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Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

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Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#71

Post by l0b0 »

smilesnd wrote: post #69

Programming is a craft once you reach a certain level their is no checklist or metric that can be used to measure you ability. Only experience and battle scars tell how good you might be when solving the next problem. Only ever measure yourself against yourself. As long as you make sure you are a better programmer today then yesterday then you have nothing to worry about.

This. After 15 years as a professional developer I have a fairly good idea where my boundaries are, and that's about it.

Expect to learn new things every day, and from every conceivable source: your fellow developers, junior and senior, of course, but also your PM (for example, prioritization, techniques to organize work), designers (information flow, HCI), business analysts (how the client ticks), etc.. Very likely everyone you ever worked with could teach you something, and you'll never have time to learn it all.

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#72

Post by taneq »

Go back and read code you wrote 1, 2, even 5 years ago. If it's still clear and logical, and you don't think "who's the clown that wrote this?" then you're good. If you can hand it to someone else and they don't think "who's the clown that wrote this?" then you're very good.

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#73

Post by taneq »

dintech wrote: post #18
rammy1234 wrote: post #3

1. read others code. think. ask questions. why and how certain code is written in certain way. 2. Read more code. 3. Write more code. 4. If your code which you wrote few years back looks bad to you, then you are on right path. 5. How much you understand the core concepts. New languages and frameworks are more of an glitter. 6. You want to be better version of yourself, then your progess is your stats you need look at…

> 4. If your code which you wrote few years back looks bad to you, then you are on right path. What if the recent stuff looks bad too? :)

Then you're normal?

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#74

Post by sahil-kang »

I would recommend contributing code to a well known FOSS project, or at least an existing project that you use or respect. I think hacking on meaningful projects will be clear milestones for yourself, which seems to be what you’re looking for.

To encourage you, here are a couple of contributions I have to Linux and Hadoop:

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/0bef71093d446165964... https://github.com/apache/hadoop/pull/114

If you read through the commit messages and look at the patches, I think you’ll find that reaching these clear milestones doesn’t take an unattainable amount of skill; just a bit of patience and curiosity.

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#75

Post by hdkmraf »

bb88 wrote: post #31

You're asking the wrong question. You should be asking "Am I an efficient or effective programmer?" Do I get things in on time / under budget? Do I avoid common programming pitfalls? Do I solve more problems than I create? Do I see simple solutions to complex problems? Can I refactor terrible code to more easily maintained code? Can I avoid terribly written code in the first place? Can I effectively communicate with…

Wow, this is such an eye opener. I have always considered myself an ok programmer, but always struggling with trying to be effective.

Your four points on effectiveness happen to me on a daily basis, but I tend to see them as annoyances, mind you, I rarely refuse to help and advice. This gives a whole new light and meaning to all those interruptions.

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#76

Post by zumu »

bb88 wrote: post #31

You're asking the wrong question. You should be asking "Am I an efficient or effective programmer?" Do I get things in on time / under budget? Do I avoid common programming pitfalls? Do I solve more problems than I create? Do I see simple solutions to complex problems? Can I refactor terrible code to more easily maintained code? Can I avoid terribly written code in the first place? Can I effectively communicate with…

Aside from the first question (may first 2 questions), the top questions are arguably more qualitative than quantitative.

> Do I solve more problems than I create?

Who judges what constitutes a problem? How do you know when you've created a problem?

> Do I see simple solutions to complex problems?

Define 'simple'.

> Can I refactor terrible code to more easily maintained code?

Define 'terrible'. How does one know what code is more easily maintained?

> Can I avoid terribly written code in the first place?

See above.

> Can I effectively communicate with people in order to get the answers I need without wasting their time with needless questions?

What constitutes "effective" communication? What are "needless" questions?

I generally agree with the questions, but I would imagine most programmers could read them and think, "I must be pretty effective."

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#77

Post by RantyDave »

Ha! So, so many definitions of good. But, at a basic level, you can boil it down to:

* Does my code work?

* Does my code look after itself and its user when things don't go according to plan?

* Is my code simple?

* Can my code be maintained?

There are very serious sub-plots involving (ie) what does "work" mean? are simple and maintainable the same thing? But if you hit the four points above and don't fart in the office, you're good to go.

Re: Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?

#80

Post by koonsolo »

There is no point in measuring yourself against other people, even in sports.

You should measure yourself against yourself. Your goal should be to become your best self, not the best X in the room/world. X is mostly picked arbitrary.

This means you should always try to become better at what you value.

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