Learning Curve

When Darren Draper was 'in the trenches' at Brighton High School as our TIC, I worked with him as one of several Tic-Techs and the Macintosh 'specialist' for the school...baptism by fire...did I learn a TON. But, mostly I found myself mostly scrambling like crazy just to keep up with his vast knowledge of technology, and often resorting to a CYA mode when he ran out of patience with me (us) and found it easier to just do the job himself. Needless to say, things ran efficiently because of his lead, but sometimes left me behind the curve.
This past year, with Darren moving on to the Puzzle Palace (our District Offices as a specialist...), we had a new TIC appointed. Kristen (Bishop) is extraordinarily gifted, but working on her OWN learning curve, as a new TIC. Her strategy, and MO, was to try to put out the major technology fires as they arose (which, in education, are legion...), and simply tell me where the problems were, and go fix 'em...I had to resort to good old 'trial and error' and intuition, and wound up learning more and more quickly than I ever had before...pretty satisfying, but scary.
I now find myself in the same position, now...hanging out there by a thread, but with NO other option(s) but to go forward...reminds me of the 'old world' maps that labeled the uncharted territories simply as "here there be Dragons"...indeed...