definitely isn’t easy - but if you’ve played some team sports you might have a good shot (pun intended). As it turns out this whole time I’d be running regular internal retrospectives, much like the well-known Agile practice, but with a focus on the football pitch.
In a way what I’m getting at here is mastery. Daniel Pink’s book Drive discusses mastery in great depth and is definitely worth a read. He writes “Mastery is a mindset: It requires the capacity to see your abilities not as finite, but as infinitely improveable. Mastery is a pain: It demands effort, grit and deliberate practice. And mastery is an asymptote. It’s impossible to fully realise, which makes it simultaneously frustrating and alluring.” For me this is what it’s all about, the destination might be unachievable but trying to get there is going to bloody fun.