As we're getting older we simply can't keep getting better in at the same speed. If you're a mentally balanced person your live will contain more and more unpredicted variables like a partner, kids, older parents and family members, health issues and what not. Things beside your work that require your time and attention.
You aren't getting any better
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Re: You aren't getting any better
#12Focussed practice is effective; unfocussed practice is useless. No surprises there.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#13A question for those who are trying to get better: how do you measure progress?
I re-read articles I read and didn't understand and if now I do, I learned something that allow me to better understand a wider range of subjects. If not, I didn't progress.
I retry puzzles that I failed to complete in the past and if they appear easier to do, I progressed. It worked for some Euler Puzzle that I couldn't begin to understand and a few months afterward they seemed trivial.
Redoing anything you struggled to achieve (or didn't achieve) could be a proof of progress, as long as it's actually understood.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#14Stock brokers are a bad example, because that is essentially gambling. Also playing around with some API will make me better in using that API. What are some meaningful metrics for becoming a better developer? Personally, I'd like to launch more.
Ditto to the gambler comment. Read Nate Silver's book on predictions for more. Working as a stock broker shouldn't be compared to software development without some explanation of why the link is valid, which it isn't in this case.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#15It's because you can learn to build complicated systems, advanced algorithms and data structure but in the end, it isn't going to help you build a simple crud application any faster than someone who doesn't know these things. You could be getting better, but it won't show performance wise.
If you can do all that, you shouldn't be working on simple CRUD applications.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#16A question for those who are trying to get better: how do you measure progress?
The biggest problem is selling stocks to suckers hasn't changed much in a century or so. Fred Schwed's hilarious classic shows absolutely nothing has changed in that business in 90 years other than minor terminology.
On the other hand, other than general job title and being in front of a keyboard and looking at a screen, almost nothing I did in 1981 is even remotely similar to what I do in 2013.
I started out with basic and Z80 assembly programming, then 6809 assembly programming, then OS-9 (kind of like unix, sorta..). Then downgraded to crude PC and dos generalist stuff in the late 80s to early 90s. I did lots of linux sysadmin work in the early (well, 93ish onward), mid, late 90s, then I took a detour for a couple years into being (mostly) a BGP operator at a regional ISP, then a phase of mostly DBA and data importer/exporter work, then went thru a CRUD web app phase, etc. Along the way I did a lot of microcontroller work mostly 68hc11 and a lot of the ancient and current PIC families. I also had a weird side trip thru the joys of mainframe work circa mid 90s, someday "modern" PC stuff could catch up to BAU in the mainframe world as of 1994, but probably not. And I did some microwave RF work which does actually relate to this discussion when you program a PLL synth using a microcontroller or implement stupid sequencing tricks or even just monitor a GPSDO. I simply don't have 32 years experience in anything. Adding to the weirdness I never really stop anything, I still do enough linux sysadmin stuff to stay current but probably not advance much beyond where I was which admittedly was pretty advanced. And I never stop learning, I still think its hilarious to implement project euler problems in new languages, scala being my amusement of choice right now. I can't count how many Fred Brooks style silver bullets I've seen, dodged, or laughed at in the last three decades.
On the other hand if you were a stockbroker pitching RCA in 1923 to rubes, its not much different to pitch GRPN to rubes in 2013.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#17I know this is false because people that are younger than me are generally less experienced (and generally know less) and people that are older than me generally know more. This seems to be a tech phenomena only though. When I was practicing structural engineering I found that after 27 or 28 people stopped getting better. Some even got worse (forgetting simple things like sheer flow).
Re: You aren't getting any better
#18After 34 years, my recipe for the best way to get better:
Find customers. Satisfy them. Repeat.
They will pull you kicking and screaming into your excellent future much faster than you can ever do it yourself.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#19Market success is a very bad example. Success as a trader is related to success in games like poker - it is predicated on the ability to act consistently, against your instincts, and with discipline for long periods of time. The domain knowledge and hands-on experience needed to run a couple of successful market strategies is something you can pick up in a couple of years.
Re: You aren't getting any better
#20A question for those who are trying to get better: how do you measure progress?
Progress I think is context dependent. In competitive activities like sports, the performance statistics speak for your progress. On the other hand programming, being more like a craft, would measure progress by the quality of the work you produce and also the ease with which you do it.