When are you most self-conscious? When do you lack confidence? For many people, the answer might be something like public speaking. For others, the answer might be when starting something new or in a difficult conversation where I'm trying to convince somebody of something that they don't necessarily already believe. And these are perhaps some of the most formative and important moments in your career and in your life. These moments where you have an opportunity to influence another person. To help them. Make a decision that is mutually beneficial, for example. And yet we are least confident when it comes time to do that. In today's episode, I want to give you a few reasons to be more confident about your role. And I especially want to focus on people who have a lack of experience. Beginners in particular. You see, the beginner has a unique perspective. This is because, quite frankly, the lack of experience or the lack of exposure to a given product, to a given set of information, domain, to different people in that domain, different opinions that may be strongly held. This lack of experience provides a unique perspective that is very difficult to retain by being exposed to those things. In other words, you have, as a beginner, the opportunity to see things almost literally differently than your more experienced colleagues. Now this is true both kind of anecdotally, we can know that this is true intuitively. But it's also been shown to be true through research. The basic idea is that you have a lack of experience. The basic idea is that once you have been exposed or once you believe something, once you've experienced something, it's very hard to return your mindset, to return your brain state, to revisit what it felt like to not know about that thing. And so you have a unique opportunity as a beginner. You have fresh eyes. You have a fresh perspective. And it's important that you don't discount this, that you don't throw it away too quickly. In particular, the kinds of questions that you ask, the kinds of, you know, wondering that you do about why a given thing is made that particular way. Or what if we did it slightly differently? Why are we organized in this way? Why do we use that process or that tool? These kinds of questions need to be captured. And it's very easy to feel like these questions are going... They're going to be kind of your demise. And we want to talk about this particular feeling for the remainder of the episode. It's easy to imagine that you're going to walk into the room with your new team. You're going to go into a one-on-one with your new boss. Or you're going to talk to another senior engineer, somebody who's more senior than you. And it's easy to imagine that you're going to say something. That will make them believe that you don't belong here. Or it'll make them believe that you're not going to be here for long. That you're not as smart or as experienced as you should be. Or that you're not as intelligent. All of these things are fears that we have that we play through our minds. If we ask that particular question. If we talk about it in that specific way. If we question that particular decision. Then we're going to be seen through a negative lens. This isn't true. Once again, we're going to turn to research here to back up these claims. And by the way, a good bit of the inspiration for this episode comes from a book that I am reading currently. It's called You Have More Influence Than You Think by Vanessa Bontz. We have referenced this book on previous episodes. But this is especially true for software engineers. When you walk in the room, you may believe that other engineers are waiting to shoot you down. There's a lot of incorrect beliefs that we have about these social situations though. One of the most incorrect beliefs is that we imagine that it's us versus them. Intuitively. Intuitively. If you were to ask somebody. Are you guys on the same team? Do you want the same things? We can kind of slow down and affirm that yes, we are kind of pushing for the same success. But in the heat of the moment, it feels like that person is trying to find your flaws. The truth is, they want you to succeed. The basis of human communication, based on research, is that we believe each other. That by default, when we're talking with one another. We have an implicit trust that the other person is not intentionally misleading us. This is, once again, the basis of communication. And so when you walk into a meeting with your new boss. They're not looking for you to say something that is wildly untrue. They don't believe that your questions are pointing to some major deficiency. The story that we tell ourselves. In. In our heads. Is that this person is deeply invested in making me look bad. Or, at the very least, they're deeply invested in making sure that I'm not a fraud. But the truth is that people are less invested in the things that we care a lot about. Than we imagine them to be. And so even if we do reveal some level of ignorance. Or some level of lack of experience in a particular area. That lack of experience. Or ignorance. Ignorance. Is normal. And they probably don't care very much. They don't imagine that this generalizes to you as a person. Instead. They move on. This event that felt heavy to you. Was just another event on the calendar. For the other person, most likely. And in fact. They may have their own fears that you're going to find out that they're a fraud. So what does this all amount to? Well. If you're a beginner. Ask those questions that you think are going to make you look inexperienced. Ask those questions. Record those questions. Take a moment. To indulge in the unique opportunity that you have of being a beginner in the first place. You won't have that opportunity again until you leave. Until you go somewhere else. And so take a moment. And actually. Use that opportunity. To the greatest benefit. Remember that. Other people are not trying to make you fail. Unless you have created an enemy. Which you probably would know about. Other people. Generally. Would prefer that you succeed. Because that means that they are also likely. To be succeeding. Most people are not looking for your flaws as much as you think they are. As you walk. Into that next meeting. Where you need to wield some level of influence. Especially those of you who are beginners. Remember that you actually probably can do that. More effectively than you think you can. And that the things that you say along the way. Are not going to bring you down. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of develop a T. I hope you enjoyed this discussion once again. If you like this topic that we've been. Uh. Talking about here. This influence and your. Likelihood. You can influence others more than you think you can. Uh. Go and check out Vanessa Bond's book. Uh. It's called. You have more influence than you think. If you enjoyed this discussion. You want to carry it forward with me and other engineers. Come and join the developer T discord community. That's developer T.com slash discord. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. Enjoy your tea. Bye. Bye. Bye.