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What a stick in the mud. As I get older I find that I really love this stuff: the useful abstractions, abstract concepts, hard computer science, cutting-edge math, and philosophy behind it all. It's just really enjoyable to learn and explore. It is the part that keeps me coming back after the workday drains me with the CRUD requirements and tedious bug fixes. And this guy wants to take that part away?

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When evaluating your coworker's abilities, do you judge their ability to perform CRUD and tedious bug fixes or their knowledge of abstract concepts, hard computer science, and cutting-edge math?

What makes you think they are necessarily so different? I'm not a programmer, but in architectural and landscape design and installation there are lots of broad, sweeping design principles and lots of tedious little detail work, and I have observed that the same people tend to do well at both. The important factors are self-discipline and enthusiasm. The enthusiasm to get you started and the self-discipline to help keep you going between bouts of enthusiasm - both to study the general principles (harder in design than in computers from what I have seen - they are not as well codified as algorithms and data structures are) and to keep working away at the tedious little (but so necessary) details.

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