You already have some areas of technical expertise and familiarity. The problem is usually that the unique combinations of digital technology that is probably used in your environment include several areas you are unfamiliar with. That is OK, it is always the case that there are new and different things we need to learn or become familiar with. We are constantly feeling overloaded, struggling to grasp the situation, the concept, the application, what we should do, where to begin. The sooner you can become tolerant of those uncomfortable feelings, the better.

Related to the above, learning hurts! Physically. It creates mental discomfort that too often keeps others from learning effectively, and keeps us from learning more. Learn to work through it. Just as in sports (No pain, no gain), before long it is energizing, addictive, and extremely satisfying.

Documentation. Most folks hate the thought of wasting time writing down what you do rather than keep busy doing what you do! Huge mistake! Documentation helps you do what you do even better. And it helps those who follow you, if you do it well! There is spiritual service in helping those who follow us to get on their feet faster and more effectively.

Write your document ion in HTML and CSS. And I actually mean typing it using a text editor. In some cases it is helpful to write something in MS Word or LibraWrite and then save it as HTML just to see the HTML they produce. But to understand what they, and others, produce, you must be able to write it yourself. HTML is here for the long term. It will not fade into obsolescence, it is not based on a product that go out of production. HTML is easy to learn, and can be very expressive. I used to do everything in ASCII so that it would remain usable into the foreseeable future. The problem with that is that ASCII could only represent raw text. I wanted to include images, color, placement in order to convey more information and convey it more effectively, and you can do all of that with HTML.

Use Open Source software whenever possible. It is free. You can verify how well it is under development (if needed), it is developed by people who use their programs, people take greater personal pride in their code, it can be reviewed for integrity, and it can be changed as needed.

The Internet, these pages, and my own notes are full of examples of the commands to run, which parameters to use, and in what order to run them. All to provide a recipe to accomplish some task. There is a problem however... Every system is unique enough that very often a set of clear instructions will not work on an increasing number of systems. A tweak here or there is needed to adapt the instructions in order to accomplish the task.

So, build-up some tollorance for instructions and examples that do not match your environment a little, or a lot. And most importantly, understand what you are seeing and doing. Learn enough about the tools you are using, and the things they are operating on so that you can recognize what maters and what does not.

This is the difference between a hacker and a script-kiddy. The hacker understands the environment they are working in, and if they are unsure about something they stop and research it enough to gain relevant information to move on confidently. A script-kiddy will just plow ahead causing damage, burning bridges, and blaming the hardware, software, or instructions.

Think in terms of years rather than the immediate. Buying a laptop? Make sure it is sized (RAM, DASD, ports...) to be able to continue solving the problem you are buying it to solve until it's end of life. Do not assume you can add stuff to it over time in order to keep doing what you bought it for. Then at the end of it's life, repurpose it for something else.

Focus first on IT fundamentals, and return to them often. But continually focus yourself on a small set of technologies that you either work with, or play with. There is too much pulling at your attention that might be very interesting, but there is always more you can learn, skills you can improve or develop that focus on what you are doing. Do a few things masterfully, do a few other things competently, be aware of many other things superficially, and ignore the rest.

Pursue your passion. The better you are at what you like, the more likely you can work in what you like. The world has way too many people working at things they have no passion for, no satisfaction from, and no desire to continue.

I believe that IT (hardware and software) as susceptible to spiritual forces just as we are. Pray about IT problems, project, and for practitioners.

IT is like anything else in that it can be used constructively as well as destructively. Focus on being constructive while educating and empowering others to protect themselves when it is use destructively.

Do not stress over keeping up with all of the changes and innovation, even in the smaller areas you focus on. There are a million people out there developing new stuff every day. There is no way to keep on top of all that, nor any reason to. Besides, much of IT work is identifying a problem and then looking for solutions. That is when you can check and see what has risen to the top and become stable and reliable.

Include a grain of salt with EVERYTHING you know about IT. Often, the impossible becomes the common place.

Rather than trying to memorize the details of every tool or technique you come across (regardless of how cool or important they are), instead remember what every/most tools are capable of. Then when you need a solution, you can figure out the details then.

Rather than seeing tools as what you rely on, focus on techniques and procedures. Solutions are most often the combination of different tools being use in new ways and combinations. A sculptor is not concerned with their chisel, they are focused on the outcome and pull out different tools as needed, when needed to get to that result. When done, the sculpture is admired, not the tools.

Do not try to build a finished, static solution. Static dies young. Build with the next five years in mind. Everything we work with grows, evolves, is eventually replaced, or used in ways we cannot anticipate. So document the thing so you, or anyone, can work with it later and build extensibility into it from the start. How, ask yourself, if I pick this up in five years, what do I need to know about it, and what would its characteristics, components, options, and so on need to be in order for me to pickup where I left off and do something I had not envisioned when it was first developed?

Truly new technology does not come along very often, regardless of sales hype. There are a relatively small number of technologies, protocols, and techniques currently at the core of digital technology. Those core pieces are combined in different ways, and then recombined to create new products. Improved products, and new products that do the same thing, or similar, constantly compete for our attention and money. It is a better use of your time to focus on the core pieces so you can adjust them and combine them yourself. It is also better to understand what a product is comprised of than what it can do, how solid a solution it might be, and what the actual requirements and limitations are.

IT, like most things, can be thought of as a pile of tinker toys. Lots of pieces/parts of different shapes and sizes. Each is considered atom (indivisible). Their super power is that you can combine them is an endless number of combinations creating practically anything you can imagine.