So much of the pursuit in our career is the development of skill. And we like to imagine that our skill is one-dimensional. Once we develop the skill, it's as if it's a part of our portfolio forever. But the truth is, skill is only one factor in the multi-dimensional reality that is capability. In today's episode, I want to present a model of thinking about capability. And hopefully give you some way of understanding how your skill can actually be turned into something useful. In your career. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. You're listening to Developer Tea. My goal on this show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers. As a disclaimer, as is true with all mental models, this mental model that we're going to present today is incomplete. It's rough around the edges. There are plenty of places for you to criticize. And say, it kind of falls apart when I think about it in this particular way. But, hopefully, despite being incomplete, this model can be useful to you. Once we understand that models are intended to help us leverage what we're thinking about into action. To give us some way of roughly placing things on a map. Rather than... Rather than... Rather than... Perfectly describing the truth. This helps us get a new perspective on the truth. So, I want to talk about capability as a mixture of two balanced characteristics. And there's actually kind of a nice portmanteau happening here with the word capability. One is the word capacity. And the second word is ability. We can kind of combine those two words. To make capability. Capability. I'm pretty sure that's not the actual etymology of the word capability. But it is a useful way to remember this model of thinking. So, we have capacity. And we have ability. And this model of thinking is actually something that can apply to both individuals and to systems. If you don't have both of these things. Capacity and ability. Capacity and ability. You're not going to be able to execute. On that. Whatever that skill is. Whatever that thing that is demanding. Capacity and ability. If you don't have both of those aligned. Then you will be restricted. From doing the thing that you're trying to do. So, I want to describe capacity and ability in kind of rough broad strokes. And then we're going to take a sponsor break. And we'll come back and talk about it more in detail. Capacity is. The kind of restrictions. From an environment. Standpoint. Environmental in this case. Isn't necessarily external to you. But you can think about capacity. As kind of the. Base level requirements. As a simple. And kind of crazy example. Humans will never have. The capacity. To see. Ultraviolet light. This is in a way. An environmental restriction. Ability. However. Is. More of an event based. Or skill oriented. Practiced. Execution. So we have. Capacity. Which is kind of like traits. And we have ability. Which is. Execution. We're going to talk a little bit more about capacity and ability. Right after we talk about today's sponsor. We're going to talk about. Today's episode is sponsored by. Square. Payment acceptance can be one of the most painful parts of building a web app. For a business. When implementing checkout. You want it to be simple to build. Secure and slick to use. Square's new web payment SDK. Raises the bar in payment acceptance. Developer experience. And provides a best in class interface. For merchants and buyers. You can build a customized branded payment experience. With the web payments SDK. And never miss a sale. Delivery highly responsive. Payments flow across web and mobile. That integrates with credit and debit cards. Digital wallets like Apple pay. And Google pay. ACH bank payments. And even gift cards. The old days of basic payment forms are over. You can even implement things like complex transactions. And follow up actions by the customer. Which can include. Completing a payment authentication step. Filling in a credit line application form. Or doing background risk checks. On the buyer device. The thing is. Even though all of this. May seem complicated. Developers don't need to know. If a payment requires verification. And if so what type. Square hides all of that complexity. From the seller. And guides buyers through the necessary steps. Getting started with the new web payments SDK. Is easy. Simply include the web payments SDK. JavaScript. Flag the element on the page. Where you want the payment form to appear. And then attach hooks. For your own custom behavior. You can get started with the web payments SDK. At squ.re. Slash developer T. That's. S-Q-U. Dot R-E. Slash developer T. Thanks so much to Square for their support. We're talking about. Capability. In today's episode. This idea that capability. Is some. Mixture of. Capacity. And ability. As we've already mentioned. This is a mental model. It's not a perfect description. Certainly. There are things that might lie outside. Of this model. That are hard to explain with it. But. With that said. There are so many things. That can be. Kind of. Put into this frame. Very simple example is. Probably where you see the word capacity the most. At a restaurant. If a given restaurant has the capacity to. Let's say. Seat 150 people. But. Their processes. The way they're being processed. They route their servers for example. Don't allow. For that number of people. To be served. Well we have a mismatch. In the. Capacity. And the ability. On the other hand. You can also have. The opposite problem. Where you have. A highly efficient waitstaff. And. Simply not enough room. To maximize that ability. In this case your ability. Outpaces your capacity. Keen listeners will recognize. This episode is coming out on a Tuesday. Whereas usually. Episodes of the show come out on Mondays. And Wednesdays and Fridays. And in fact. We've missed our Friday refills. For two weeks in a row. This is. A capacity problem. Certainly. With over 900 episodes of the show published. I have. Very likely have the ability. To execute on these episodes. But. Because my time has been constrained. For example yesterday. My son ended up having a fever. And so I had to spend my time doing. Family things rather than recording. For the podcast. My capacity was limited. So why is this important. As you go through your career. You're going to have. Numerous occasions. Where these two things. Will be aligned. But then you're going to have a lot of occasions. Where they're not. Aligned. And here's the critical thing. You may not actually know. You may not know. That your capacity is the limiting factor. Or that your ability. Is the limiting factor. By having this lens available. You can ask the question. Is my capacity. The limiting factor. In this scenario. You can ask this for teams as well. The most simple example of course. Is having a highly efficient team. But not. Having enough. People on the team. It's important to understand also. That as you change one factor. Another factor may change. And that your capacity. Is not something. That you can't change. We aren't talking about external factors. That are out of your control. Instead we're talking about longer term. Setup factors. Another simple example of this. Is that perhaps you have the capacity. To work in a particular language. You've proven this. By working it in that language in the past. But since it has it. Since it's been a while. Since you worked in that language. It's possible that if it came down to it. In the moment. You wouldn't have the ability. Right. And some of this is just because. Our abilities. Change over time. We lose abilities. They may decay with some. You know with a lack of use. And the same is true. If you were to imagine that. You have the capacity to work in a language. That you've never worked in before. In other words. If you were to learn that language. You could develop the ability. To work in that language. Another way to think about capacity. Is to imagine that it's. Similar to. Potential. And on the flip side. You can imagine that ability. Is similar to performance. You have performance. And you have potential. And it should be noted. That these things can change. Even on a day. To day basis. As we already mentioned with. You know the delays. On recording this episode of the podcast. That our surroundings. May change our capacity. When you're. Very tired for example. Right your capacity. Goes way downhill. Now I mentioned that this is. A model of thinking. I can imagine somebody listening to this. And saying well actually. In that moment. It's not that your capacity is limited. It's that your ability. Is limited. And this is. A worthwhile. Argument to bring up. Because. As you begin to think about. The different. Kind of. Variables. That affects these two poles. Of your capability. The important thing is that you engage. And try to find the multifactorial. Truth. Not the. One dimensional truth. Again the myth that we believe is that. Just because we have. Some developed. Skill. Just because we've practiced something. Because we have that knowledge in our heads. Maybe because we've been exposed to something. That we. Inherently. Now possess that skill. But the truth. Is further from that. This should give us both a sense of. Challenge. To pay attention to all of those different factors. Rather than just one. But also. This is ground. For. Going easy on yourself. Just because you didn't perform. To some perfect standard. Or even. To some. Level that you've performed in the past. Doesn't mean. That you suddenly. Have lost all ability. Or capacity. There's likely some specific factor. That stood in the way of you performing that way. Again. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of developer T. I hope you will. Inspect. Your capabilities. Through this lens. And start to imagine things. Both as external and internal. Restrictions. Those. Potential and performance. Capacity. And ability. These two poles. Of capability. Thank you so much to Square. For sponsoring today's episode of developer T. Head over to sq. Re. Slash developer T. To get started with the web payments SDK. Today. If you are enjoying this episode. If you've enjoyed many episodes. In the past. Especially. And I encourage you to join. The developer T. Discord community. Head over to developer T. Dot com. Slash discord. Where you can talk about your career. You can talk about your life. You make friends. You can talk to me. You can ask questions about the show. You can get notifications. When new episodes of the show come out. And a whole lot more. And it's all free. We never plan to monetize the discord community. Head over to developer T. Dot com. Slash discord. To get started today. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. Enjoy your tea.