This is a very good point. I thought I knew a lot about programming/CS until I decided to get my M.S. Now, the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.
It is actually a little defeating in the sense that I have had to accept that I will probably never know as much as I would like to.
Identifying gaps in your knowledge is half the battle.
Learning and getting better isn't limited to eliminating known unknowns, it includes becoming aware of unknown unknowns.
Once you can google a problem, there is a very high chance you'll be able to solve it.
Skills get rusty. What you learn today you will forget tomorrow, unless you use them in some way.
Re:Being a "Great Coder" and 10000 Hours
by mattdeboard on Friday December 23, 2011 @05:18PM
(#3387464)
This is so true, and manifests so sharply/painfully when I go to refresh my very nascent skills in Clojure. I've learned the same material so many times. It's a bummer.
When you don't know much about given subject you usually don't know how much you really don't know and most people at that stage actually have impression that they know a lot
It is kind of catch 22 problem :-)
I started programming using Python. When I started, I wanted to understand the "feel" of Python programming, and that was all my mind could comprehend. Now that I have a decent smattering of Python knowledge, I now realize I don't have a total grasp of transfer protocols and I should probably learn a lower-level C language as well. I started off not knowing one thing, now I have added two more.
I'm still a better programmer, but now I realize I'm clueless about even more stuff than I was before.