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Other than the seemingly obvious benefit that one gets by starting earlier in life with something, it seems to be that it is a decently widespread attitude that

by Dewie 13y ago

Other than the seemingly obvious benefit that one gets by starting earlier in life with something, it seems to be that it is a decently widespread attitude that if you didn't start programming when you were 12 or whatever, by some mystical voice that called you towards the terminal, than you will never be a good/great programmer (or "hacker"). Or, that you just aren't passionate enough, or else you would have inevitably found yourself tinkering with computers or whatever. So people like me who started in university (and who never really tinkered with anything other than Lego, when I was like 7) are doomed to a life of sub-par mediocrity, which is kind of disheartening considering that this looks to be what I want to do as a whole career, i.e. a very large part of my life. But I guess I have to get used to a lifetime of being the inferior programmer who gets all the scraps, or just make a mess which the 10X programmers, or rockstar programmers, or whatever they will be called, will have to clean up after.

aaronem 13y ago
There's a big difference between a professional developer and a "rockstar programmer"; the latter may safely be assumed to have no sense of elegance, and to utter all sorts of atrocities in the process of building something that barely works as fast as possible and then moving on to the next thing, which is why I've found it quite feasible to make a living cleaning up after them. I see no reason why you can't do likewise; it's a more sedate professional life, but also a more satisfying one -- your "rockstar programmers" move on quickly because they don't dare to stand still for fear of their mistakes catching up with them, while the guy who solves those problems is always well favored. Don't be fooled by propagandists of ESR's stripe or by bizarre little hothouses like the Silicon Valley startup scene! What counts in the software industry at large is not whether you call yourself a "rockstar" or a "hacker" or whatever else you like, but instead whether you are a professional with solid engineering chops. Concentrate on developing your professionalism and your professional skills, and you won't go wrong. All else is fashion. (Don't equate "rockstar programmer" with "hacker", either. The former tend to view the latter as outdated Emacs-using neckbeards with no relevance to the real world; the latter tend to view the former as tiresome, barely competent children who wouldn't know good code or good tooling if they broke their nose on it. Which opinion is accurate, if any, is left as an exercise for the reader..)

by Dewie 13y ago

aaronem 13y ago

There's a big difference between a professional developer and a "rockstar programmer"; the latter may safely be assumed to have no sense of elegance, and to utter all sorts of atrocities in the process of building something that barely works as fast as possible and then moving on to the next thing, which is why I've found it quite feasible to make a living cleaning up after them. I see no reason why you can't do likewise; it's a more sedate professional life, but also a more satisfying one -- your "rockstar programmers" move on quickly because they don't dare to stand still for fear of their mistakes catching up with them, while the guy who solves those problems is always well favored. Don't be fooled by propagandists of ESR's stripe or by bizarre little hothouses like the Silicon Valley startup scene! What counts in the software industry at large is not whether you call yourself a "rockstar" or a "hacker" or whatever else you like, but instead whether you are a professional with solid engineering chops. Concentrate on developing your professionalism and your professional skills, and you won't go wrong. All else is fashion. (Don't equate "rockstar programmer" with "hacker", either. The former tend to view the latter as outdated Emacs-using neckbeards with no relevance to the real world; the latter tend to view the former as tiresome, barely competent children who wouldn't know good code or good tooling if they broke their nose on it. Which opinion is accurate, if any, is left as an exercise for the reader..)