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Raymond Lewallen

Framework Design, Agile Coach, President Oklahoma City Developers Group, Microsoft MVP C#, TDD, Continuous Integration, Patterns and Practices, Domain Driven Design, Speaker, VB.Net, C# and Sql Server

How to tell if you're a good programmer

I play the guitar. I've been playing for awhile and I don't suck and am a pretty good rhythm player, but I can't make money doing it either. I am also right handed, so I play the guitar right handed. Now if you play the guitar and don't think you are any good at it, just try turning the guitar over and playing it with your other hand, or left hand in my case. You're much better than you thought you were, aren't you?

What would an analogy be for this in the software development world, or is there one?


Comments

Geoff Appleby said:

I can program in VB.net AND C#! Does that work? :)
# February 17, 2005 2:36 PM

Brian Beatty said:

I had a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 in 1977, when I was 7. I could program basic back then. does that count?
# February 17, 2005 2:41 PM

Scott Galloway said:

Try writing a fairly complex program in Notepad...
# February 17, 2005 2:41 PM

Frans Bouma said:

I play guitar and I'm damn good at it ;) but I can't play one chord lefthanded (I'm righthanded).

Though, I get the analogy but I don't agree. At the uni during my CS cource, I got around 15 different program languages, even had to create my own (and have created several after the uni). I can switch language without a problem. The thing is: programming is not language-bound: programming is about algorithms, functionality mapping onto executable constructs. The transformation of those to computer language is one which can even be done by a computer program :).

Playing a guitar lefthanded when you're righthanded and then seeing you suck at it has more to do with the tools you've to work with then: use notepad for writing your large enterprise asp.net application instead of vs.net ;)
# February 17, 2005 2:43 PM

Raymond Lewallen said:

I see what you are saying Frans. However, there was nothing for you to disagree with. I merely asked if there was an analogy, I was not claiming to have provided one. I certainly do agree with you though. It has to do with the tools you've been provided to accomplish a task. Like asking a piano player to compose a piece of music and play it on the guitar. The piano player could probably compose some beautiful music and play it wonderfully on the piano, but can't get out a single Cmaj7 chord.
# February 17, 2005 3:36 PM

Patrik said:

The same thing would be to turn you keybord and mouse around and then work as usual.
# February 18, 2005 12:07 AM

Peter van Ooijen said:

Like the analogy. May I present a milder variation: tune you guitar different (say open G) or take another instrument like a mandolin, bass, bouzouki or anything else with plucked strings.
How does that sound ?
# February 18, 2005 3:36 AM

Ryan said:

Hi! Thank you so much for this blog....I've learned so much from you guys...I'm a programmer...having problems...in considering myself..if I'm a good programmer or not...I always compare myself to my colleagues...they are really good in programming and switching languages...I always try to do their programs...and when i fail running it I always feel disappointed and tend to think that I'm not a good programmer and I should give up in this course...
# March 16, 2005 3:03 AM

Raymond Lewallen said:

Ryan, don't give up, thats for sure. And if you ever have any questions and want any of us to post about any particular topic, please let us know and any one of us will be more than happy to help you out :)
# March 16, 2005 5:03 AM

Ryan said:

Hi! thank you very much Sir! I will not give up....I know, if I just continue reading & learning...ahm continue practicing....I just have to overcome some problems regarding on reading materials...because books here are really expensive....ahm I'm currently working as an Oracle Forms & reports programmer here....and also self-studying in java...ahm because those languages are in-demand here...thank you very much again Sir!
# March 21, 2005 6:42 PM

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About Raymond Lewallen

Working primarily in the public sector during his career, Raymond has designed and built several high profile enterprise level applications for all levels of the government. Raymond now works as a solutions architect for EMC. Raymond is an agile coach, Microsoft MVP C# and also president of the Oklahoma City Developers Group and Oklahoma Agile Developers Group. Raymond spends a lot of his time learning and teaching such things as Test Driven Development, Domain Driven Design, Design Patterns and Extreme Programming practices and principles, to name a few. Raymond is also an advocate of Alt.Net. Raymond is primarily a framework guy, so don't ask him anything about UI :) Check out Devlicio.us!