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Comments like this really undermine what it means when someone is good at something, be it coding, throwing a ball, writing, what have you. It is not a matter
by angrycoder 15y ago
Comments like this really undermine what it means when someone is good at something, be it coding, throwing a ball, writing, what have you.
It is not a matter of being born with it. It isn't a matter of being smart.
It is all fucking work. It is never being satisfied. Its trying so hard and getting so pissed off that you throw the ball in the dumpster, that you smash your fist into the keyboard and walk away, that you tear up the papers and throw them in trash. But you always come back, because you won't let it beat you. You have to know how it works. You have to know how they do that thing you saw them do. You want to do it like they do. You want to do it better.
So it isn't pixie dust, it isn't innate ability, it isn't being smart. It is all fucking work.
- smallblacksun 15y ago>So it isn't pixie dust, it isn't innate ability, it isn't being smart. It is all fucking work. No, it isn't. I knew a girl in high school who worked far harder than I ever did, and had far worse grades (particularly in math and science). She literally spent 2-3 hours every day doing homework and studying, while I spent 15-30 minutes. If you talked to her, she seemed perfectly normal, she just had tremendous difficulty with academic work. While hard work is important, natural gifts make a huge difference.
- Volpe 15y agoCould it be the reverse? That is you didn't have a natural gift, she had a problem learning the way everyone else was?
- steve8918 15y agoJust because programming for YOU comes naturally doesn't mean it does for others. You obviously didn't read what I wrote. The point is that people can always learn to be adequate programmers. But if the experience of programming is so different from the way they process information, that the act of programming is mentally uncomfortable for them, then they will never be great. The discomfort has NOTHING to do with hard work. It's like sales. You could spend your whole life being a decent salesperson but if you hate interacting with people you'll never be a great salesperson that closes multi-million dollar deals. It's as simple as that. If you can't visualize a map, if your spatial abilities aren't strong, then having to interact daily where you need to do that would be frustrating as hell and you would hate it.
- ceol 15y agoIt's a huge stretch to assume someone's proficiency in a field is due to a trait they were born with. We don't even know the extent that your environment affects your brain versus your genes, so there's no way you could know people are born programmers.