<story><title>How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer</title><url>https://psgraphics.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-to-succeed-as-poor-programmer.html?m=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>overgard</author><text>The &amp;quot;Avoid Learning Anything New&amp;quot; advice is insane. (Well, practically all of it is, but that one really stands out).&lt;p&gt;I think the exact opposite advice is far better: never assume the way you know how to do something is best, and always be on the lookout for what others are doing that might be better.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the thing about learning: the more you learn, the easier learning the next thing becomes. You form links, insights on relationships, new concepts that apply to old things, etc. If this guy thinks learning is such a burden, it&amp;#x27;s probably because he refuses to learn anything in the first place.&lt;p&gt;If he thinks he&amp;#x27;s a poor programmer, it probably has less to do with innate ability and 100% to do with the attitudes he gives as &amp;quot;advice&amp;quot; in this blog.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bjoli</author><text>Let me quote a friend that ranted about this very subject about a week ago:&lt;p&gt;I am of extremely average intelligence. On the absolute top of the bell curve, looking down at the rest of you. I am extremely tired of the whole attitude that _anything is possible if you just put your mind to it_. I put my mind to it. That is how I got through CS in university. I worked at least twice as hard as the people that said _just put your mind to it_ and then cruised through even the hardest course without ever studying more than an hour a day and then doing an all-nighter to get an essay in.&lt;p&gt;Working hard as hell to understand what some low-effort-high-intelligence &amp;quot;just put your mind to it&amp;quot; brat understood as soon as it left the professor&amp;#x27;s mouth is hard. It just shows me again and again that I drew the short straw in the gene lottery. I have to work a lot harder to do the same things.&lt;p&gt;Being told to just try harder by someone who&amp;#x27;s idea of intellectual work is &amp;quot;wherever my curiosity takes me&amp;quot; is really friggin taxing on my self esteem.&lt;p&gt;----------&lt;p&gt;Now, he was drunk and angry, but there is something to it. I think both him and I agree with you on a matter of principle, but it is more to it than that.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Succeed as a Poor Programmer</title><url>https://psgraphics.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-to-succeed-as-poor-programmer.html?m=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>overgard</author><text>The &amp;quot;Avoid Learning Anything New&amp;quot; advice is insane. (Well, practically all of it is, but that one really stands out).&lt;p&gt;I think the exact opposite advice is far better: never assume the way you know how to do something is best, and always be on the lookout for what others are doing that might be better.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the thing about learning: the more you learn, the easier learning the next thing becomes. You form links, insights on relationships, new concepts that apply to old things, etc. If this guy thinks learning is such a burden, it&amp;#x27;s probably because he refuses to learn anything in the first place.&lt;p&gt;If he thinks he&amp;#x27;s a poor programmer, it probably has less to do with innate ability and 100% to do with the attitudes he gives as &amp;quot;advice&amp;quot; in this blog.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>geowwy</author><text>He is right though – new tech nearly always disappears.&lt;p&gt;Example: Learning CoffeeScript was a total waste of time. Learning JQuery helped me for a few years, but now JQuery is basically useless to me.&lt;p&gt;Based on past experience, I strongly suspect the same will happen with React, Rust and a bunch of other new exciting tech. There are countless examples besides the ones I mentioned.&lt;p&gt;But on the other hand, the time I put into mastering SQL or Unix will probably continue benefiting me for the rest of my career. Even C will continue to benefit me, even though it&amp;#x27;ll only ever be a small part of my job.&lt;p&gt;So I would modify his rule: &lt;i&gt;Avoid Learning Anything New – Learn Something Old&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>