The advice is not all bad. I certainly agree that slicing a problem into small, concrete steps that can be achieved in less than a day (and then less than an ho

The advice is not all bad. I certainly agree that slicing a problem into small, concrete steps that can be achieved in less than a day (and then less than an hour, and then in the next five minutes...) as one of the central skills a programmer needs to develop. I think what is missing is the exploration of how thinking of ourselves as "smart guys" makes us worse at our jobs. Intelligence isn't a substitute for being a good programmer. Churning out lots of useful, dependable, maintainable code involves a large body of acquired skills, habits and knowledge. When we pretend what matters is how "smart" we are, we get defensive when we get advice that we could do better, because "what, are you calling me dumb!?!!" We also blame other people's mistakes on their lack of intelligence, instead of considering how they could learn or how the system could change to better support them. Study after study shows that a growth mindset leads to better outcomes: programming should embrace it.