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I wanted to be a programmer from the age of 8. I noodled around a bit in BASIC, and then taught myself C at around 15 or 16. I was easily into my 20s before I c

by cmsj 8y ago

I wanted to be a programmer from the age of 8. I noodled around a bit in BASIC, and then taught myself C at around 15 or 16. I was easily into my 20s before I could even reasonably claim that I understood C. I've turned 40 this year and even though I've written a lot of code in the last 30 years, I still don't really feel like I'm a good programmer, so I tend to always blame myself before the libraries or the compiler or the daemons or the hardware.

mkirklions 8y ago
There will always be things you dont know. I've learned not to beat myself up about it.
- tw1010 8y ago
  Yeah, if you still call yourself bad at something you've practiced daily for thirty years, most likely what needs to be corrected is not your skill set but your definition of competence.
  - ythn 8y ago
    Plus, programming is extremely broad. You could spend 10 years mastering embedded linux programming yet know little to nothing about data science programming, game programming, GPU/VFX/shader programming, HDL programming, etc. There's simply too much to learn.
  - OldSchoolJohnny 8y ago
    If you don't feel like you know less and less every year that you are doing something then you are not gaining any wisdom and will likely never be truly great at it.
OldSchoolJohnny 8y ago
Yes! This is a healthy attitude. Others say don't beat yourself up about it, I would say it's not about that, just not making assumptions that are useless.
ythn 8y ago
It's always hilarious to see a 1 rep StackOverflow question about a "compiler bug" when the problem is very obviously a user error.
megaman22 8y ago
Sometimes it is a network error, or a hardware error, but at the end of the day, you can't just point at that and blame it, you've got to try to work around it, or at least fail in a way that looks like you tried and point out what the source of the issue is. It feels like playing whackamole sometimes though.
artsyxxx 8y ago
Word up bro. Pushing 40 over here feeling the same way. Take it back to first principles. Remember Alan Turing and Vint Cerf.
cecilpl2 8y ago
You can get a pretty good assessment of someone's C++ knowledge by asking them to rate themselves out of 10, and then subtracting their answer from 10. If they say 9/10 and they are not Bjarne Stroustrup, it's a good bet their actual ability is close to 1/10.
- Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
  The famous Dunning-Kruger Effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
drakonka 8y ago
I've not been programming as long, but a fair chunk of years now. I feel the same way. I think being self taught makes it worse for me as I'm in a workplace where the majority of people are hugely intelligent and have university degrees, I just felt like I didn't belong. I'm just now starting to come to terms with the idea that I'm actually as good at what I do as anybody, so I no longer feel like as much of an impostor, but this has done nothing to change the fact that I still think I just don't know enough. There is so much more to learn that I haven't even touched on, it is both intimidating and inspiring. Reading similar sentiments from people who have been programming for much longer than I have is giving me the sense that this feeling might not go away, ever.

by cmsj 8y ago

mkirklions 8y ago

There will always be things you dont know. I've learned not to beat myself up about it.

tw1010 8y ago
Yeah, if you still call yourself bad at something you've practiced daily for thirty years, most likely what needs to be corrected is not your skill set but your definition of competence.
- ythn 8y ago
  Plus, programming is extremely broad. You could spend 10 years mastering embedded linux programming yet know little to nothing about data science programming, game programming, GPU/VFX/shader programming, HDL programming, etc. There's simply too much to learn.
- OldSchoolJohnny 8y ago
  If you don't feel like you know less and less every year that you are doing something then you are not gaining any wisdom and will likely never be truly great at it.

OldSchoolJohnny 8y ago

Yes! This is a healthy attitude. Others say don't beat yourself up about it, I would say it's not about that, just not making assumptions that are useless.

ythn 8y ago

It's always hilarious to see a 1 rep StackOverflow question about a "compiler bug" when the problem is very obviously a user error.

megaman22 8y ago

Sometimes it is a network error, or a hardware error, but at the end of the day, you can't just point at that and blame it, you've got to try to work around it, or at least fail in a way that looks like you tried and point out what the source of the issue is. It feels like playing whackamole sometimes though.

artsyxxx 8y ago

Word up bro. Pushing 40 over here feeling the same way. Take it back to first principles. Remember Alan Turing and Vint Cerf.

cecilpl2 8y ago

You can get a pretty good assessment of someone's C++ knowledge by asking them to rate themselves out of 10, and then subtracting their answer from 10. If they say 9/10 and they are not Bjarne Stroustrup, it's a good bet their actual ability is close to 1/10.

Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
The famous Dunning-Kruger Effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

drakonka 8y ago

I've not been programming as long, but a fair chunk of years now. I feel the same way. I think being self taught makes it worse for me as I'm in a workplace where the majority of people are hugely intelligent and have university degrees, I just felt like I didn't belong. I'm just now starting to come to terms with the idea that I'm actually as good at what I do as anybody, so I no longer feel like as much of an impostor, but this has done nothing to change the fact that I still think I just don't know enough. There is so much more to learn that I haven't even touched on, it is both intimidating and inspiring. Reading similar sentiments from people who have been programming for much longer than I have is giving me the sense that this feeling might not go away, ever.