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Programming is a creative endeavour. All these accomplished and renowned 9-5 programmers must hang out at the end of the rainbow with all the accomplished 9-5 p
by sjs 15y ago
Programming is a creative endeavour. All these accomplished and renowned 9-5 programmers must hang out at the end of the rainbow with all the accomplished 9-5 painters, musicians, etc. I'm not saying there aren't any - some people really just have a knack for it. I'm saying they are the exception and not the rule.
At work you're often focused on completing tasks on time. Good employers understand that you need to develop skills and will allow you to do so on the clock. Many people are not fortunate enough to work at such places and if they don't sharpen their skills outside of work then their skills dull with time. Novices that work at such places will have a very hard time progressing in such an environment if they don't take the initiative in their spare time.
Working with developers that are more skilled than you are is also a good way to learn and improve. If you don't get that at work then you better find or start an OSS project or something to contribute to.
- sjs 15y agoSorry for replying to myself. I want to mention that not everyone needs the Sistine Chapel, that is there's a lot of room for all skill levels. The guy closer to the other end of the spectrum who knows just enough PHP to hack something together still has a skill that others, who perhaps do not need a Michelangelo, are happy to pay him for. There's nothing wrong with that. When most of us use the word "good" in this context we mean significantly better than average. I think it comes across as an implication that if one isn't a "good" dev then they're bad but that's not what I intend at all. In fact what many of us mean by "good" is probably closer to "best".
- regularfry 15y agoThere's all the difference in the world between coding outside work hours and working outside work hours.
- sjs 15y agoI agree, and started writing about that in my first comment before rereading tseabrooks comment. > [...] a lot of bashing of programmers that don't code outside of work and/or [...]