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Context: Chapter 17, Be The Worst programmer on your team or you have Chapter 4, Expose Your Ignorance. You are beginning to realize how little you know or perhaps your self-assessment is too low. Maybe you have taken on a new challenge and things aren't working out so well.
Problem: As you are introduced to the vast reaches of your ignorance you are overwhelmed.
Solution: Pull back then launch forwards like a stone from a catapult. Retreat briefly into your competence to regain your composure. Take some time to build something that you know how to build. Then use that experience to recognize how far you've come and how much you are currently capable of.
An apprenticeship is a roller-coaster ride. You will experience the thrill of learning new technologies, leveraging your knowledge and creativity to deliver value to your customers. But you will also experience the heart-in-your-throat terror of perceiving just how little you know compared to the craftsmen and experts you meet along the way. It can be overwhelming, particularly when a deadline is looming. Take heart though. This is a normal and inevitable phenomenon along Chapter 9, The Long Road. Overcoming the fear of your own incompetence is the bridge between Chapter 4, Expose Your Ignorance and Chapter 6, Confront Your Ignorance.
Sometimes we need to take one step back in order to take two steps forward. When this happens it is important to turn that backwards movement into forward momentum as quickly as possible.
The choice to go backwards makes this one of the riskier patterns you can use. Without a consciously chosen limit on how long and how far you retreat, you may find yourself merely surrendering to your fear of failure. It can be very comforting to delve ever deeper into the things you know how to do well. The rewards of expertise are tangible and immediate but the risks may not surface until it's too late to do anything about them. When your expertise eventually becomes obsolete you will find yourself forced to once again face the vast reaches of your ignorance. Only this time you may be out of the habit of learning new things and starting again will be that much more painful. In this scenario the solution to the feeling of being overwhelmed becomes worse than the problem.
To prevent this you must accept that this pattern is only a short term fix while you gather your strength to bounce back. Set a time limit for yourself (a.k.a, a "timebox"), such as: "I will spend the next 10 minutes refactoring the JavaScript validation for this page before I optimize the SQL queries that provide the data." or "I will spend the next 4 hours implementing the command line interface for this tool before I learn how to call this third party SOAP API."
Another important aspect of this solution is to use the temporary break to seek support from the Chapter 18, Find Mentors and Chapter 19, Kindred Spirits you have gathered around you. With their support and the boost of a recent display of competence you should be better equipped to handle the inevitable bumps on the road when you try again.
