I just realized one of the reasons I am good at IT and infrastructure is that I am a very bad directions-follower. What I mean is that, sure, I look at the directions. I make some nod towards them.

But I try to understand what’s happening and why, not just to follow the steps unexamined. Then I usually attempt to do it my own way, armed with that understanding.

Sometimes, that understanding is wrong. Sometimes it’s fantastically incorrect, and I break something. I always fix it, but I learn something in the process — usually something important that the directions-followers don’t know.

This is very useful knowledge! It means not only do you understand why something works, you understand how it breaks — an even deeper level of comprehension. I have broken nearly everything in every possible way you can imagine and some that you can’t (though not in production). You learn a great deal doing this.

It’s funny — the exact qualities that got me into huge trouble all through my childhood make me a great IT and infrastructure person.