I have a programming-related problem, and if you guys could help me out, I'd be forever grateful.
I used to program a lot, and made complex stuff without much trouble. For some reason, I stopped programming and thinking about programming and algorithms for a while, almost a year now. Now, I feel that I want to get back to programming and do what I used to do, but for some reason I can't.
I try to read my old source code, but I can't even wrap my head around the hacks and techniques I used before, it just blows right over my head. I try to read about the things I used before, but now I can't even begin to understand those things that seem to have had come so easily before.
I'm scared that I'm getting stupider, /prog/, and that I won't be able to program anymore like I used to. It's not so bad seeing that I regressed, as that is expected if I didn't program for an entire year, but what makes me depressed is that I can't seem to recover from it, that I seem to be stuck in a state of less understanding.
My question is this: Have any of you guys ever had a similar experience/feeling? How did you overcome it and get back to your hobby and passion? I would really appreciate any help you guys have to offer.
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Anonymous2013-07-14 23:54
It happened to me.
What I did to remedy this was to have sex with a black woman.
I'm really nervous and worried, I don't want to be like this forever
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Anonymous2013-07-15 0:19
yeah, it's mostly because your old code is shit & you really didn't have an understanding of the concepts.
I'd suggest sitting down and learn this shit for real instead of checking the box ( ☑ ) whilst attending class with a hangover.
PHP is shit for many reasons, but mostly due to developer arrogance.
"It's so shit I never have to learn to use this incredibly simple language to get my job done!"
So goes the average BS developer, a deviant who wishes to suck the .NET corporate cock or take it up the ass with Ruby or Python. PHP is too low-brow for him! Give him ultimate freedom and watch him flounder about, gasping for answers from StackOverflow.
The problem mainly comes from the underestimation of our abilities and skillset. That fatfuck spic that works at the local convenience store cannot even imagine how complex the technology underlying his iPhone facebook creep campaigns involves. His fatfuck fingers manipulate his fatfuck iPhone (in a half-assed effort to 'get chicks with status symbols'), not even aware that you decided to use a RESTful API to deliver his nudie pics.
If you can program, I assume you are of a higher caliber.
That is a good idea, it would serve me well to sit down and try to re-learn programming and CS from the ground up rather than continue from where I have left off.
I used to program a lot in x86 assembler and pure C, and had great fun with it. Now, even basic concepts like the stack and heap, and how stack frames work completely elude me, and I feel that I'm stupider than I was before.
I try to be as humble and not arrogant as much as possible, trying to learn everything I can, because more knowledge can't hurt you right?
I don't know, maybe I just need more time to ease myself back into the programmer's mindset, but I can't stop worrying that I may never be able to do it, and that I may never be able to read my old code to learn from my mistakes
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Anonymous2013-07-15 0:38
>>5
I bet you're a virgin, in addition to being a scared bitch. Who cares? When you finally get paid for your programming talents, are you really performing at the top of your talent? Fuck no. You're making changes to C# code so that salesmen get their leads. You're putting up kludge fixes for JS that you found on Stackoverflow.
You save the best criticism and the most judgement for your personal projects, things that you pour your passion into. Fuck everyone else.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 0:45
>>6
Yes, I am a virgin, and yes, I am a scared bitch, but I don't see how that relates to what I'm trying to ask
I know that a real programming job wouldn't be that hard to get and do, as most enterprise code doesn't have complex calculations and concepts that require significant amounts of thinking.
I am saying this for my personal projects actually, and it worries me that even though I'm putting in my 100% into my pet projects just like I did one year ago, I'm getting fewer results and fewer "enlightening experiences" out of my work today than back then, and that scares me, because I don't know if I'm losing my knack for these things.
Yes, I could just be a Java/SQL code monkey and still make a good load of money as I stand right now, but there would be no fun in that, and I can't imagine living a fulfilling life without following my passions.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 0:53
>>7
You're not 'losing your knack', you just don't remember where you got the solutions from!
Similar to >>4 If your old code is not understandable or using hacks, it's probably not very good.
I don't think you've gotten any stupider. You just didn't comment that code very well, and it's probably way more convoluted than it has to be. Remember, just because something works doesn't mean it's a good solution.
Hacks are also not good, you should be doing things in a supported way to avoid headaches later. If you have to using an undocumented or unsupported way of doing things you probably haven't thought about the situation long enough, or the tools you are using to accomplish it are inappropriate.
I doubt you lost any skills. Only knowledge is lost over time, usually.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 1:15
>>10
Thanks anon, that's comforting to hear. I will try to avoid hacks and add more documentation in my learning process.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 1:35
Falling back is a good thing, you stop being a novice who thinks he is a master, and start anew as a beginner who thinks he is shittier than a normal beginner. That's a massive improvement.
I got burnt out from dealing with bullshite, and started thinking about programming without very little actual programming for about two years now, and I can still comprehend every piece of craps I've written, including ugly hacks that everyone would be ashamed of writing them.
Understanding is never lost. If you understand something by heart, you will eventually get it again the moment you have to use it. Maybe your problem is that you actually just vaguely understood what you did.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 1:46
i vageuly undrtand your mom's anus
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Anonymous2013-07-15 2:19
>>1
If you know the person that brought moderation here, could you kindly hit ey in the face with a shovel?
Now that that is taken care of, consider the following. Your old code sounds like undocumented garbage. Good code is readable and takes 5 seconds to understand why it is correct, even if you aren't the person that wrote it. Being able to write and come up to speed with well written code is more valuable than being able to trace horrible code. The latter is a test of understanding of the machine model, while the first is a test of creating complex things that will work as intended.
>>4
The problem mainly comes from the underestimation of our abilities and skillset. That fatfuck burger eater that eats at the local McDonalds cannot even imagine how complex the technology underlying his big mac involves. His fatfuck fingers manipulate his fatfuck burger bun (in a half-assed effort to 'get chicks with status symbols'), not even aware that you decided to cum on his patty to deliver his favorite brand of mayonnaise.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 8:50
Thats a lesson to learn to Document the Code
1.document ALL your code.A Single comment is not sufficient
2.IF you use some hack or optimization, document
2.1.where you got the idea
2.2. whats the algorithm used
2.3. what all parameters mean
2.4. what is different from standard solution
If you follow this, even most nasty code can be deciphered.
I know i've made the same mistake a few times, but i could decipher with difficulty what it was. If you lack the documentation, its going to be like reverse engineering algorithms, slowly deobfuscating them.
OP, ALL WHAT >>15 SAID. And keep a journal and diary too. Have at the least 5 notebooks (digital or real) to copy anything that goes by your head. You will not regret it.
My motivation comes form doing things which are needed to be done. Find you motivation for programming, and write it down. Keep doing it as a religion at the least once every hour. It takes discipline, and courage.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 11:36
>>15 >>16
I think the biggest thing that I didn't do well before was documentation. I like the organization and notebook ideas, those will help me a lot, thanks!
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Anonymous2013-07-15 12:32
>>14
I'd like to use ey as an ey to push thy face into ey toilet for use of thy bullshit made-up personal pronoun. "They" works fine for gender-neutral use. Everyone uses it except thee. But of course it wouldn't allow thee to jump up and down shouting "Look at mey, I'm diffeyrent! I am culturally- and socially- and possibly medically-constructed wymon, hear me RoR!" Ey yourself.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 12:55
>>16
more like time and boredom, with a pinch of determination.
>>17
I second the journal recommendation. I do what looks like a creative writing warm up every time I'm starting a new project, or if I encounter a hard choice that requires weighing out a lot of options.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 17:06
>>18
I hate gender (as well as most of human culture) and I don't like the way "they" sounds. That being said, I don't find any of the relatively new gender-neutral pronouns that smooth either.
Also >>14 misused the "ey" pronoun set, it should have been "em" in the first paragraph.