Resisting the Gentle Pull of Mediocrity

Resisting the Gentle Pull of Mediocrity - A Reminder

“Beware of the gentle pull of mediocrity,” my friend and mentor once told me.

How easy it is to become comfortable at your job, having mastered your routine tasks to avoid making mistakes. You like the people with whom you work. You’re proficient in the technologies that you use or manage. You understand your organization’s culture and how to operate within the corporate framework of your job.

This feels nice, but maybe you’re too comfortable? To what extent are you enjoying your job? How marketable are you, should you need to look for a new position?

It’s easy to become complacent in the comfort of familiar tasks, people, tools and processes. You stop learning and gradually lose the motivation to improve your skills. And your job stops being fun. This happens so slowly, that you don’t even notice it.

Do you care? Kevin Johnson’s posting on the Internet Storm Center site lauded achievements of Robert “RSnake” Hansen, whose web application security work “fostered an environment where people share tips and tricks and encourage each other to become better.” One of the comments to the posting claimed that most infosec people don’t care about improving their skills:

“The vast majority of ‘information security professionals’, in my experience, are not capable of performing the tasks for which they are hired. They are mothers and fathers trying to make a living and maintain a modest middle class life style for their family, and so far as information security is concerned, they are frauds.”

I disagree with this generalization. Most of the infosec professionals I have encountered are good at what they do. Of course, I recognize that many people don’t strive to be super-stars at work. That’s fine. But I wonder whether some of them have given in to the gentle pull of mediocrity to the extent that they stopped growing as professionals.

Be careful not to let yourself get too comfortable at your job. Take on new projects even if there’s a chance they might fail. Attend conferences and meet-ups to expose yourself to new people an ideas. Read books, articles and blogs within your field and those that have nothing to do with it. Study on your own or take courses. Experiment with technologies you find exciting. Seek out new people within your company and your community. Invest time into your existing relationships. Look for promotion within the organization and, if the opportunity to keep growing is better elsewhere, don’t be afraid to switch jobs.

Resist the gentle pull of mediocrity.

For more thoughts along these lines, take a look at my other career-related posts.

— Lenny Zeltser