Comments on: Are you a better programmer than you were two years ago?

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:36:37 +0000

Two years ago, I was satisfied in searching a quick solution for current issue at hand, even regarded it unconsciously as an evidence of great problem solving skill. Now, I dig to the bottom of the issue, conduct a general research, familiarize with the options and make decision, which obviously might take much longer time to solve a problem. However, I consider this as improvement of attitude, which eventually will lead to a better programmer.

By: Jake Boxer

Jake Boxer — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:18:50 +0000

Joe: As long as you treat those first designs as drafts, and spend time polishing/fixing the problems in them, I bet you’ll be fine. Personally though, I’d try to get out of there as soon as possible.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:26:34 +0000

I have to say that I think I’m a worse developer than I was 2 years ago. A year and a half ago I was hired as a developer for a company that is full of code that belongs on thedailyWTF. Imagine a shell script that calls a shell script that calls a perl script that calls a shell script that calls sql script that runs a shell script to set variables for the sql script. Most of my time is spent on the never ending bug fixes that this code requires, with the occasional need for new functionality. Unfortunately, now, if I need to implement some new feature for the company, my first designs always seem to mimic the code I have to work with… and I’m scared…

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:09:13 +0000

Yeah.

But I can’t say how or why, because everything is happening in the realm of ‘unconscious competence’ these days.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:36:21 +0000

I started working for a company that does low-level hardware work as well as standard software stuff, and began to learn about electronics and submitting kernel patches. I think it’s been the most productive two years of my life.

I don’t remember particular moments of realizing examples of being a better programmer than I’d thought, but I remember moments of somewhat terrifying learning; like being asked to make/decode oscilloscope output to debug a driver with someone else on the end of a phone line telling me what to do.

In short, I think I’d say that a great way to tell that you’re becoming a more capable engineer is to get a job with one responsibility that you’re entirely qualified for, and another responsibility that is alien and scary to you. :)