I saw "The Forbidden Kingdom" this weekend. Overall it was a great movie - lots of good action, a good storyline, etc. But there was one scene that stuck in my mind specifically. Jackie Chan is pouring some drink into a cup while the person holding it is talking. The cup quickly overflows and the person holding it notes that the cup is full and now overflowing. Jackie Chan's response was something to the effect of

How can you fill your cup when it is already full? How can you learn anything when you 'know so much' already?

The point of this, of course, is that the student thought he knew so much already and wanted to get right to the advanced stuff rather than letting the teacher guide him through the basics into the advanced stuff. As silly as it is for a pop-culture movie to have deep wisdom, I really thought that this scene's message was applicable to more than just martial arts. The same can be said of any situation where knowledge, learning and growth are present.

One of my coworkers (Michael Adkins - who's blog is not publicly available, yet... *nudge nudge*) recently had a post that talked about the same thing, with a slightly different quote at the beginning. Rather than me re-hashing his post with my own interpretation, I'm re-posting his post in it's entirety (with his permission, of course).

So, you think you know everything about development eh?

A wise man once said, "He who knows everything, cannot be taught anything."  This is such a profound statement.  When it comes to learning, I attempt to look at the learning process as if I don't know any of the material (all things being equal of course).  This allows me to see things I did not see in the past.  It allows me to critically think about ways to solve problems with the new knowledge I have gained.

Sometimes when a person asks questions, it is perceived that the person doesn't have a clue as to what is going on with the process.  In my case, it is my acid or litmus test to locate a person; to see if they can articulate an answer that tells me if they are trying to help or build their ego.

Nevertheless, whether a person is helping or building their ego, they are still helping with all types of insight.  They just may not be aware of it.  This is something we all may be guilty of in some form or another.  But it just goes to show that we don't know everything.  It also goes to show that we continue to teach and instruct when we think we know everything.

This blog came about when I was going through a webcast that dealt with Delegates.

I couldn't have said it better. ... I just hope that I'm not the guy who's cup is already full.