On Being Mediocre - 15 May 2015
I am a mediocre programmer. For right now at least. Often I’ll find something that completely blows my mind, or I’ll discover a project someone else is doing and I’ll be amazed at what it does. There are so many things I don’t even know exist that people are experts on. When you find those things they can make you feel mediocre, like you are so far away from that thing that just blew your mind.
As you get further along, getting better, getting more experience, and gaining knowledge, some things will be easier than they were before. You will understand the ins and outs of a project or tool and it won’t seem as daunting or impossible as it once did. You can read it’s source code, understand how the pieces are put together and come to realize flaws or weaknesses. There are some programmers out there that are building this software, and the things they work on are things that other people owe their livelihoods. Can I make a claim like that? Probably not. Definitely not.
It makes you feel mediocre. Use it, relish in it, make it push you to be better. It’s OK to have rolemodels. Even if they are programmers. Writing software can make you feel like you are on a rollercoaster, which is why some people find it addictive. When you make something that works and was coded well it feels great, and when you hear your first bug report it’s feels terrible. Being mediocre is alright, it means you know you want to get better. It’s something every great learner has within them. As long as you don’t let it freeze you to the ground and instead let it push you to greater things than you can even realize right now.