Mostly good advice, but the 10,000-hours-until-you're-an-expert meme bothers me. First, not everything is equally difficult. Playing the violin is harder than k

Mostly good advice, but the 10,000-hours-until-you're-an-expert meme bothers me. First, not everything is equally difficult. Playing the violin is harder than knitting. Also, being an expert programmer suggests that you've levelled out, that you've reached a permanent high plateau. There is no plateau. It's a slope all the way to infinity. If you find you've reached a plateau, shift gears and change to a more abstract programming language. I'm at 30,000 hours, and I'm not an expert programmer. I'm still learning every day, and I like it!