Learning is Lifelong
After many years in school and working lowly, but rewarding, jobs in IT, I truly feel learning is one of the best attributes that I possess. It is an attribute that everyone should strive for and keep close to them no matter what.
As I have stated many times before… I am an avid listener of podcasts and video podcasts. I love them because they help me stay up-to-date in this frequently changing world of IT. I would have to say my newest vidcast that I have been enjoying lately has been HAK5. They are just a bunch of real down to earth people talking about technology! They are a bit goofy but that’s okay with me. I believe they were recently added to revision3, and I’m quite glad they were.
I really enjoyed the piece by Chris Gerling on reverse engineering on .NET applications (and more). This is a very handy skill to have especially since I work with .NET. As I watched the podcast I didn’t think much about it. I found it to be very cool and engrossing; tres geek. I like how they broke the segment down onto multiple episodes (inside of being deluged).
Come a few weeks later (now), a couple of the network guys came to my cube and asked me if I could help them with an application a previous developer wrote. I politely said “Sure! Not a problem”, which they responded with “Great one catch though, all we have is the EXEcutable and we need it ASAP”. I think that was actually two catches, but anyhow.
I said calm and coolly, “all we need to do is decompile the application get the source code and we’ll be ready to go”. I suspect it was not the answer they were expecting. I was calm and cool because I just watched the great hak5 episodes that involved reverse engineering! Hot dog. I earned major cred points for my attitude and how quickly I was able to reproduce the code for the problem.
After inspecting the code we found the problem to be a configuration code; not a development bug. This was such a critical step the problem solving process. This also proves that learning is a lifelong process that needs to continue beyond school and become apart of your life.
I am so happy to see that you were able to learn something and use it to help your career out!
If you ever need anything feel free to email me!
Hey Brent!! I’m glad you’re enjoying season four of Hak5! Your blog popped up on my Google Alerts and I just wanted to say thanks for the shoutout.
Thanks for dropping by! I really enjoy your work.
That’s a great attitude Brent, and in my opinion, more important than anything else. I love to learn so much, it’s overshadowed what I’m actually learning at times…haha!
Every time I read, see or hear something I don’t know, I become interested in it and learn about it. For instance, if I see a word I’ve never used or don’t know the meaning of, I write it down on a note pad and learn all about it – until I know it and use it in everyday language. I apply that to everything.
Thanks! This is an inspiring article
Maybe that’s what life is all about. I have no clue.
Thanks Bobby
Legendary guitarist Segovia once said “It is better to be a pupil at 90 than a master at 14.” Meaning of course, the real joy comes in the learning..
Great point Brent, and thanks for visiting my blog