Throwing in the towel on becomming a programmer

Re:Throwing in the towel on becomming a programmer by sgt101 on Friday February 14, 2014 @04:58PM (#7241269)

This is utterly counter to my experience, both in metaphor and reality. In terms of reading/writing, trying to write poetry and stories has given me huge insights into the work of others. My poems are dreadful, my stories silly, but I've learned what makes others so talented.

In programming, writing is first, reading second. Creating good code is something that is learned through work. Reading and judging other peoples code requires great insight and sympathy; criticising something is easy. Understanding that they could have done it differently but chose not to for some very good reason is harder by far.

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Re:Throwing in the towel on becomming a programmer by lutusp on Friday February 14, 2014 @05:49PM (#7241590)

Well, this is obviously a matter of opinion, not science, but I think one would do well to read (examples) Hemingway or Clemens (a.k.a. Twain) before presuming to write something meant to be read by others.

> My poems are dreadful, my stories silly, but I've learned what makes others so talented.

I think one could learn skilled writing more quickly by reading than by writing, and without the esteem-crushing experience of seeing how badly one's own early experiments fall short. I emphasize that I'm talking about having an unrealistic expectation that one's own early writing serves as anything but an exercise to be quickly discarded -- referring to both programming and prose.

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