Ask HN: How to overcome strong feelings of worthlesness and inadequacy

Remember that software development is much much a procedural skill than a memorized skill. You have to do it, and you have to do it a lot, before you'll be great at it. Get started making the mistakes you need to make, and don't let them get you down. We've all got projects we didn't really get off the ground.

I see a lot of good responses, and then sometimes people thanking the responders. (and I agree)

But really, I'd like to thank you. Thank you so much for writing this.

I feel the same way you do a lot, and I'd bet that there are others too who have these struggles.

I too had irrelevant experience and could not get even an entry level job because of the fucked up way our industry works. I've seen my classmates strike it rich at Google, and I see all the programming.reddit.com and HN posts of people's blogs and their wonky projects, and sometimes I feel like I could never do what they do, and I'll never get a job.

Right now, I'm about halfway up the curve of something happening for me. I wish I could tell you that it was quick, and I wish that I could tell you what the outcome is going to be for me... Maybe I'll let you know when I get there.

But I just wanted to thank you, and I wanted to tell you that there are a lot of people who feel this way too.

There are some who never feel this way, and I envy them.

The best response I've seen here is to pick a project that you can do in 3 weeks. But I'll go even further: pick one you can do in a day. Then a couple of those. When you've done a few, I'll bet that you are able to easily pick something that's 3 weeks, and get it done in 3 weeks, and feel damn satisfied that you can do something.

Good luck, and solidarity.

First, go back and review the basics of web programming. https://code.google.com/edu/submissions/html-css-javascript/... is a good start. It is probably below your level, but do it anyway. Get some confidence. :) Do the same with a decent book on your programming language. Get an understanding from the ground up. Make sure you can program 100 lines without looking anywhere.

Next, start learning your tools. Were you using jQuery? Oracle? Start delving into what those tools really are. Watch screencasts and follow along, typing the exact code in as you go. Make a basic to-do application in the technologies that are on your resume. Don't be afraid to look on the internet, but there's one rule.

No copy and paste.

No, every time you find an answer, you're going to type it in directly. Every line you type in, you're going to think about what each thing means, and if you don't know, you look it up in the documentation.

Learn how to write a login page, how to connect to a random single signon. How to logoff. How to write each piece of the app. You will soon have a simple application. It's not much, but it's yours. Write unit tests and integration tests. If you think code looks messy, clean it up. This is your template.

Now, add some ajax. See how others are doing it, but again type it in yourself. Put in all the features you want to learn. Keep updating the tests, both front end and back end.

Now, try implementing the front end in backbone and jQuery, or whatever front end technology you want to try first. Keep the back end the way it is, and keep the look of the front end how it is. Just port the code over.

Now choose a back end you're interested in. Port the back end. You know how to make the simple case already, it's just a matter of learning how the new one works. THEN you take your todo app and start making things from that, now that you know how everything works basically.

Now, for interviews, take a month off and do all this. (Block reddit and use aggressive noprocrast on HN.) Then go back and interview for mid level positions. Many coders you are competing against are in the same position as you are, but you've gone back and taken the time to really learn your set of tools.

I really believe the difference between a bad and mediocre web programmer, in many cases, is about 100 hours of dedicated training about how the web works, and how their programming language works. The difference between a mediocre and a B- programmer is being able to rattle off the basics really quickly and knowing their toolset.

Getting to the A level, that takes more time. But you can do that as you have a job. :)

Take a cooking class.

I'm absolutely serious about this. You learn to build things by building things, and you build things by following recipes, recipes that are very slightly above your skill level, but no more. Go get some recipes, and use the techniques they tell you to use, and build some pancakes, and eat them. [1] Then you will "know the feeling of what it is like to create something." Something tasty.

I can hear you already: "My pancakes are just pancakes! They are not amazing and original pancakes." This is true. You need to get over that. Trying to amaze yourself is generally a waste of time. You can't do it consistently – that's what "amazing" means: something that doesn't happen every day. If what you want to do is create things, lots of things, every day, you've got to realize that it's not going to feel amazing while you're doing it. It's going to feel normal.

But: It will be tasty. Oh, there are worse fates than being so good at making pancakes that you can make them without even thinking. For one thing, other people will eventually start talking about your amazing pancakes, and even though you'll know in your heart that they're flattering you - hey, they're just the same pancakes that you've made a hundred times, from a recipe, with only a minor tweak or two - it will still be gratifying.

And maybe in thirty years you'll be the next Anthony Bourdain, and you'll be out drinking one night and suddenly you'll look at yourself and your own life and be amazed: You remember starting off with the pancakes, and you just kept trying a little more every day, and then there was the day you got a job cranking out those pancakes on the line, and man was that an educational experience, but now it's years later and you're shocked to find that you're some kind of breakfast legend, people line up for your amazing cooking, and at that moment you'll actually be amazed at yourself for everything you have accomplished. You'll be amazed for at least five minutes, maybe even ten minutes, depending on how much you've been drinking. [2]

Then you'll wake up the next morning and go back to work, just like we all do.

Anyway, programming. Throw SICP away and try something like Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way, something with a lot of exercises. Do all the exercises. Then do some of those programming-contest-type problems. Do little problems, ten-minute problems, thirty-minute problems. Practice the art of small victories.

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[1] No, do not use a pancake mix. That's like copy-and-paste.

[2] Incidentally, alcohol is a depressant, so don't think I'm seriously recommending it to someone who is already depressed. Coffee! I meant coffee!