There is a perspective shift that comes (usually but not always) with age I think.
When I was younger I got into computer programming, for the first ten years (1987-1997) I thought I was hot shit because I could do things with computers that no-one else I knew could even understand (with the exception of a family friend who was a programmer in aerospace) then I ran into other programmers on-line and realised that there where other much better programmers in the domains I was interested in (strangely I never got into programming games, I always liked utilities and 'productive' stuff).
So I doubled down and resolved to be the best programmer I 'knew' again except this time I knew hundreds or over the years thousands of programmers an impossible treadmill.
Sometime in my late 20's/early 30's (so ~2007-2008) I realised that not only wasn't I ever going to be the best programmer I knew, I really didn't know much about programming in the general sense if you look at the whole field (no-one does really except the odd person) so I re-framed it, I was going to be a better programmer than the me of a year before and focus on the other skills I'd let languish over the years what I'd often derided as 'soft' skills (I don't think I was ever an arse-hole but I was the guy who'd sit in the corner muttering with the headphones blasting thrash metal).
In the end what I realised was that after all this, I like programming, I like providing value and when it comes to work the best thing I can get is feedback from a user whose life I've improved by making whatever I've touched that little bit better.
If I can do that then it was a good day.
The freedom from all this is I learnt to play again, if I'm interested in functional programming I'll go poke at that for a bit, if I'm interested in algorithms I'll go poke around over there - free from the the self-imposed need to compete I get to satisfy my own curiosity and nurture the devs on the team I run.
With 7 billion people on the planet it's statistically unlikely you are ever going to be the best and even if you are it's likely in only one dimension.
I noticed that the programmers I normally really admire are all older than me and seem to be excited/happy about technology and wondered how they kept that enthusiasm for so long in an industry where so many seem miserable and I think I can hazard a guess now.
Oh and because the universe loves a punchline, I have a dev on my team now who is determined to prove himself the best programmer, never says a word and listens to thrash metal all day while muttering, he's talented so I'm curious to see how he figures it out.
When I was younger I got into computer programming, for the first ten years (1987-1997) I thought I was hot shit because I could do things with computers that no-one else I knew could even understand (with the exception of a family friend who was a programmer in aerospace) then I ran into other programmers on-line and realised that there where other much better programmers in the domains I was interested in (strangely I never got into programming games, I always liked utilities and 'productive' stuff).
So I doubled down and resolved to be the best programmer I 'knew' again except this time I knew hundreds or over the years thousands of programmers an impossible treadmill.
Sometime in my late 20's/early 30's (so ~2007-2008) I realised that not only wasn't I ever going to be the best programmer I knew, I really didn't know much about programming in the general sense if you look at the whole field (no-one does really except the odd person) so I re-framed it, I was going to be a better programmer than the me of a year before and focus on the other skills I'd let languish over the years what I'd often derided as 'soft' skills (I don't think I was ever an arse-hole but I was the guy who'd sit in the corner muttering with the headphones blasting thrash metal).
In the end what I realised was that after all this, I like programming, I like providing value and when it comes to work the best thing I can get is feedback from a user whose life I've improved by making whatever I've touched that little bit better.
If I can do that then it was a good day.
The freedom from all this is I learnt to play again, if I'm interested in functional programming I'll go poke at that for a bit, if I'm interested in algorithms I'll go poke around over there - free from the the self-imposed need to compete I get to satisfy my own curiosity and nurture the devs on the team I run.
With 7 billion people on the planet it's statistically unlikely you are ever going to be the best and even if you are it's likely in only one dimension.
I noticed that the programmers I normally really admire are all older than me and seem to be excited/happy about technology and wondered how they kept that enthusiasm for so long in an industry where so many seem miserable and I think I can hazard a guess now.
Oh and because the universe loves a punchline, I have a dev on my team now who is determined to prove himself the best programmer, never says a word and listens to thrash metal all day while muttering, he's talented so I'm curious to see how he figures it out.