As a hobbyist programmer and someone fascinated with the world of programming and learning what I can about it, it strikes me more and more just how obsessive to detail good programmers are. That's never been a strong suit of mine, unfortunately. I'm impatient and I often make wrong and bad assumptions that make it tough for me to write solid code. And I think what I like about programming so much–even though it often humbles me by making me feel like a bit of a dunce–is that it forces me to think like an engineer. But I have to work pretty damn hard at it and the process is slow and frequently frustrating.

In the programming field, there is an extraordinary amount of information to take in, process, and put into practice. It seems the more I learn, the less I feel like I know. I marvel at the programmers to be able to do that and who have a natural knack for it. I'd like nothing better than to spend 15 hours a day lost in code (which I've been doing lately) but it still sometimes feels like I'm pushing a rock up a mountain. I have a few projects I want to write and write well but I end up getting diverted by having to learn some new skill first. Every day there seems to be countless new idioms, tools, and concepts that I need to learn and put into practice.

But I'm eager for the day when it all just clicks, when I can look at someone else's piece of code and read it like a newspaper and know everything that's going on with it (or at least have a pretty good idea). It's frustrating to go down three dead ends or spend an hour figuring out why your code won't do what you want because of a stupid mental error. I'm guessing most programmers like me have gone through a similar phase where they can write code that gets simple stuff accomplished but aren't good enough to take on a really large or complex project.

Anyway, just needed to vent. I feel better now. And thanks to the Perlmonks who have helped me on my journey toward my goal of achieving programming excellence. I could not keep pushing on this rock without you.

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar Abbot Bishop Pontiff Deacon Curate";
$nysus = $PM . ' ' . $MCF;
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In reply to Holy Crap! Programming Well is Hard Work by nysus

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