It’s day 10 of Blogvent, where I blog every day in December!

One of the things that I’ve learned from my toddler is just how many little things I’ve stopped noticing. It’s normal, of course, as adult humans, the things that are “usual” and not threats to us become basically invisible. But watching my baby run around and then pause to look at how a wheel turns, or how a closet opens, or how a plant looks, or how a light switch works… it’s magical. It’s all new, and that has made those things “newly new” to me.

I think as software engineers (or experts in any field, really), we develop our expertise by being able to notice those little details, and being willing to learn what those little details are. If a new developer comes to me with a React bug, for example, I’m often able to point it out relatively quickly, because I know which details matter, and which ones don’t.

It’s easy to get frustrated (or worse, complacent) about learning those little details, particularly when you’re picking up a new skill. If you’re trying to learn how to draw, you might not know how certain line placements will affect your overall drawing. If you’re learning how to play guitar, you might not know how fingerings for certain chords might change how you transition to the next portion of the song.

I don’t think I realized just how much I was willing to forget the beauty of little details in everyday life until I watched my baby start to learn the world around her. There’s always little details in everything, just below the surface, that we used to pay more attention to when time felt like it was infinite. I’ve learned that I can choose to notice those things again. I can be content with being more still in a given moment, to notice those things again.