In tech, nowadays, there are very little things being done in a completely greenfield style environment. Many of the work being done by developers working in product companies usually builds up upon a set of tools and abstractions that have been experienced and tried out by others. Not only at a technical level (i.e. frameworks or work methodologies) but also at a product and market fit level.

People have studied and seen approaches that work, that don't work, and, many of these people have detailed their findings in extensive blog posts and newsletters.

This is an entirely new body of knowledge to learn from and as developers, that should be our main focus to accelerate our growth.

Advantages of learning from others

The biggest advantage of learning from others who are more experienced than us and have seen more environments, is that we can build upon their knowledge in order to stretch our own boundaries and finding out new directions in which we can grow that we wouldn't otherwise consider. Essentially, learning from others allows us to shift our perspective:

• considering different opinions, especially ones we might not agree with is a way to grow out of our comfort zone;

• gain new insights: sometimes, all it takes to gain a new insight or make a breakthrough with something which was on our minds, is to see it framed differently. The same idea, when seen through a different lens can open many doors;

• we can add new skills to our own toolbelts by learning from others and, when we can combine those skills with our own existing knowledge to form new opinions, that is where growth happens;

• makes us to be more well-rounded people on a given subject;
  

Conclusion

If you know who to learn from and how to incorporate their own knowledge in your vision of the world, you will be able to reach unique insights that will make you become a more versatile person more open to discuss new ideas and fostering collaboration environments over adversarial ones.