I guess it depends on how you quantify usefulness. There's less info, but I think I visualized the information that I do show much better than MacRumors.
For me, I think absolutely. Sometimes to the point where I don't consider myself a 'real' programmer and feel like a faker any time I'm talking with someone more skilled than myself. I've always been much better at just getting things done than learning an entire catalog. Maybe it's because I spend half my time in the design space, where I also have no training and also feel like a 'faker'.
I've looked in various apprenticeships like thoughtbot's and others, but at my age (30) I am not their usual target demo.
It's why I'm so grateful for hackernews. i learn a lot of great stuff here from the 'real' developers that I can then apply in my day-to-day.
I just have to say that this post spoke to me. I've found things on this forum that have helped me tremendously at work. I have a minor in CS and I now work as a developer. I have been able to perform well at work, but I still feel inadequate for the job. I know some of the other developers do things better than I do, and I struggle to see how "I" am a Hacker. I really deem that a term for the elite in our field, and I don't think I'm there.
But I'm learning and I love learning and that's what I think is really important as a programmer. Some of the things in this post I knew about others, I'm going to have to research but at least it's easy to find useful help nowadays. Thank you Hacker News.
I sometimes feel the exact same way. I graduated with CS degree but have never used any of that knowledge until I got my current contracting gig - almost 11 years later.
During the first 10 years of my career, I used a language where I didn't have to "worry" about all of the kind of things I have to concern myself with now (using Java/MyBatis/Oracle).
I've always wondered what it was like using a "real" programming language and now I know - it can be tough but it's not terribly difficult. I love using the tools I've been reading so much about on various blogs and whatnot.
>Sometimes to the point where I don't consider myself a 'real' programmer and feel like a faker any time I'm talking with someone more skilled than myself.
interesting! As one of the top performers in my major as a senior, I think I self-inflict this a little bit to keep myself sharp / hungry. Kids call me crazy and say I've had all kinds of success, but I don't compare myself to the apathy I see around me and putting a chip on my shoulder compared to 'elite' devs has worked for me.
Privately I think most people have this but don't want to admit it because they think someone would call them out on it. From what I see/experience it seems like the world mostly runs on people trying to impress other people because that's the only validation for our own skills we get.
