From: Craig Maloney Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2019 13:32:37 +0000 (-0500) Subject: Third-pass edits on the intro X-Git-Tag: 20200112^2~24 X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=c610a2ddff44a8796e294bb3a26a7b5dad5497fd;p=themediocreprogrammer.git Third-pass edits on the intro --- diff --git a/intro.md b/intro.md index 2424318..6cff918 100644 --- a/intro.md +++ b/intro.md @@ -6,11 +6,13 @@ Let's face it: we don't want to be mediocre programmers. We want to be ``[great| Why would we want to be mediocre programmers? Isn't mediocre the opposite of great? Shouldn't we strive to be great programmers instead? -Sure, we should strive to be great programmers in the long term, but to become great programmers we have to pass through being mediocre programmers first. +Sure, we should strive to be great programmers in the long term, but to become great programmers we have to pass through the mediocre programmer stage first. Mediocre programmers know they're not great programmers (yet). Mediocre programmers see the distance between where they are and the greatness they want in their programming careers. They see the work that goes into a being great programmers and believe that if they do the work they too will become great programmers. -But they also see their own faults and failings. They see their browser history littered with online-searches for basic syntax and concepts. They see their email archives of questions they've asked other programmers. They wince at their code from several months ago and wonder if they'll ever get to be great programmers with all of these mistakes and missteps. They see the gap between them and great programmers, and it feels like the gap widens every step of the way. The mediocre programmer wonders if it's even worth it; if they should do something else with their lives other than computer programming. Maybe they're not as good as they thought they were, or maybe they lack that special talent that great programmers have. Maybe they feel they learned the wrong things early on in their journeys, or maybe they think they should have started sooner. +But they also see their own faults and failings. They see their browser history littered with online-searches for basic syntax and concepts. They see their email archives of questions they've asked other programmers. They wince at their code from several months ago and wonder if they'll ever get to be great programmers with all of these mistakes and missteps. They see the gap between them and great programmers, and it feels like the gap widens every step of the way. + +The mediocre programmer wonders if it's even worth it. They wonder if they should do something else with their lives other than computer programming. Maybe they're not as good as they thought they were, or maybe they lack that special talent that great programmers have. Maybe they feel they learned the wrong things early on in their journeys, or maybe they think they should have started sooner. They see others being wildly successful and wonder if they were absent the day the great programmer genes were handed out. @@ -26,6 +28,6 @@ This book is a personal journey for both of us. It's a memoir of my time as a pr ## Disclaimer -I am not a professional doctor or a therapist. I'm not qualified to give you medical advice. I'm a programmer. Anything that's in this book is given from the perspective of a struggling programmer and should not be taken as medical advice. If you need help from a medical professional please seek out that help (I even wrote an entire chapter about seeking help from others near the end of this book). +I am not a professional doctor or a therapist. I'm not qualified to give you medical advice. I'm a programmer. All of the information in this book is given from the perspective of a struggling programmer and should not be taken as medical advice. If you need help from a medical professional please seek out that help (There is an entire chapter about seeking help from others near the end of this book). Let's begin our journey by figuring out where we are and remembering what lead us to this place.