Beginners and experts (Batchelder blog post)

[Bill]

Paul Moore wrote:
> On 27 September 2017 at 17:41, leam hall <leamhall at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hehe...I've been trying to figure out how to phrase a question. Knowing I'm
>> not the only one who gets frustrated really helps.
>>
>> I'm trying to learn to be a programmer. I can look at a book and read basic
>> code in a few languages but it would be unfair to hire myself out as a
>> programmer. I'm just not yet worth what it costs to pay my bills.
> You're already ahead of the game in wanting to be useful, rather than
> just knowing the jargon :-) However, I've always found that the
> biggest asset a programmer can have is the simple willingness to
> learn.

I basically agree with what has been posted. I just wanted to mention a 
couple things that separates beginners and non-beginners. One is "how 
long it takes to identify and fix an error"--even a syntax error. And 
that is a skill which is acquired with some practice, maybe more "some" 
than anyone likes. Another critical skill is the ability to write good 
documentation--from program requirements, on down. Another is to know 
what is means to "test". Another is to have some familiarity with the 
UML.  Skills in 3 of these 4 area might be assisted by reading about 
software engineering.  So after you have those skills, then, perhaps, 
you can think about "interviewing"--of course a degree will help.  As 
always, your mileage may vary...  It IS True that you don't have to wait 
until you "know everything"--most of use will never get there.