3 replies to this topic

[brightmatter]

TO: All the programmers who have just begun learning

I struggle with programming. I am not good at it. Every day I am surrounded by people who understand so much more on such a deeper level than I do. Everyone's an expert and I feel like I am always the student.

As I gain experience, my programs become harder to code. People have said that I look like I am having an aneurysm when I am programming. My employer expects more and more of me and I must try harder to learn more and learn it faster. The magnitude of information is so intimidating. It is always getting more complex even as I write this. There will never come a time when I know the whole of it and likely not even a large part of the whole. It can be deflating.

I was told recently to mentor a new person in the company. All I could think was they had lost their minds. I am no good at programming. What business do I have teaching another? It was going to be the blind leading the blind.

When I began, it was as if they had learned nothing in school. It was almost maddening to teach this person. Why was this person asking such simple questions? Why hadn't their school answered these question before they arrived here. They were missing even the most basic fundamentals of programming. So yes, I was a bit put out.

I decided to look back on some of my old programs from about three years ago and I was shocked! They were awful. They were an embarrassment! They were naive, ignorant, inefficient, ineffectual, etc...

All I could ask myself was, "how could I have written such bad code?". I began rewriting them all. I couldn't stand the thought of someone accidentally seeing them. It was only a slight way into rewriting them when I realized what was happening.

The only way I could know they were bad is if I had become better. All the time I felt like I was terrible at programming was because I was comparing myself to people who not only had 20 or more years years experience but that they were also learning new techniques. They were also becoming better. I was trying to chase a moving car. I couldn't see my progress because progress is relative to the observer. My boss was asking me to do more because I was becoming capable of more.

If you feel like programming is hard, that is because it is. If you feel like you don't understand it, that is because you don't. Please step back and see that what you learned yesterday is actually easy now and all you needed to do was try, fail, ask questions about why you failed and start over with new information.

You might not think you are making progress and that you just don't have the smarts to do it. I am here to tell you that even a mediocre and common mind like my own can program and I can do it well - with enough practice. I am at least good enough to see how bad I was, and that's something.

So, maybe this new guy needs me to cut him some slack. After all, someone cut me some.

BM

[gokuajmes]

brightmatter said:

TO: All the programmers who have just begun learning

The only way I could know they were bad is if I had become better. All the time I felt like I was terrible at programming was because I was comparing myself to people who not only had 20 or more years years experience but that they were also learning new techniques. They were also becoming better. I was trying to chase a moving car. I couldn't see my progress because progress is relative to the observer. My boss was asking me to do more because I was becoming capable of more.

those words really touched me,Indeed the truth of programming

[WingedPanther]

I remember the day when I suddenly realized that the guy I had been looking up to for three years was asking my opinion on a programming problem he was having. It suddenly hit me that we had somehow changed into peers. I had learned enough that in some areas, I knew more than he did. I recently looked back at some code I wrote in TurboPascal 5.5 back in 1991. It was just a couple of games, but I remembered HOW I had written it, and I saw the code, and couldn't believe how bad it was. That said, it WORKS. I would write it completely differently now, and in completely different languages, but there was some clever logic hiding in that code that I'm still proud of.

Keep on learning, keep on reading. One day, you'll be the pro.

[atheium]

sounds like you came upon an epiphany Bm, and you chose to share it. very respectable. +rep

il keep my eyes open for your posts, my first impression of you, definitely good.


also: i REALLY wanna call you blackmage. i spose i read too much of 8-bit... BM!