| Sounds like you're dealing with a case of impostor syndrome. My advice is just write more code until you make enough mistakes that have consequences that make you understand why it's better to "write less code". If you consider how people get better at other skills, let's say 3d printing or carpentry; they make a ton of useless stuff for reasons that might only make sense to them - they 3d print figurines of stuff from games or movies they like, they craft things just to test out a new machine or to give them a reason to buy some gear. Maybe don't look at your self as a "programmer", look at yourself as a "person who knows programming".
If you like video games you might develop a tool that helps you generate strategies for that game or if it's an online game you can make a tool that queries some of the APIs of the game so you can run analysis or alerts on what happens in the game. All in all we are people who write code that serves other people in the end, so being "good enough" is just about finding people that need the level of code you are able to write. I think 6 months of experience is a very short time to reach conclusions about what does or doesn't work for you, maybe 6 years might be enough. Try not to develop an emotional attachment to your job, you will end up earning more and learning more if you switch companies every 1-2 years and that's hard if you let your current position define who you are. Also check out this list[0] and read about some of the biases if you're not aware of them, it helped me to deal with the way I feel about myself and others. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases PS: also when dealing with online learning content try to consciously consider if it actually teaches you something or just makes you feel like you're learning something. The latter is a waste of time in my honest opinion. |
It seems like the best way to keep improving is to keep busy. Make things just to make them. Keep trying new things and finding new ways to challenge yourself.
Honestly, this is good advice. While writing this post, I believed that reading textbooks was the most important thing for me to do. I'm glad this isn't necessarily true!