On finally learning to program at the age of 40 (2020)
This article illustrates quite well what our industry is suffering from. (Apart from being 10x as long as needed and full of rambling that makes it hard to actually read fully.)There seems to be the perception that you can just "get into programming" in a few weeks and then you are a competent programmer creating anything of high quality and value. It's not the case for skilled carpenters, neurosurgeons or concert violin players. How come people seem to believe it's true for the art and craft of software engineering? I've been a computer nerd since high school, studied a Comp.Eng. degree for 5 years, went to grad school for another 4 and now I'm in an industry job for 3 years, and I consider myself only marginally competent at my craft. How come my soccer friend thinks he can watch a bunch of Javascript youtube clips and take an easy distance course at a university to score him a high paying job 2 months from now? That's not how it works, neither with carpentry nor with neurosurgery nor with concert violinists nor with software engineering.