--- title: "True Learning – not comfortable, easy or safe" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2009/3/2/true-learning-not-comfortable-easy-or-safe.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2009/3/2/true-learning-not-comfortable-easy-or-safe.html" published: "2009-03-02T01:21:17" updated: "2009-03-02T01:21:17" tags: ["Agile"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "People seem to have a problem with me “changing lanes”. But that’s the way I learn things. If I totally disagree with something, I accept the fact that I may be doing so because of fear and misunderstanding. The best…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # True Learning – not comfortable, easy or safe By Roy Osherove March 2, 2009 In [Agile](https://osherove.com/blog/category/agile) **Historical article** · Originally published March 2, 2009; technical details may be outdated. People seem to have a problem with me “changing lanes”. But that’s the way I learn things. If I totally disagree with something, I accept the fact that I may be doing so because of fear and misunderstanding. The best way to get rid of FUD is to give something a shot, and that’s what I do. - I had a problem with **Team System** – I thought it was too much, but I didn’t have all the facts.What was **I** going to do about it? So I started learning it and doing consulting on it. My goal was to become an authority on it so that I can say I’ve been to both sides and now I can decide better based on real knowledge. Today I use svn because it makes more sense for my current team – not because I don’t like TFS (I do, it has lots of good stuff, just like it has bad stuff) - I had a problem with **Typemock** – I thought it was a lousy product, that kills design for testability.. What was **I** going to do about it? So luckily the company resides in the same country where I work, so I got up the nerves and actually started working on the damn product. Now, having been in both sides I can safely decide and answer all questions from both sides, in a more objective manner. Do I **always** use it? no. I use it when it makes sense. I also get to **make it better** in terms of API, usability and vision, so that it fits more into how I think it should be. That’s what I’m doing about it. **What’s next though?** - I have a problem with BDD and spec-related frameworks. What am I going to do about it? (can you guess?) - I have a problem with people who think I’m a sellout – can I do something about that? (accept the fact I can’t control what other people think, and just do what I feel is the right thing – lead by example) - I have a problem with DDD (not getting it). what do I intend to do about it? (can you guess?) - I still don’t get NHibernate well enough. I intend to do something about that. **My point is:** Sometimes real courage means not standing in the sidelines and saying something is bad. Sometimes it means trying something even if you may look like a fool or a sellout, because that’s the only way to learn that something and come out with more knowledge. Sometimes that means you don’t feel as comfortable as you should. TO all the detractors: a little challenge. since you’re so frigging confident in what you do, take a chance and - Develop a full project with VB.NET - Use Typemock on a real project - Use TFS on a real project - Do TDD on a real project at worst you’ll have **actual** things to say why you don’t like them, and you will have learned something. otherwise, get the hell of my lawn. ## More in Agile [All posts in Agile](https://osherove.com/blog/category/agile) - Mar 9, 2009 ### [What Isolation\\Mocking and unit testing framework are you using?](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/3/9/what-isolationmocking-and-unit-testing-framework-are-you-usi.html) - Mar 4, 2009 ### [We need a new slogan](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/3/4/we-need-a-new-slogan.html) - Mar 1, 2009 ### [Alt.Heros – Shanselman, benscheirman](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/3/1/altheros-shanselman-benscheirman.html) - Mar 1, 2009 ### [What are YOU going to do about it?](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/3/1/what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/