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A comment on Ask HN: What are the signs that you are a Good, Better, or Best programmer?.

Re:Ask HN: What are the signs that you are a Good, Better, o... by macwarlock on Friday August 07, 2009 @03:25PM (#748365)
"Best: What's a debugger?"

Run for your life.

Glad to see that the examples touched on the fact the being a good programmer has as much to do with interacting with people as it does code. Whether you're chained to a desk in the basement or working one on one with clients (or both?), I think the key is the programmer's flexibility.

The ability to think quickly and adapt smartly to sudden bugs/conflicts/requests can really help sort out the code monkeys from the wizards.

The 'Best' category kind of irks me; programming is an ongoing learning process. Always try to be a better programmer, never try to 'the best'.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What are the signs that you are a Good, Better, o... by billswift on Saturday August 08, 2009 @12:51PM (#749483)
Did you actually read his "Best" descriptions? Most of them are literally impossible for a real programmer to actually achieve - most are sort of transcendental goals to keep working toward.
[ Parent | on HN ]