[kafkaesq]

Working with smart people who were kind enough to point out the deficiencies in my early and crude approaches

This point cannot be underemphasized.

There's no end of stuff you can read online about better practices, these days. But those experience I had working with people who, without so much taking "pity" on me, took me seriously, despite my obvious naivete in certain areas - I'm not sure whether I would have gotten anywhere at all without them.