Raymond Lewallen

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...

For starters, we are all appreciative of our readers and hope to continue to provide you all with helpful, knowledgeable and dynamic content.  I know there are many, many blogs out there you can go to for tips, tricks, advice, help and information, and we, CodeBetter, are glad that some of you come here.  Unlike many of the sites, you won’t find ads here, we don’t charge anybody and we aren’t trying to make any money or get anything in return from our readers other than your honest and continuous feedback.  We do this for the simple fact we want people to know what we know, in hopes that it will make you a better software developer/database administrator/computer programmer/lingerie supermodel/software architect/monk/systems analyst or whatever your profession may be.

Secondly, to this reader in particular, if you want to write software, then you should.  Everybody learns at a different pace.  There are many different languages out there.  There are databases, business layers, interface layers…. all different aspects of a software lifecyle that you can be involved in.  We’ve all been at the beginning, except maybe Sahil, he came from the womb with the first 2 chapters of his first book already written.  Point is, everybody has a starting point.  Everybody has obstacles to overcome.  Everybody has worked with people who were much better than we are.  We learn from it.  We learn from others.  I can tell you this: working with those people, as long as they are helpful towards you and your questions, is probably the best thing you can be around right now.  They can help guide you and help you make good, smart decisions.  They can explain to you why something doesn’t work or does work the way it has been written.

Best I can tell you is to do what you love.  I’m fortunate enough to get paid to do something that is my biggest hobby – software development.  If I were driving a forklift during the day, I’d still be writing software at home during the night.  I can only hope that someday you find yourself in the same type situation.  Don’t give up; its a long road for everyone, no matter what your level of expertise is.  Technology is ever changing.  3 years ago, there was no such thing as an expert in .Net.

If its what you want to do, stick with it, and always feel free to come to CB and send any one of us an email asking for help or advice.  If we don’t know the answer, we’ll find you someone who does.