Yesterday I put up a post on my blog about programming. I did this because I had read an earlier post that inspired me about the idea of trying to write something every day. The basic idea was that if you keep at it you will get better. So I had a go.
The incredible irony here is that one of the points I was making in my blog post was that much of the skill of a programmer seems to me to be innate and thus I wondered if it can be taught. So while I was demonstrating my belief in the idea of practice, I was demonstrating it by questioning it.
Um whatever, on a good day 10 people read my blog. Thanks sis!
The post actually got picked up on a few sites and I got literally 500x more traffic than I expected. From this experience I learned a few things:
1) Wp-cache is a good thing.
2) I really do need practice writing.
3) I would have been alot better off with a few shorter posts.
When you title something “Some random thoughts on …” You pretty much give up any pretense of saying you are making a coherent argument about anything. That should have been my first clue that my post wasn’t ready for prime time.
Still reading all the comments does help me realize what I was trying to say:
1) I think people’s ability to deal with complexity seems at least to be some kind of innate trait
2) Managing complexity is a key skill in programming
3) Abstractions can both reduce and introduce complexity
4) Javascript is more complex than many people think
5) We should worry about 4) since we seem to be using it for everything now.
I’ll try to do better next time.
Things I wasn’t trying to say:
1) I am awesome
2) If you aren’t awesome like me quit trying, you will always be a loser.
For the record. I don’t think I am awesome. I have done some cool stuff and some crappy stuff. I have worked with people who were both better and worse at this than me. I’d say I am good not great. When I was 26 maybe I was great. Its hard to remember.
I also don’t think people can’t improve. That wasn’t my point. People get better there is just a limit on how much better they will get. I ride my bike almost everyday. I actually climb hills better than when I was 26, but I am getting no closer to winning the Tour De France much less a local cyclocross race.
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