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I really like this quote. It succinctly summarizes what being a programmer is for me. However I would like to add to it that you have to know what to ask when you get stuck.

When I try and learn something and then get to the point where I know what questions to ask, that is when I know that I have learned something.

If you’re staring at a problem and you don’t know what it is or how to describe it then you can not progress, but that is how you progress. You try and fail and ask yourself why you failed. Building on failures is a slow way to progress, but gradually those failures becomes knowledge and it gets easier to progress.

When I learn a new language, tool, library or feature my knowledge gets me going quicker. It doesn’t necessarily bring me the whole way home each time, sometimes you really have to learn something new, but looking at that thing that I know that I don’t know is what gives me confidence in feeling that I will learn it.




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