On role models.

[dsrtao]

My office mate is an uberprogrammer. I am merely competent, and that in just a handful of languages. I just observed that they mere fact of knowing that he would look at and probably use my code made me do a better job than I might have otherwise.

(I astounded one of our newer colleagues a few days ago by mentioning that I was only adequate as a programmer. "Don't you need to be a programmer to be a sysadmin?" No, you simply have to have a solid grounding in programming basics. Actual development experience is not necessary. The ability to memorize and grok complex abstract semi-hierarchical relationships, on the other hand, is key.

Comments

[jtdiii.livejournal.com]

Years ago at Raytheon, one of the principle engineers came in to talk to me and in the course of our discussion I mentioned a library of widgets I had crafted. He took one look at them and the things they could do, and in about 15 min had created several conglomerations of them that solved several problems he was facing. I would never have thought of combining them in the manner he had, but he told me to keep writing the widgets and to mail him copies as I completed them.

[jducoeur]

This is part of why pair-programming is effective. It's not often talked about, but the simple act of having someone looking over your shoulder is a *powerful* disincentive to make the kinds of shortcuts that most programmers do routinely...