If it works...

...what do you do? Do you leave it alone out of fear of breaking it or suddenly making it not work? Or do you find yourself wanting to improve it? What you do under this dilemma may actually tell a lot about you. There are two sayings that tend to rule this decision - a) "If it works - don't break it!" or b) "If it works - improve it!"

I guess for me, I'm a tweaker. I usually think that things can be done a little better, a little faster, a little bit more efficient, etc. I'll make an adjustment here, a tweak there, just small iterations that add up to large improvements over time. I guess that's why this blog exists - TIABW.

Are you a risk taker? If not, you will most always land on "Don't break it!" If you are a risk taker (like me), then you might tend towards "Improve it!" I guess it really depends on the application. If you're Intel making chips at a factory, you always "copy exact" the next factory. But technology in general works on the principal of improving it or your competitor will for you. When software is written, we know that if you make changes, it might break something unexpected. But you have to make changes to improve it, fix it, or add features. Besides, no piece of software is ever completely done - ever.

What about life? Do we keep doing life like we've always done it out of comfort? Out of fear that something bad or unknown will happen? What if there are better ways of doing life? Are we open to learn and change? Or do we get grumpy in our old age and just growl back at change.? We all know someone who is simply stuck in their ways and won't change. We always say "I won't be like that when I get old." Hmmm. Are we approaching this point when we don't want to try new things?

There is also a personality issue here. Some people just don't like change and must plan for changes. Otherwise their cart gets upset and they are out of their comfort zone. Others, just love change and actually can't stand to do things the same way twice. Maybe, somewhere in the middle is the healthy ground we should aim for.

We should always be teachable and humble enough to admit that maybe we don't know more about a particular issue than everybody else. No matter how smart or "wise" we get, there is always something more we can learn. I learned that here. And here.

So please, leave your comments on these entries and teach me a thing or two...