On: Fields medalist: Continually aim just beyond your current range

I think the way to translate this principle for hackers is: "Continually aim to be the stupidest person in the room".

If you want to improve quickly you must work on projects with people who have a lot more skill and experience than you do.

As long as you have sufficient ego to not take the experience of being repeatedly outperformed to mean that you suck.

Most programmers are not nearly as good as they think they are. Learning how much you suck at programming is the very first step to getting any good at it.