[hurril]

I can definitely say that I am a mapper and not a packer. But I can also say that I am pretty much _all_ mapper and no packer. This means that it takes me forever to understand a lot of things that presumed packers (or more balanced individuals) would get in a jiffy. This is not intended as a humble brag! For the longest time on some projects I just don't f**ing get it, I start to feel dumb and in way: out of place. The imposter syndrome makes itself heard. It's genuinely uncomfortable.

But then I start to get it and finally do get it. The packers are now "experts" at their acquired knowledge and seem to have a hard time changing opinion where they should.

Back in school I had real problems getting good enough in subjects that required learning pieces of fact that don't quite go together or display some inherent system. My friends didn't. Things that have a system or are "logical" in the wider sense, easy peasy.

EDIT: I would call myself a decently accomplished programmer and engineer at this point after 25 years or so working with it.

[jnovek]

This is me as well. I’m not very good at memorizing things so I have to build a mental model of a system that I’m working in and extrapolate.

It gives me a lot of anxiety to be in that trough before it clicks.

[hurril]

Very much so. I've gotten better at simply dealing with the fact that I don't undertand wtf I'm doing, and to just accept that at the outset. Now, this is in no way unique and I'm no snowflake. But there's a definite cost.

[MattPalmer1086]

I'm similar. It takes me longer to get comfortable than others because it has to join up for me. It has been observed by many that I seem slow to get started on things.

Others seem to be happy taking snippets of stuff and just applying them straight away. But equally, they have not developed a deeper understanding and they will struggle when faced with edge cases. Pros and cons I guess.

[drewcoo]

For me, it's very much about finding the right level of abstraction. And sometimes things take a lot longer to understand because pieces of the code focus on the wrong abstractions to see how it all fits together. You see that a lot in large orgs with teams with their own coding styles/conventions, focused on their own assigned goals.