> And let’s not kid ourselves, very very few people are programmers at the level of a Linus Torvalds, Peter Norvig or Fabrice Bellard. Imagine them telling you that you’re hopeless and you’ll never really get it so you might as well give up now.
I think this is a great point that deserves repeating.
> very few people are programmers at the level of a Linus Torvalds, Peter Norvig or Fabrice Bellard.
I never really thought of Peter Norvig as a 'programmer' in the sense of Linus Torvalds -- I always lumped Norvig more into the high minded computer scientist camp. It seems like the criteria by which one judges success in the two areas are very different.
Putting programmers on a pedestal fits with the YC culture of marketing via lionization of technology personalties, but it's counter-productive if your aim is to actually grow in the field.
Hero worship blinds you to two simple facts, in almost all cases:
- They're not doing anything you couldn't also do if you worked at it as hard as they have.
- Like everyone, they're fallible, making mistakes, and may even not deserve the hero worship being heaped on them. Until you've worked as hard as they have to reach a sufficient level of understanding, you're not going to have as strong of a critical eye for where the erstwhile hero is doing it wrong.
Better to put no-one on a pedestal (least of all yourself).
I'm not putting him on a pedestal at all. He's by objective standards simply one of the best programmers that I know of, just like Usain Bolt is an extremely fast runner.
I'm sorry to disagree but you're wrong. There are better programmers than I, that no matter how hard I work I will never be as good as. Not everyone can be a Mozart or Mozart wouldn't be special.
I think this is a great point that deserves repeating.