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As a self-taught developer, I can see your point. Looking back to where I was when I got hired a year ago, I'm pretty astounded that I called myself a developer

As a self-taught developer, I can see your point. Looking back to where I was when I got hired a year ago, I'm pretty astounded that I called myself a developer or a designer. I've since had the benefit of working with some really great developers, but even so I don't have a lot of what one might call "classical CS knowledge". I learned about Big O and hash tables within the past month. I've never implemented Quicksort. The kind of thing you need to get a job, but don't actually help you do it (during day-to-day web development, at least). I don't really see looking down on someone for lacking that area of knowledge as reasonable, but thinking that watching some videos and throwing together toy sites means you'll be able to handle the thousands of edge-cases that come up every day is pretty ridiculous. That's something you can really only get with experience.

ktran03 13y ago
'..but don't actually help you do it day-to-day' Most of the time, but by understanding those core concepts, you're mind looks at programming and solving problems in a different way. Similar to math, you may never use a differential equation, but by understanding it, you look at the physical world and interpret it in a different way. Not my intent to look down on anyone. My point is simply that software engineering is huge, you don't learn it in 2 months. Done traditionally or independently, my hats off to you. It's no easy task.
- notduncansmith 13y ago
  That's very true. Usually keeping common sense stuff in mind like "I'm having to touch the database multiple times" or "I'm maintaining 2 arrays for this operation instead of one" and realizing that those are red flags, gets you there in almost every case. I agree that those things probably do expand your understanding and allow you to consider problems in different ways (which may help you solve certain types of problems more easily). I also agree with your main point: there are very few people in the world who are likely to be able to (accurately) describe themselves as software developers with <1 year of experience/learning.

ktran03 13y ago

'..but don't actually help you do it day-to-day' Most of the time, but by understanding those core concepts, you're mind looks at programming and solving problems in a different way. Similar to math, you may never use a differential equation, but by understanding it, you look at the physical world and interpret it in a different way. Not my intent to look down on anyone. My point is simply that software engineering is huge, you don't learn it in 2 months. Done traditionally or independently, my hats off to you. It's no easy task.

notduncansmith 13y ago
That's very true. Usually keeping common sense stuff in mind like "I'm having to touch the database multiple times" or "I'm maintaining 2 arrays for this operation instead of one" and realizing that those are red flags, gets you there in almost every case. I agree that those things probably do expand your understanding and allow you to consider problems in different ways (which may help you solve certain types of problems more easily). I also agree with your main point: there are very few people in the world who are likely to be able to (accurately) describe themselves as software developers with <1 year of experience/learning.