I agree with gambiter, this is the phase where practice comes into play. Also, studying the code of really competant and efficient programmers. I was in the of

I agree with gambiter, this is the phase where practice comes into play. Also, studying the code of really competant and efficient programmers. I was in the of desert of despair for years until I learned to stop being overly self-critical and had internalize the patterns of much better programmers. I still made a living in this phase. Then I found that I was a good programmer and entered the upswing of awesome and it is awesome. I have the self-confidence now to know when to cut corners (sometimes you just brute force it) and when to spend extra time (sometimes an elegant algorithm is called for.)