User stories/Tickets has been a common theme, Im curious if this work is exclusive to specific set of actions or if you are constantly are having to respond with different sets of data like specific testing notes, PR comments, etc. ?
In most instances you could fill out the story/ticket with successive paragraphs from War and Peace and not one person would ever notice. Mgmt. wants their "required fields" to be non-empty, but not one manager ever checks the actual content of those same fields. And the only report they ever pull to look at is the report of "X is missing content in field Y" report.
I definitely can see the point you are drawing at here, but In cases of code review, testing notes, PR comments - which typically is the bulk of the work in tickets for programmers (-mind you if your team has a PM) this is just not feasible. lol :)
I don't really have a true definition of great in this context, especially since it seems to require a comparison to others or adherence to someones criteria for achievement.
By "great" I really meant reaching a point you've surpassed a threshold you previously thought was your limit. Though I guess also trying to highlight concepts or ideas that, based on peoples personal experience made them feel distinguished from others.
Also was sorta curious to hear from those with the confidence to be attacked online for calling themselves some arbitrary level of skill("Great") felt got them to that point.
I guess I tend to lean towards the growth mindset here. In my personal view and it may just be my own naivety. I do feel general intelligence or in this specific case programming capability can be developed to any level through sheer work and dedication. Not to fall into the first group of people you describe though I feel more of the world's John Carmacks are created through an almost unnatural obsession with failure and the confidence to push forward, rather than being naturally gifted or accustomed to success coming easily to them.
That's what self-help books would like you to believe, yes. But (assuming you are average size) you can always go down to a local bar and pick a fight with a guy twice your size for a reality check. The same principle also applies to brains.
Well there are general studies and cases to support this -- example: Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention.
Though I anticipate this is not really what you are drawing at here.
While I can definitely agree that inherent talents or traits may put an individual ahead of others. I just dont see the scenario where talent beats hard work. Now dont get me wrong Im not trying to imply that a turtle can train to outrun a cheetah, but rather that in the realm of intellectual pursuit, I believe the landscape is significantly more malleable. To me, asserting that talent or intelligence is fixed would imply that knowledge and understanding are also static. Yet our capacity to think, interpret, understand and extrapolate is ever evolving. So I still feel the growth mindset is more closer to the "truth" in the sense that novel thinking and innovation can expand intelligence. Im not looking to deny the existence of innate capabilities but rather draw some emphasis to the potential of persistence and effort in learning.
Do you have any thoughts on what made that one year special? Really with this question I am wondering if this was early on in your learning process? I think a lot of what is frustrating for me at this point, is realizing that a lot of the initial joy I got in learning was almost in a ignorance is bliss phase. Not knowing or even caring to understand best practices or reading/learning documentation. I think back to one of the most fun moments I had early on just being excited and happy I was able to follow a youtube video to create a simple turn based monster vs human game and actually getting it running. Im way past this as far a knowledge base, experience and capability now but am struggling to get that same feeling in new projects.
