The Value of Cross-Training

It was back when Java 1.1 was a hot ticket item that I decided to tinker with this cool, new language. I learned the basics and made a number of fun applets. One silly one I recall involved a cat chasing a mouse around on a rectangular surface. The hardware mouse moved the software mouse and the cat head followed the mouse wherever it went automatically. At the time I was in a primarily Microsoft shop, so I never got to use my Java knowledge at work, but when C# came out, it was very easy to pick up for me due to my Java experience.

A while back I also learned a fair bit about writing Flash applications using Macromedia Flash MX. I wonder how much this is going to help when I dig into Silverlight one of these days.

More recently, I spent a weekend studying Ruby on Rails and then BAM! - a few months later Microsoft's ASP.NET MVC Framework becomes a hot topic. Due to my experience with RoR, understanding the architecture and coding of MS MVC has been very easy. I may never code a production RoR app, but by studying it, I've given myself a valuable education.

Cynics may grumble about "M$ copying others" (I'm won't touch that one!), but there have definitely been other instances of helpful cross-training not involving Microsoft products. An obvious example is all that IBM Mainframe JCL I got to write a decade or so ago...that prepared me quite well for…for…for, well, um, Soap Headers! (And punch cards prepared me for voting in Palm Beach county.) LOL. Ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but I am certain that my work with Perl helped with understanding some Ruby syntax and of course when SAS started supporting regular expressions, the experience with Perl regex paid off. And my explorations into the Matisse object-oriented database definitely helped grokking NNHibernate easier. Procedural programming in QBASIC certainly prepped me for classic VB. And let's not forget BASIC with its fun and frequent GOTO statements and the not infrequent use of same in VB/VBA error handling. On Error Goto Err_Handler. Good times.

My point is that when the urge strikes you to explore that language you've been curious about, go for it. It might just turn out to be the next cool thing or cross-train you for it.

Changing gears a bit, this reminds of the cross-training encouraged by the Integral Life Practice starter kit. By exercising your body, mind, spirit, and shadow (unconscious) in different ways, each realm of human experience is enhanced. For example, the benefits of meditation (spirit) extend well beyond the spiritual realm, into the physical (a more relaxed state), mental (more clarity), and shadow (unconscious material is more accessible to productive processing).

Happy Thanksgiving! :)