More about breaks

[themediocreprogrammer.git] / chapter01.md

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 ## The Gap
 
-I've chosen the word "gap" to describe the difference between where you are now and where you think you should be for good reason. A gap tends to be something imposed by others, whether by force or by neglect. If you have a gap in a fence it means the fence seems weaker because if the missing slats. A gap can also be something that one would need to be aware of. "Mind the gap" is a phrase that was coined in the late 1960s by the London Underground to warn folks about the space between the platform and the train cars that could lead to an unsafe situation.
+I've chosen the word "gap" to describe the difference between where you are now and where you think you should be for good reason. A gap tends to be something imposed by others, whether by force or by neglect. If you have a gap in a fence it means the fence seems weaker because of the missing slats. A gap can also be something that one would need to be aware of. "Mind the gap" is a phrase that was coined in the late 1960s by the London Underground to warn folks about the space between the platform and the train cars that could lead to an unsafe situation.
 
 The gap in this case is the distance in our current abilities and where we think we should be. Sometimes they are self-imposed but more often they are externally imposed. Often they are the result of a changing industry or changing priorities and it is our job as programmers to adapt to those changes.
 
@@ -52,3 +52,5 @@ Of those three options it's the third option that makes the most sense. Taking a
 With this measured and gradual approach we also gain the wisdom that gaps don't have to be closed. We can allow ourselves to keep learning in the areas that we need to and gradually build up our skills. We can realize that closing the gap is an illusion. We can only become more expert in whatever topic we chose to learn.
 
 ## The Journey is the Reward
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+The secret to moving forward in our journey as programmers and developers is to realize that each step we take along that path is valuable and worthy of our attention. Just because we haven't learned the latest technology in a fortnight doesn't mean we should give up trying. Nor does learning a technology only to watch it be completely overshadowed by something else mean that our learning time was wasted. Every challenge we face, every technology we learn, and every hour we spend coding is another step on our journey to becoming better programmers. Each mistake and wrong turn introduces us to opportunities to learn from those mistakes and grow as programmers and developers. There is no perfect path toward becoming better at this stuff, and even if there were I'm sure we could point to any point in our past and say that it was less than perfect. Carving the perfect path from where we are to where we wish to be is not possible. Worse, it is an illusion that keeps us from moving forward in our daily practice of programming and developing. It may seem trite to say "the journey is the reward" but each day we work as a programmer and developer is one day closer to shoring up those gaps in our knowledge and becoming more content with how our skills are growing.