Linky #16 - Knowledge, Courage, and Uncertainty
This week’s Linky brings together ideas about how we learn, adapt, and grow when we don’t have all the answers. From Buddhist parables to neuroscience, from quality engineering to public speaking, each piece explores a different angle on uncertainty. The common thread? Whether it’s knowledge, confidence, or resilience, it’s not about avoiding difficulty but about how we respond to it.
Latest post from the Quality Engineering Newsletter
Mapping Feedback Across Uncertainty
This week, I built on my Software Feedback Rings model to help teams understand how they’re lowering the uncertainty of system behaviour at three different levels: code, systems, and product. The post dives into the kinds of feedback techniques that can help at each level, across the four quadrants of known-knowns to unknown-unknowns.
From the archive
Uncertainty of change
I’m sharing my 'Uncertainty of Change' talk again, as I’ll be delivering it at LeadAgile Scotland next week. I believe uncertainty is at the root of so many problems in teams. From deciding what to do to weighing the risks of change. Knowing how uncertainty affects us, and learning better ways to respond, can help not only at work but in our personal lives too.
The second arrow is your choice
In Buddhism, the parable of the two arrows comes from the Sallatha Sutta (The Arrow Sutta). It’s something like this:
When we experience a painful event or someone hurts us (even in seemingly very small ways), that’s like being struck by the first arrow. It hurts, but it’s part of life.
Then, when we react with anger, rumination, or self-criticism, that’s the second arrow. It’s the unnecessary suffering for ourselves that we add on top of the first.
And unlike the first arrow, the second one is entirely optional.
Not a framing I’ve heard of before, but so true. Failure is inevitable in complex software systems and rarely feels good. So why add a second layer of pain through self-criticism? Via The Second Arrow: How to Avoid Unnecessary Suffering | Tom Geraghty | LinkedIn
Be a strategic amateur?
The more you become “somebody” in your chosen field (recognized, accomplished, authoritative), the more your thinking tends to calcify, limiting your flexibility and creativity. The management scholar Erik Dane has called this problem “cognitive entrenchment,”
The antidote to this problem is surprisingly simple: Consistently put yourself in situations where you are a complete beginner.
Consider taking up a new pursuit outside of work, whether it’s learning a language, playing an instrument, trying stand-up comedy, or exploring ceramics. Seek out situations in which you have no prior knowledge to leverage, no past successes to fall back on, and no external achievement metrics to chase. Those are conditions that will allow your brain to rewire itself for agility and innovative thinking.*
Neuroscience suggests that this practice, which I call strategic amateurism, is essential to becoming a dynamic leader.
As quality engineers, we often face situations where we don’t have all the details. Being an expert generalist (See link #13 to learn more) helps, and strategic amateurism can be an asset too. So what new skill are you learning right now? Via Emily Webbers Posts from Awesome Folks #166 . Direct link to the article The Power of Being an Amateur | HBR
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Automticity and knowledge graphs for Quality Engineers
“You don’t need to memorize, because you have the entire corpus of human knowledge available via google.” But you can’t build with potential bricks. You have more ingredients available to you at the grocery store than anyone in history, but you can only cook with what’s in your house. You can’t be creative, synthesize things, make connections, without the requisite knowledge. Recall the sweet satisfaction of spotting a reference in a book; you can’t make that connection if you aren’t familiar and comfortable with the referenced text.
Over the years, I’ve picked up a lot of things, but the knowledge I rely on most is agile software delivery. It helps me spot patterns in teams quickly and diagnose where they’re stuck. Many quality problems stem from process issues: teams struggle to go fast enough to experiment and learn, and doing that consistently is a skill in itself.
That got me thinking: what would agile knowledge look like in a knowledge graph? How does it all connect, and which pieces do you need to know by heart versus look up when needed? Via Book Review: The Math Academy Way - by ijfen
Knowledge at different depths
When you truly understand something, you can express it at any level of detail while maintaining coherence.
The master can provide the one-sentence version, the paragraph version, and the chapter version, all of which tell the same story at different resolutions. The novice can only repeat what they've memorized at one resolution.
Which got me thinking about what it means to be a generalist expert. Does it mean we can shift between depths, or only speak at one level? I often have to tailor my message to different audiences, and being able to explain things in a sentence, a paragraph, or a deep dive has been invaluable. But that only works where I’ve built real depth. Via Different Resolutions
Courage first, confidence later
This really resonated with my public speaking:
"The only way to develop true confidence is to earn it.
The confidence that you can bounce back from failure is earned by working through previous failures.
The confidence that you can deliver the speech is earned by the previous speeches you have given.
The confidence that you can perform on game day is earned by the previous performances in practice.
In the beginning, you need enough courage to practice even though it may not go very well. And over time, as your skills improve, courage transforms into confidence. Courage first, confidence later."
In the beginning, courage is all you have. Enough to keep going even when it feels pointless or risky. For me, the fear of judgment and embarrassment felt heavier than any potential gains. But courage (feeling the fear and doing it anyway) carried me through, and after ten years of public speaking, I can finally say I feel confident and even enjoy it. Via 3-2-1: On the power of boredom, why being right is not enough, and how to develop confidence - James Clear
Which of these resonated most with you? Choosing courage, embracing amateurism, or learning at new depths? I’d love to hear how you’re approaching growth right now. You can leave a comment or reply directly to the email.