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submitted 19 hours ago by mesamunefire@piefed.social to c/programming@programming.dev

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programming isn't a competition

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[–] tyler@programming.dev 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I think this article might miss some of what people are saying. I’m pretty dang smart. I am just like this person, I go deep into topics and learn about them and am an expert at very specific things. But the speed at which you learn, and the speed at which you can recall those things, and the speed at which you can then utilize those things without making mistakes is what differentiates us.

I’m sure this person that wrote the article is smarter than me. It doesn’t mean I couldn’t accomplish the same things they do, it would just take longer, take more concentration, and have many more errors along the way.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Intelligence is a often-misunderstood concept. It's kinda like height in basketball.

A person that's 1.50m tall will have little chance becoming a successful professional basketball player, but that doesn't mean that a person that's 2m tall is guaranteed to be great at basketball without practice.

It takes both. And a 1.50m tall person who has played a lot of basketball will likely be better than a 2m person who hasn't, but if the 2m person starts practicing they will overtake the 1.5m person quite quickly.

Smart people like to claim that "it's all just hard work", mostly as a kind of humble-brag ("I am not something special, but I work really hard"), but it's not true. Accomplishing things in intelligence-based fields is a combination of being smart and working hard.

Usain Bolt isn't such an amazing runner only because he works hard, but he has the right genetics for the task. But if he didn't work hard, he wouldn't be such an amazing runner either.

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Smart people like to claim that “it’s all just hard work”, mostly as a kind of humble-brag

Usually when we say that it's in response to someone that hasn't put in the work saying we're smart as a way to justify continuing to not put in the work. I spent the first several years of my professional career learning outside of work and still keep tabs on technology in a way that others don't. My skill level is because I methodically cultivated it over years. Maybe I'm "smart" or maybe I'm not, but it's upsetting when someone acts like I was just born good at technology when I spent a lot of time and effort to get this way.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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 1 points 7 hours 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.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world -1 points 17 hours ago

Article is atrocious to read, I stopped after the first paragraph and skimmed past the rest hoping for improvement :/