Tongue-in-cheek, but all too true. Sure, you can learn the syntax of a programming language in twenty-one days, but not how to write readable, maintainable code that isn’t riddled with bugs. That takes experience. It took me the better part of fifteen years to get to a decent level, and it was only in the last couple years (over twenty years after I started) that I reached the point that my code is “beautiful.”

I’m sure I could have cut that time greatly if I’d had a mentor for most of it, or even if I’d just followed the good advice I read in programming books. But I only had a mentor for a few months when I first started, and I’m too stubborn to follow advice without understanding the purpose behind it, so I had to learn everything the hard way. On the plus side, I think that has made me a much better developer.

Today’s developers can probably learn a lot faster, with the availability of the Internet and far more mature programming languages. But you still need experience to write good code.