While kicking around in the "Chatterbox" last night I discovered there are quite a number of boy-geniuses wandering around PM. (It's my understanding they don't like to be labeled "genius", so I won't name any names.) These pre and barely pubescent teens can code circles around the likes of me. Check out 87240 and you'll see an example of a boy wonder figuring out out in 5 minutes what I couldn't given an hour's worth of time.

My point is that programming, especially Perl programming it seems, attracts some extremely gifted individuals. And I'm just wondering how other "regular" folk, like me, find ways to compete with this kind of talent. I imagine it could get a little discouraging to see a kid fresh off the street writing the equivalent of Shakespearean Perl while you pound out some excellent but rather trite, magazine-quality style that took you 5 years to develop. On the flip side, I'm sure it's also frustrating for the wunderkind to try to find a way to fit in. So how does this all play out in the real-world? I'm interested to know.

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar";
$nysus = $PM . $MCF;

In reply to What if you are not a genius? by nysus

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