Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
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Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
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Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#2It's important to also continue striving for self-improvement. If you hit a level where you've stopped wanting to learn more and started wanting to simply compare yourself to others, of course you'll look good by comparison - but you're not getting any better.
I started programming using Python. When I started, I wanted to understand the "feel" of Python programming, and that was all my mind could comprehend. Now that I have a decent smattering of Python knowledge, I now realize I don't have a total grasp of transfer protocols and I should probably learn a lower-level C language as well. I started off not knowing one thing, now I have added two more.
I'm still a better programmer, but now I realize I'm clueless about even more stuff than I was before.
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#3It's important to also continue striving for self-improvement. If you hit a level where you've stopped wanting to learn more and started wanting to simply compare yourself to others, of course you'll look good by comparison - but you're not getting any better. I started programming using Python. When I started, I wanted to understand the "feel" of Python programming, and that was all my mind could comprehend. Now tha…
This is a very good point. I thought I knew a lot about programming/CS until I decided to get my M.S. Now, the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.
It is actually a little defeating in the sense that I have had to accept that I will probably never know as much as I would like to.
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#4It's important to also continue striving for self-improvement. If you hit a level where you've stopped wanting to learn more and started wanting to simply compare yourself to others, of course you'll look good by comparison - but you're not getting any better. I started programming using Python. When I started, I wanted to understand the "feel" of Python programming, and that was all my mind could comprehend. Now tha…
Skills get rusty. What you learn today you will forget tomorrow, unless you use them in some way.
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#5There really is a meme here I think, and it relates to ego.
Having said that, I definitely do think there is truth in massive variations between programmers, though I personally think that is a combination of a small pre-requisite talent (the ability to code at all, which I think a surprisingly small amount of people have - simply a genetically determine brain configuration), and mostly attitude + hard work.
For example, I took part in the recent Stanford AI class, though not about programming specifically, I was utterly down-heartened when I heard they sent out those 'send me your CVs you clever people!' emails to the top 1k students, it just made me feel like a lot of people were taking part in order to participate in a 'look how much cleverer I am than you' pissing match.
That kind of things ruins the collaborative 'learning for the joy of learning' side of things and has a tendency to make the whole thing into a sort of nasty elitist thing. I really wish they hadn't done that (N.B. I did fine on the course - 98.7% - so this isn't sour grapes).
The biggest problem with anything like this is the idea that 'here is some test of inherent intelligence - I am far better than you so you are inherently unable to do this thing' which is just the biggest barrier to actually trying to do something - if you think you inherently suck or at least are simply mediocre, your motivation to do that thing is severely reduced.
or perhaps I'm just ranting/projecting here :)
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#6A little off topic but somewhat relevant: When someone asked Larry Wall why there aren't any Perl certifications to classify the experts, he replied "I'm not going to tell people whether they're certified or not. My approach to language design has always been that people should learn just enough of the languages to get their jobs done. They shouldn't have to learn the whole language to begin with. But with certification, you have to be learning the whole language."
In my own experience, this is especially true if you're self-employed / startup guy. Am I a great PHP coder? Not by a long shot. Does it in any way affect our user-experience or how much money we make? Again, not by a long shot.
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#7There really is a meme here I think, and it relates to ego. Having said that, I definitely do think there is truth in massive variations between programmers, though I personally think that is a combination of a small pre-requisite talent (the ability to code at all, which I think a surprisingly small amount of people have - simply a genetically determine brain configuration), and mostly attitude + hard work. For exam…
you know that was my first reaction to the email too (actually my first reaction was petty jealously that I didn't get that email)
when I thought about it some more, that might have be a really nice break for someone who deserved it, and the type of person who took that class and was in the top 1,000, is probably the type of person who would make the most of a nice break
take away, the more I thought about it the less I had a problem with it
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#8There really is a meme here I think, and it relates to ego. Having said that, I definitely do think there is truth in massive variations between programmers, though I personally think that is a combination of a small pre-requisite talent (the ability to code at all, which I think a surprisingly small amount of people have - simply a genetically determine brain configuration), and mostly attitude + hard work. For exam…
I think there's a meme in the term “greatness”. Perhaps a better formulation of the rule is the more traditional one, that it takes 10 000 hours to reach your peak at whatever it is you're practicing.
It's not automatic (you still have to do the right things), and you can be great way before that (especially relatively speaking).
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#9There really is a meme here I think, and it relates to ego. Having said that, I definitely do think there is truth in massive variations between programmers, though I personally think that is a combination of a small pre-requisite talent (the ability to code at all, which I think a surprisingly small amount of people have - simply a genetically determine brain configuration), and mostly attitude + hard work. For exam…
you know that was my first reaction to the email too (actually my first reaction was petty jealously that I didn't get that email) when I thought about it some more, that might have be a really nice break for someone who deserved it, and the type of person who took that class and was in the top 1,000, is probably the type of person who would make the most of a nice break take away, the more I thought about it the les…
Oh I'd be being dishonest if I said there wasn't a petty ego blow there on my part too, esp. since there were a few answers that I just didn't check properly. Part of it is that I was simply frustrated that it had become that sort of thing. Had a perhaps romantic view of this kind of thing. Certainly don't mean to take away from those who scored so well :)
Re: Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
#10The better he got, the worse he knew he was.
The inverse Dunning–Kruger effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect