Hackers, architects, and superheroes: 3 ways to be an excellent programmer

the superhero stuff is fun. i have only been programming for ~3 years, though, so i'm probably closer to sidekick than superhero at this point.

architecture is fun too, but i don't do it as much as i probably ought to. and debugging is something i know i'll have to do, but try to avoid.

I think I am closest to the Hacker - I have embraced and used so many different technologies over the years that diving into new code isn't a great effort.

Also, I prefer to establish a beachhead of code and evolve it towards the finished product - that idea of debugging another product until I reach the final result sounds a lot like me.

However, I'd like to add that I feel humbled by many programmers I meet.

No, "mixed" is a cop-out (as well as violating the AD&D rules for multi-classed characters). You have to pick only one -- othewise we'd all end up saying "mixed", with some degree of bias.

Probably closest to Architect. It's a truism in programming lore that you look back on your old code and don't understand it (hence you should comment), or you smack yourself on the forehead / cringe in embarrassment at how dumb you were.

But I've never really had this experience, except for code I wrote a long time ago (15+ years) when I didn't know enough kinds of abstractions and how to judge their weights, and I was susceptible to over-engineering. When I come back now to code I wrote a 4 or 8 years ago, it seems written in a fairly obvious way, and it's easy to modify.

Hacker. I work on trading systems, it's a huge part of the job to find obscure and occasionally somewhat ridiculous bugs in other people's code under time pressure.

And, unrelated, but why are there pictures of sushi everywhere? It's very late, I'm very tired, and suddenly, I'm very hungry for what is not a standard late-night snack...

Definitely still too new to know. I'm no good at comprehending code, and some simple bugs can elude me for hours at a time.

My 'architecture' skills are not so great. My naming is inconsistent (something to work on), and I'm still not sure when to separate something out into an object or when to leave it in.

My plain ole' coding skills are skill developing as well. Whenever I pick up a new library, I spend hours poking through documentation and examples, and I usually end up doing things twice when I realize my first approach was totally wrong.

Someday, someday...

Architect I'd guess. I typically make frameworks that others build on top of. Nice when you return to it X years later and see what bits haven't changed (e.g. the bits you got right! :D)

I also really enjoy reading code (hacker) and occasionally go a bit superhero when time-frames are short and important work is due.

I'm generally a Hacker, but sometimes when the stars are right I have a spurt of Superheroics.