"Damn. It's been 20 years. I feel like I should be a coding God now. It's funny because I don't expect myself to be Shakespeare just because I've been writing words my whole life..."
Thats actually a good point, why do we have this assumption in tech?
I think some people can actually achieve continual improvement if they can master reflective/deliberate practice. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of what the discrete components of my coding are. Do I judge my functions, files, PRs?
In writing this comment, I think doing a short code review of what I produced in the last session might make sense. The more quickly I advance at some skill, the more quickly I can add/tweak my code review.
From my understanding and experience, that sort of reflection on each output of skillful work turbo charges improvement. I did it at a phone center job, where I kept a spreadsheet with a prediction of what service rating the customer would give me, and a short blurb of what I did well and what I could improve. That seriously blasted me to the top. This also worked when I was in a band. When rehearsing, we would play through our set in full while recording, then afterwards we would immediately run to the computer to listen back and discuss what to work on. Within weeks we were able to meet our goal of playing with our main influence, a band called Protomartyr.
Thats actually a good point, why do we have this assumption in tech?