5 ms·

You've been coding for 10 years and you're a sophomore?! I'm a sophomore at 19yrs old and that would mean I would have to have been coding since age 9...

• dshipper 15y ago
  Yup I'm 20 and started when I was 10. It's been a good 10 years :)
  • Tyrant505 15y ago
    Do any other beginners / wannabies get really depressed when hearing about such a head start? :) Keep rocking.
    • mgkimsal 15y ago
      10 years doesn't necessarily mean all that much. You might have only 3-4 years of experience, but if it's good experience, it'll beat the pants off 10 years of crap experience. Not saying anything about dshipper's situation, just in general length of time doing something doesn't necessarily make you that much better. I say this as someone who's been working with software for 30 years, professionally for 17 years. I've gotten a lot better over the 17 years, thanks to many of the experiences and time I spent learning things. I've also been playing guitar for over 20 years, and am still pretty lousy at that. :)
      • dshipper 15y ago
        Agree completely - the length of time has nothing to do with the quality of your work. I have a friend who started coding a year ago and is in YC right now as the main technical founder. I'd say I've learned more about entrepreneurship and coding in the past year than I did over the past 4-5 combined.
        • realitygrill 15y ago
          How'd he manage that? It's quite impressive.
          • dshipper 15y ago
            Hard work and willingness to put himself out there.
    • koko775 15y ago
      Don't be too depressed. I've been programming in some measure since I was ~4, and I'm 23 now. Many of those years were me slowly teaching myself, because I had no mentors. It's really not about time, it's about projects and people. You learn by doing, not by time spent. Don't worry about it.
      • tonecluster 15y ago
        Good point. I've been programming since the age of 9, and I'm well into my 40s. What that statement doesn't say is that for some of those years I learned very little (even though I was spending some of that time coding, I wasn't really "doing" anything; I.e., wasn't learning). What really matters is doing quality work, making quality mistakes (so to speak), and learning from that and from other good engineers around you.
    • MortenK 15y ago
      Don't be. Coding at age 10/5/2/whatever is usually copying straight off books, and/or devising the most simple and crude software. It's no indicator of future ability, and frankly it usually is mentioned as a form of adolescent chest thumbing. Just keep programming, you'll catch up in no time.