¿Soy un buen programador?

Esta es una pregunta que seguramente todo programador se hace a lo largo de su vida más de una vez (yo diría que por lo menos una vez por año). Desgraciadamente, el vertiginoso ritmo de la informática origina un “estado de ansiedad” que te hace pensar que no sabes nada, lo cual, en realidad, es verdad. Pero una vez que se asume eso, el siguiente “estado de ansiedad” lo causa la sensación de que tu amigo o compañero de trabajo sí que sabe, lo cual, en realidad, es mentira.

En el artículo Overcoming Impostor lo explican muy bien. Dos párrafos que definen muy bien la causa de este problema y de otros problemas de la informática:

There are two characteristics of coding that can make programmers feel like they’re really struggling, when actually they could be doing just fine. The first thing with programming is that you’re almost guaranteed to have to learn new things as you’re doing it. The rate at which technology is changing is incredible. This can have the effect that one is constantly feeling behind, and that there is an ever-growing amount of stuff to learn.

The second characteristic that’s somewhat unique to programming is that it consists of near constant failure. Unlike learning other skills where one can expect to be reasonably competent after sufficient practice, programming largely consists of constantly failing, trying some things, failing some more, and trying more things until it works. One of the biggest differences between experienced and novice programmers is that experienced programmers know more things to try. Watching people who are just starting to code made me realize how extremely defeating this phenomenon can be.