[InfinityX0]

"Every programmer I've known thought he was a super hacker by the time he got out of college. Me included."

This is referred to in the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquistion. It refers to a space in time where we are advanced enough to not be a novice, but not advanced to realize our own lack of expertise. Merlinn Mann refers to it as being an "advanced beginner". The problem with this stage is that's it's impossible to rationalize until you've escaped it - that or you use metacognition - with awareness of said likely ineptitude because of posts like this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisit...

[X-Istence]

I believed I was a super hacker when I got out of high school, it wasn't till I got to college (and after stubbornly admitting my teacher in HS was right) that I realised I wasn't and that my code sucked. Now I am out of college, I am in a real life working job, and I've received praise from my peers for the code I have written. Yes, getting told that your code sucks is good, it is even more awesome to get told by a veteran in the industry that your code is pretty good and easily maintainable.