[throwaway88p]

I don't think I'm stupid, but I do believe that most people have a sort of "ceiling" in regards to their capabilities, intellectual or otherwise. I'm mostly curious about what to do when those something they're interested in's fall outside of your capability.

[ci5er]

This is interesting to me. I used to be very "into" agent-based computation economics - trying to synthesize macro from micro. And small-worlds neetworks and the intersection, and a a fair amount of systems biology.

After a blow to the head that caused some noticable brain damage and loss of IQ points, I'm still interested, but it's a LOT harder! I remember thinking much vaster thoughts than I can think now.

Which sucks, actually. But I don't actually know what I can and cannot do, or what I am not willing to work hard enough to achieve, because before, I didn't ever have to work for it, you know?

Programming itself, though, say Genetic Programming or embedded systems for video codec for satellites or the such is still simple enough, so I guess I should be grateful for that! :-)

[t-writescode]

When it comes to recognizing patterns in programming and such, I have a couple questions:

* did you ever go to college for programming? if not, a lot of the 'patterns' people see were beaten into their heads in college, so that's something that can be helped :)

* have you ever done competitive programming, like TopCoder problems (the old ones. Last I checked, TopCoder has gotten WAY over my head and probably a lot of other people's heads, too)?

Doing programming problems can be a great way to flex those muscles and see common patterns in code and problems you need to solve. It might be able to really help you :)

Topcoder is the one a lot of people know, but there's others out there. I kinda liked this one, and it's used as a recruiting tool, too: https://app.codility.com/programmers/

[throwaway88p]

Never went to school, i did have an brief experience with competitive programming back in HS, but didn't do very well.

[t-writescode]

Oh! Well then there you go! Let's get you sitting down and doing algorithm stuff! It may help you a ton! Honestly, it's a lot of boring stuff, but the idea is to get your brain thinking in a different way :)

[bachmeier]

You wrote "writing and maintaining simple CRUD apps, and to be honest I hate it. Its mind numbingly boring and I certainly dont want to spend my life doing that".

This has nothing to do with hitting the ceiling of your capabilities. You don't like the things you're doing. I don't even see any reason to say you don't like programming, just that you don't like what you're doing now.

[thaumasiotes]

> You wrote "writing and maintaining simple CRUD apps, and to be honest I hate it. Its mind numbingly boring and I certainly dont want to spend my life doing that".

> This has nothing to do with hitting the ceiling of your capabilities.

He also wrote "I fail to understand, fail to recognize patterns, am too slow to understand simple concepts and never retain anything. Occasionally understand the individual concepts of something but then her completely lost when they're all combined in some applied method."

[bachmeier]

That follows from the part I quoted. It would be very unusual for someone to be good at a task they know they don't want to do and that they find mind numbingly boring.

[thaumasiotes]

No it wouldn't. That's the entire concept of working on an assembly line.

Whether you're good at something is not strongly related to whether you like doing it.

[fatbybaileys]

It might not be so strongly related in contexts like assembly lines where the skill involved is either minimal or extremely easy to acquire (e.g. learn how to operate machine or follow a 3-step quality inspection), not to mention the repetition involved which kind of guarantees that anyone will eventually 'get the hang of it'. If my job was one task, I'd get good at after some time even if I hate.

In contrast, being good at jobs that require 'thinking slow' (reference to Daniel Kahneman's book) and creating solutions to new problems every single day usually require motivation or perseverance if you wish. These are more or less measures of interest and if you don't agree, then they are at least strongly related to interest.

[liendolucas]

> have a sort of "ceiling" in regards to their capabilities, intellectual or otherwise.

I refuse to believe that. It depends how much motivation, discipline and perseverance you have. The human mind is capable of anything! If there's something that you think it falls your capacity is because you haven't put considerable effort on the task that you're trying to achieve. And if you think you have set a truly high bar, then try achieving less intimidating tasks, even if you aren't successful for the original task you've set for the learning journey can even be more rewarding.

[swiftcoder]

Outside an actual developmental disorder, I wouldn't really agree with this statement. Engineering is certainly easier for some people than for others, but the ones to whom it comes easy don't always make the best engineers. I've known several successful engineers who really struggled in the early stages of their education/career, but stuck it out through some combination of drive and stubbornness.

[t-writescode]

And they're way better at the get-stuff-done style of the world.

I'm one of those people who doesn't have trouble understanding things, but a LOT of trouble doing things and I look at the people that have the grit to just push forward and man, I envy their work ethic and focus. It's incredible, truly, how it seems like they can just keep plowing through rough stuff and come out with a solution that works.

It may not be the pie-in-the-sky prettiest; but, it works. It works well enough; and, if you're at a small company, it may have literally saved your business.