[nirvana]

I know my code isn't good enough, and I've been programming for about 30 years! Not only that, my code isn't good enough, but I'm a great programmer.

I might be making some wrong assumptions, but I think the people whose code is really bad are the ones who think their code is good enough, or the ones who just code quickly without thinking. (I tend to think quite a bit and then code. In fact for the particular project I'm on right now, I'm doing a lot of thinking because I know the current architecture is not good enough. IT would be pointless to start writing code and then try to bash into shape- like building a stone bridge and then realizing you need a 57 chevy. No matter how much you take a hammer to that bridge it is never going to look like a 57 chevy.)

When I go back and look at code I did in the past, without having looked at it awhile, I see that it is really quite brilliant. I bet you'll see this in your code to. The thing is, the other person-- other's code, or your past code- is written when they have the full context of whats' being written in mind at the time they're writing it, and in the process of understanding their code you're going to see how their solution is more elegant than the naive solution you might have tried if you tried to write it just now.

Code takes thinking and refinement... and doing either will make code look better, and may be the source of your insecurity.

But, if your code really isn't "good enough", then maybe the issue is that your idea of "good enough" is too good. If its never going to be re-used, does it need to be reusable? If its not going to need constant maintenance, does it need to be beautiful? I have some code that I look at very, very rarely. Its in production, being used by customers every day, lots of customers. I know it is junk because at the time I wrote it, I was attempting to pull off a massive effort to get a product done. But the code isn't' throwing exceptions, it doesn't have bugs, and the customers are asking for new features, not fixes. So, I know its is ugly, I remember how ugly it was at the time, and every time I do have to go in I clean up bits and pieces of it. But it is working great... it is doing everything it should be.

And so, that code really shouldn't be good enough... because the time making it "good enough" is wasted time. If I wasn't the solo programmer on that project, then other programmers would likely work with me to clean it up... that's natural... but in startup land, sometimes ugly code that is solid is going to remain ugly code, because the point here is building a company.

Do you want a cathedral of very pretty code? Or do you want to build a startup?

I don't mean to denigrate your feelings... I think that your desire to improve is a good thing. I think the best thing you could do is to learn another language. (I'm just guessing that at 4-5 years you've probably really used one language a lot and 1-2 others a little bit.) Learning something radically different can improve you a lot. I'd recommend erlang (but I always recommend erlang.. it is the manly language that will make you a man (or woman))... or maybe you could use some scripting chops or whatever. Pick something out of your comfort zone, even if your'e going to be writing in your main language for a long time coming.

Knowing that other language will help you write better in your current language, and I think it will make you appreciate what you're writing in your current language better as well. I could be completely wrong here, but the best bang for the buck for me has been when I went outside my comfort zone and learned a very different language.

Finally, humans are bred, via natural selection, to have a certain amount of insecurity. We're supposed to fear that we're inadequate as it produces a wariness that helped keep us from being eaten by predators in the past.

Use it to keep you motivated to do better, but always make sure you're focusing on the right "Better". EG: IF you're in a startup, better is faster growth for the startup, not pretty code, though the latter can help the former.

Worse is when you worry too much about not being good enough and really end up not being good enough.

[keithpeter]

"The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority."

Dunning-Kruger effect, and it is the same in most professions where 'performance' can be a subjective judgement. Teaching, definitely!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

[sp332]

And Impostor Syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

[rfergie]

The Dunning Kruger effect is talked about a lot on here.

More recent research casts doubt on their original study. I first heard about this on [Overcoming Bias] where they talk about a 2006 study which showed "on difficult tasks, where there is a negative bias, the worst performers are the most accurate"

[Overcoming Bias]: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/11/all-are-unaware.html

[51Cards]

Wanted to do more than just up vote the above comment; Nirvana hit it on the head. The best I can do, as another 29 year developer here, is say "What he said". Take it to heart, then take it to heart again..

[hrabago]

> When I go back and look at code I did in the past, without having looked at it awhile, I see that it is really quite brilliant.

We have the opposite experience. Whenever I see code I wrote in a past life, I see ugly code. I certainly would have written it differently if my future self wrote it. I see it as a reflection of how much I've learned since writing that old code.

I tell a lot of people: Code I wrote yesterday is great; code I wrote a year ago sucks.

Unless, of course, I do as the OP does and look at other people's code. Then even the code I'm writing now would not be good enough.

[philjr]

There's another way to look at this as well.

Many great novelists and authors have mentioned "rewriting" when it comes to their novels and books. "True writing is rewriting", "books are not written, they're rewritten". My experience is that comes with code too.

You write the functionality to do what you want, and then you keep to keep re-writing it to make it beautiful/readable.

[mabid]

"and in the process of understanding their code you're going to see how their solution is more elegant than the naive solution you might have tried if you tried to write it just now."

That I think is a great insight for me. I have been experiencing this thing without knowing.. and the rest also gives me a lot of help... may be we always keep learning and this feeling is good to keep up