Open thread, Sept. 1-7, 2014

polymathwannabe

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Notes for future OT posters:

1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.

2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one.

3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.

4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.

"If you're not at the leading edge of some rapidly changing field, you can get to one. For example, anyone reasonably smart can probably get to an edge of programming (e.g. building mobile apps) in a year." - Paul Graham in http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

I'd love to hear some actual programmers' opinions about this claim.

I would estimate that to be good at programming in general, you need 10+ years of practice. After that, to become good at something new, e.g. building mobile apps, 1 year should be enough.

But it depends on how much time can you spend learning. Can you spend all your days learning? Or does your daily job take most of your energy and time, and then you have to split the remaining time between learning the new thing and having a social life? The 1 year estimate is for the best case.

For example, when I started learning programming as a teenager, I had a lot of... (read more)

3NancyLebovitz12y

If you want to make great/lucrative aps, how hard is the programming compared to other sorts of programming?

1chaosmage12y

Of all the smart and dedicated programmers I know, I'm confident not one would claim to have been any good in under five years of practice. If you pick a tiny area of expertise, say coding modifications of existing apps using one particular API using two or three particular libraries, you could probably be producing publishable results in a year. But you won't be as efficient, and won't have the same job security (because the market changes so quickly) as the guys who put in the years to learn to think like a programmer.