Ask HN: Maybe I kind of suck as a programmer – how do I supercharge my work?

This is probably the most clear example of that:

http://www.try-alf.org/blog/2013-10-21-relations-as-first-cl...

Before I found this, most talk was at the more theoretical level and about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Manifesto

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However, I learn first FoxPro. Is more closer to my own idea (in fact, is what I'm after!) because is practical and is proven... yet the xbase family of languages fade in obscurity for weird reasons (http://wiki.c2.com/?ExBase talk about some and MS killing both Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro because .NET, making the the death of the most popular and practical) without any modern undertaking.

This make a huge community of developers that, I suspect, left the market (without citation because is my experience in my local market) because more "normal" languages are not as appealing as database-oriented languages. In fact, despite I love python/delphi as the most productive languages I have used, none is closer to Fox in the area of database-based apps. Is just another league.

It is important to realize our current situation before we can upgrade yourself, so it is good you know that and are willing to do that.

Personally I believe that everyone has some natural strengths in one domain or another, that gives them an edge to do things a lot faster and can learn and understand things lot faster. For example I can understand technical stuff lot better and can learn new programming stuff lot faster, than I could ever learn playing a guitar or designing :) I believe that the people you mentioned above are excellent programmers/architects and beyond that they have seen and dealt with more situations than any one doing regular programming. They might have built complex stuffs, they have read a lot - books and open source code, cleared the concepts, they have grown their knowledge and they have implemented it where they could. Basically your programming skills improve by doing complex stuff. Applying what you have learn't whenever you get a chance (no matter how simple or complex the product could be). Implementing elegant solutions to problems that can have N possible solutions and no compromises.

I don't say that being a programmer I cannot become a good musician but I think that the music I produce won't match the quality of the code or program that I would write, and even if I could do it - it requires a great deal of effort time and dedication which I wouldn't have required at that scale for coding. I am a programmer first and then may be a musician second. Someone would realize their own strength and work to polish it further, or may be someone would choose to become someone that interests them but it is not their core strength. It's a personal choice.

My comment might be felt negative but I wrote this because I see a burning desire in you to do something and you have been trying it past 3 years, It might be worth to stop and point you to other perspective instead of giving you any standard advice. However if you are determined to take your level up than no one can stop you - all you would require is to rewire your brain - a great deal of effort and strong dedication. Personally I found books and reading open source code to be a good source of improving your programming knowledge and like any art I think the more you do it the better you become. You may also find some job/freelance in some decent company where there could be challenging work/projects - that can help you grow your knowledge rapidly.

Thank you for formalising into words what I have felt for quite some time. This comment resonates with my core beliefs. Virtual high five!