The Master, The Expert, The Programmer

great article; the piece about the phase most developers go through where they like complexity for complexity's sake definitely resonated (or fancy algorithms, or design patterns, or whatever other programming-related book they just read.) if you've worked with developers like this (or gone through these phases ;)), you probably had flashbacks too -- wading through AbstractVisitorManagerDelegate classes, or half-baked home-grown heap allocators makes a little part of me die inside.

Wow. That's one of the best pieces of writing I've read. It paints wonderfully vivid pictures and tells succinct stories.

I went through a templating phase once. Everything I wrote in C++ had to be a template. Every policy decision needed to be made at compile-time, and a pointer was never used in favor of a smart container. I finally realized the simple truth that you don't need to include a header file to use a float pointer.

Zed Shaw must be the coolest programmer in the universe

When I started programming I would go with the simplest solution I could because I was ignorant of any other way . Now I go with the simplest solution I can because I know the other ways

If I hadn't gone the other ways I would never have learnt to appreciate the simple solutions. I just wish it was a faster proces ;-)