programming isn’t a competition

  • squaresinger
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    2 days ago

    Do you think there is such a thing as a “gifted musician”? Someone with a “talent for arts” or design? Someone who’s just “naturally good with people”? Someone who’s “naturally really good with organization”?

    That’s all the same. Yes, there are people who are naturally good in all sorts of fields. And yes, it still takes a ton of work to keep on top. A “gifted musician” still has to put in hundreds or thousands of hours of practice to actually be able to make good music. But someone who has no talent for music can put in infinite hours of practice and it will still amount to nothing.

    But there’s another important distinction in regards to tech and IT: people in these fields tend to think that their high level of skills should be default and anyone who doesn’t have that skill level must be automatically stupid and lazy. It’s almost seen as a moral failing to not be good with tech. Terms like “tech illiterate” reinforce that.

    We don’t talk about “musically illiterate”, “arts illiterate” or “medically illiterate” when someone isn’t a great musician, artist or pharmacologist.

    Are you really good in every single field that exists? Are you justifying not putting work into e.g. your plumbing or car maintainance skills? Why aren’t you fixing the plumbing or the electric wireing in your house yourself?

    People have different specializations and there’s no shame in not knowing everything.

    (Btw, if someone tells you “It’s really impressive what you can do, you must be so smart, I couldn’t do that”, they are doing that as a compliment. If you then give them a sassy retort, that’s not exactly nice.)

    • Feyd@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      Do you think there is such a thing as …

      I think exactly the same thing as I said before. Maybe the people that are really good at it are naturally gifted to some degree but the main bulk of their skill is putting in the time. The people that say “oh I could never draw” or “I could never play an instrument” are both doing themselves a disservice and minimizing the time an effort that the skilled people put into it.

      Are you really good in every single field that exists?

      Of course not. I’m talking about other professional software developers when I say they don’t put in the work. You’re putting words in my mouth.

      Btw, if someone tells you blah blah blah

      Oh fuck off. I never said I was making a snappy comeback. You’re just making shit up about me in your head.