I had to work 3 years to buy a computer in 2001 and in the mean time I would volunteer to do networking for internet cafes to get a few minutes of coding time a

I had to work 3 years to buy a computer in 2001 and in the mean time I would volunteer to do networking for internet cafes to get a few minutes of coding time after hours. When I finally bought a computer, my parents only allowed me to touch it for 24 hours each weekend and using that slow dial-up internet connection. I made those 24 hrs count. After school, I would read every programming book in the bookstore, plan and design and UX my projects, so by the time my 24 hours rolled in, I could just build. By the time I had finished college, I could tell you all the browser mis-behaviors your code would trigger in IE and others, by just reading the code. The 10X+ developers got there by iterating so many times, they know how to skip the traps. The more layers of abstraction pile up on top of fundamental systems the more variably productive new developers become by default, because they become attached to abstractions that can and do change, and because the permutations of misguided possibilities on top of flawed foundations become so abundant that a single person can't strip through the noise. That's why additional abstraction and libraries that automatically update on top of your existing code are a recipe for short-lived work and thus a quick to degrade portfolio. Understandable code that doesn't move under your feet is key, because you will forget what you did way before what you did becomes outdated.