Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation • Hacker News Board

Re: Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation

#201

Post by nlawalker » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:15 AM UTC

jcurbo wrote: post #53

jiggy2011 wrote: post #47

Does anybody know if Notch is self taught? I thought he had a CS Degree from somewhere? I can fluctuate between thinking I am a fairly competent developer to thinking that I am possibly the worst programmer there is. I'm not sure which is a better attitude to have, hopefully I am somewhere in the middle. I think the issue with reading some of the discussion on HN is that you get people talking in detail about things…

I have similar issues. For most of my adult life I've had so many interests that it is just impossible to keep up with all of them to the level I want. Even within computing as a field I am overloaded. I read a lot of stuff on HN and elsewhere I find interesting and I agree that it makes me feel like I should understand it all. First time I've came to that realization. My current solution to the problem of overwhelmi…

This is my solution as well; I hope to start in a few months. Really looking forward to it.

Re: Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation

#202

Post by MaysonL » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 8:58 AM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #115

There are two truths I try to keep in mind whenever I start feeling either extreme: 1. There are people who are so much better at programming than me, that I could work my entire life and never be as good as they are right now. 2. There are people who are so much worse at programming than me, that they could work their entire lives and never be as good as I am right now. Its a continuum, a hill. Feel the gradient, wa…

Not just a hill: a multi-dimensional manifold, with many directions leading "up".

Re: Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation

#203

Post by olifante » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 5:18 PM UTC

richardk wrote: post #169

It's comforting to see that other people fluctuate between thinking they're awesome and thinking they're awful. Experience has taught me this: Never build your self-esteem on comparison with another And by that I mean, you should never judge your own programming abilities based on other peoples' apparent abilities. If you're programming new stuff regularly, enjoying it and listening to what other programmers have to…

I want to agree, but it's hard to fight against ingrained human instincts. The need for social validation is very powerful. I would say instead:

If you have to build your self-esteem by comparing to others, do it by looking at what you've created, not what you know.

Re: Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation

#204

Post by scottschulthess » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 11:11 PM UTC

doyoulikeworms wrote: post #120

jiggy2011 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting, when I studied CS at university I'd say there were 2 different types of people that got high marks. There were people who were self taught , either before they started CS or once they learned some programming at university they identified other areas outside the course that interested them and they could apply their new programming skills. These people typically got jobs in the software industry…

> They got equally high marks because they were good at passing exams. I don't understand how this makes sense, unless being "good at passing exams" means "cheating". Can anybody explain? I hear this said so often, and I usually chalk it up to the speaker rationalizing his own poor scores. My CS exams were always hard, and the only way to "get good" at passing them was to learn the material.

In my experience, some people are better are forcing themselves to be interested in things.

Re: Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation

#205

Post by jgw » Tue, Jan 17, 2012, 3:44 AM UTC

dunstad wrote: post #180

jgw wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. A couple of times, I've met people who have "dabbled" in programming - maybe done it for a year or two professionally - and said they left the profession because they's pretty much learned everything there was to know about programming. I'm always impressed with their capacity to absorb so much, since I started programming when I was 8 (on a ship, in the middle of the Atlantic, without a computer) and I'm now 3…

How did you learn programming on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic?

My Mum had bought me a book called the Usborne Guide to BASIC Programming, as my Dad has just bought an Osborne 1 computer for his new consulting business. So on our way across the Atlantic on a Polish vessel from Montreal to Dover, I was enthusiastically learning about programming while the machine sat, frustratingly, in the cargo hold, inaccessible to my eager mitts.

I still have the Osborne 1. I last powered her up in 2005, when Adam Osborne passed away.

Re: Coding Skill and the Decline of Stagnation

#206

Post by jcurbo » Fri, Jan 27, 2012, 8:41 PM UTC

tankenmate wrote: post #76

jcurbo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar issues. For most of my adult life I've had so many interests that it is just impossible to keep up with all of them to the level I want. Even within computing as a field I am overloaded. I read a lot of stuff on HN and elsewhere I find interesting and I agree that it makes me feel like I should understand it all. First time I've came to that realization. My current solution to the problem of overwhelmi…

Your other option is to become a consultant, if you can stand it. This is meant both seriously and as a joke.

I already am one, kind of.. I work for these guys: www.mitre.org

My day job is broad enough that I get to sate most of my professional desires in one way or another. Now I have grad school to explore some topics in depth and expand my education. It's working out very well so far.