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Home > Archive > Programming Forum > April 2004 > Advice To Budding Programmers
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Advice To Budding Programmers
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| I read a book a long time ago called "The Divine Proportion: A Study In Mathematical Beauty", by H.E. Huntley. In the introduction on pp. 3-4, he gives the following advice to aspiring mathematicians (although I think it applies to coders just as well):
1) The burden of hard mental concentration is sine qua non. You may find that you have to live with a problem night and day for weeks, giving all you have of mental resources in order to solve it: no inspiration without perspiration.
2) Your best efforts may be fruitless. Despite extravagant expenditure of time and skill, the result is nil. Dissapointment, frustration and near-despair are common experiences of serious mathematicians.
3) You may be lonely. Scarcely anyone will apprciate your work because few will be capable of understanding it.
4) The results you do obtain will always appear to be disproportionately meager with the effort you expended to produce them: "The mountain laboured and brought forth a mouse."
If you want to be a programmer (or a mathematician), you have to be OK with the above conditions. The primary burden of learning is on *you*, not others. You have to work hard and never give up and not be put off by failure. That's just the way it is. No one else can do it for you anymore than someone ese can lose wight for you. Now, if you will keep the above in mind and are obsessive enough to be determined to accomplish things without regard to these obstacles, you will have plenty of company and the reward will be the work itself. But you must work . . . HARD!!! | |
| azimuth40 2004-04-16, 6:31 pm |
| Words to live by. 
What is it they say, you will write 100 lines of code to get 1 line of usable code, that is on an exceptional day. | |
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| That's it. Just thought I would share it with potential coders. | |
| BOOOOZE 2004-04-18, 4:19 pm |
| nice, ill remember that.. |
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