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Great post! I feel exactly the same way. But one thing I do think I have (and you do too, obviously) is taste. I can look at my code and see it as good or bad

Great post! I feel exactly the same way. But one thing I do think I have (and you do too, obviously) is taste. I can look at my code and see it as good or bad (most of the time bad). That means I can keep striving to make it good. And my eye for what is good and bad keeps maturing so when I go look at code I wrote two years ago that I was pretty proud of, I see bad code now. Without the ability to see that your code can and should be better, your work ethic cannot kick in.

jnunemaker 17y ago
Yes, but you didn't have that from the start. Taste comes with practice too.
- chriseppstein 17y ago
  That's probably true. But one thing that was always innate in me: the ability to sit in front of a computer for 12 hours without going insane ;-) I read a lot of other people's code. I think that's important to developing taste -- at least as important as writing a lot of code if not more so.
dschobel 17y ago
This video from Ira Glass (of This American Life fame) sums up the discrepancy between taste and ability beautifully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE He talks about how you get into a creative field because there are works of it which you love and you can distinguish early on between good/interesting and bad/banal work. But then you start making stuff. And for the first few years, it just isn't very good, and you realize that. He talks about bridging that gap and how it took him eight (!) years before he started making things which he even recognized as being interesting and good. It's probably the best piece of advice I've ever seen for people still at the frustrating end of a creative career. I know too many kids who showed an early eye for quality in some field (architecture, CS, etc) but then gave up out of frustration when the stuff they made wasn't up their own standards.
- chriseppstein 17y ago
  Yep. I've seen that. It's a must watch.
- wallflower 17y ago
  +1 for remention of this Ira Glass video

jnunemaker 17y ago

Yes, but you didn't have that from the start. Taste comes with practice too.

chriseppstein 17y ago
That's probably true. But one thing that was always innate in me: the ability to sit in front of a computer for 12 hours without going insane ;-) I read a lot of other people's code. I think that's important to developing taste -- at least as important as writing a lot of code if not more so.

dschobel 17y ago

This video from Ira Glass (of This American Life fame) sums up the discrepancy between taste and ability beautifully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE He talks about how you get into a creative field because there are works of it which you love and you can distinguish early on between good/interesting and bad/banal work. But then you start making stuff. And for the first few years, it just isn't very good, and you realize that. He talks about bridging that gap and how it took him eight (!) years before he started making things which he even recognized as being interesting and good. It's probably the best piece of advice I've ever seen for people still at the frustrating end of a creative career. I know too many kids who showed an early eye for quality in some field (architecture, CS, etc) but then gave up out of frustration when the stuff they made wasn't up their own standards.

chriseppstein 17y ago
Yep. I've seen that. It's a must watch.
wallflower 17y ago
+1 for remention of this Ira Glass video