Another way of looking at this: I used to think if I learned how to write in Perl or PHP or Ruby, I was programmer. But it turned out that was like thinking t

Another way of looking at this: I used to think if I learned how to write in Perl or PHP or Ruby, I was programmer. But it turned out that was like thinking that now that I can write in English, I’m a writer. Then I thought if I learned the right tools and frameworks, THAT made me a programmer. But that was like learning how to use Google Docs and calling myself a writer. It turns out that the only thing that makes me a programmer is what makes a writer a writer: the quality of our output. And the only way to improve the quality of our output is to learn the concepts as best as possible, and produce a lot of work. I suspect most writers don’t know how to use 90% of the features of their word processors. (Ex: GRRM still writes in a DOS app from the 80s.) I also know a lot of programmers who have a long list of frameworks on their resumes, but I’d never make the mistake of ranking them as better programmers than the guys and gals who write exclusively in C (for example).