What kind of syndrome is this?
I wonder if I am the only one being inflicted with this kind of syndrome relating to software development. You learn a tool, and you begin to see it as the means to the end. It’s a mixed blessing that, on one hand, I felt that I learned a particular way at solving a problem. On the other hand, it’s annoying insofar that I feel my perception is warped as I find it increasingly difficult to rationalize with people who just don’t see it the way you do.
For example, when I first learned design patterns, I would try to find in previous projects to refactor existing or introduce new code into those patterns that I learned. Or when I learned how cool it was to understand what inversion-of-control means, and the next thing I realized that all my code is managed by Spring or whatever IoC container was popular then. I’m not one who’s afraid to think I’m wrong for behaving this way but it’s a problem I had to control over time with limited success. The new becomes old, and the vicious cycle repeats itself. I guess it’s understandable to see the giddy one gets from learning something new and feeling compelled to announce it to the world about their achievement. It’s like we’re kids constantly requiring approval that we are in fact learning and doing something right–and that’s okay. However, I think we all need to take a step back and reaffirm to ourselves that a tool is just one small piece of a larger puzzle that you’re trying to solve when you’re doing software development. It should rarely be deserving of your entire energy and focus.
Now having said that, these days I’m finding myself reading Groovy a little more than I should, and I think I maybe suffering again. Last time this happen to me was when I was looking up Seam and the syndrome lasted 5 months as that was the time it took to design and deploy the application into production.
I guess I never learn.