Empty Your Cup
Once upon a time, there was a wise Zen master who attracted visitors from afar seeking his guidance. In return, he taught them the path to enlightenment.
One day, a young guy came to the Zen master seeking advice.
“I have come to ask you to teach me about Zen”
As they talked, it became clear that the scholar was brimming with his own beliefs and knowledge. He frequently interrupted the master with his own anecdotes, neglecting to pay attention to the master’s insights.
Calmly, the master proposed they share some tea. He poured a cup for his guest yet continued pouring even as it overflowed onto the table, the floor, and eventually onto the scholar’s robes. The scholar exclaimed:
“Stop! The cup is full already. Can’t you see?”
“Exactly,”
the Zen master replied with a smile.
“You resemble this cup — so filled with thoughts that nothing more can be added. Come back to me with an empty cup.”
—
I have been writing code for more than 14 years now, and you can think that this is enough experience to learn how to write good code and that you probably don’t need to learn about writing better code.
The Art of Readable Code was selected in the Engineering Book Club. Books are selected by the community; we vote from a list of proposed books, and this book was the one with more votes.
It is an easy-to-read book that covers things from naming variables to writing comments or how to create loops. So, I was tempted to read diagonally and not go deep. However, I left my ego to the side and read word by word, trying to learn new stuff.
Essentially, I needed to empty my cup. I needed to think that I could learn things that seem to be simple.
Curiosity is the key. Choosing books becomes more and more difficult as you gain experience and knowledge because there are many things you already know. However, you need to approach the situation with curiosity, and you will be surprised by how many new things you can still learn, even from things that you didn’t know, you can learn more.
The same happens with people and with everything in our lives. To finish the article, I will share this quote that summarizes my approach to curiosity.
“In my walks, every person I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from them.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
