>The moral of this story is that if you're tasked to do something outside your expertise, you make it your expertise.
I don't think the OP is talking about learning some search engine, library or programming language. With 'outside of your expertise', he meant outside of programming.
Say you are writing some medical software that has to diagnose patient based on some inputs. You, as a programmer, are not a doctor and you can't "make" it your expertise within the time constraints of the project.
> Say you are writing some medical software that has to diagnose patient based on some inputs. You, as a programmer, are not a doctor and you can't "make" it your expertise within the time constraints of the project.
Yes you can, and in fact you must. Any programmer that has to write medical software needs to understand the underlying medicine at play. Sure, medical professionals can provide guidance, but you can't trust them blindly. You need to understand their rationales and assumptions, and to do that, you need to understand the underlying material. A programmer developing a heart monitor needs to have a good understanding of cardiology.
Still, the rule is the same - you make it your expertise. You can't competently develop something unless you know how it will be used.
> Say you are writing some medical software that has to diagnose patient based on some inputs. You, as a programmer, are not a doctor and you can't "make" it your expertise within the time constraints of the project.
Either you need to partner with someone who knows the domain (a doctor) and discuss every detail with them, or you have lots of learning to do. :)
> Either you need to partner with someone who knows the domain (a doctor) and discuss every detail with them, or you have lots of learning to do. :)
Right, so your answer from before wasn't correct.
And sure, if you give me 8 years I can do a medical study and make the expertise my own, but in reality there is not a single customer on the planet who is willing to wait 8 years and pay millions for some programmers to become medical professionals.
>> Either you need to partner with someone who knows the domain (a doctor) and discuss every detail with them, or you have lots of learning to do. :)
> Right, so your answer from before wasn't correct.
No, it's still correct. Regardless of whether you learn something on your own or consult with others, you still need to become an expert in the subject matter. Using outside guidance can help accelerate that process, but you still need to build that expertise yourself.
I don't think the OP is talking about learning some search engine, library or programming language. With 'outside of your expertise', he meant outside of programming.
Say you are writing some medical software that has to diagnose patient based on some inputs. You, as a programmer, are not a doctor and you can't "make" it your expertise within the time constraints of the project.