Always Learning...

WHAT WERE THE TRAITS OF THE WEAK PROGRAMMERS YOU’VE SEEN OVER YOUR CAREER?
That’s an easy one—lack of curiosity. They were so satisfied with the work that they were doing was good enough (without an understanding of what ‘good’ was) that they didn’t push themselves.
I’m much more impressed with people that are always learning. The brilliant programmers I’ve been around are always learning.
You see so many people get into one language and spend their entire career in that language, and as a result aren’t that great as programmers.

DO YOU FEEL THAT THE PAIN A PROGRAMMER GOES THROUGH IN LEARNING A LANGUAGE CONTRIBUTES TO THIS UNHEALTHY ATTACHMENT TO USING ONLY ONE LANGUAGE?
My advice to programmers to avoid this trap is to learn lots of different languages. We’re in sort of a language renaissance right now and there are a ton of brilliant languages to learn from.
To learn new languages takes nights and weekends outside of work, and that’s a commitment. The great programmers are the people that are constantly picking a project and diving into it, learning a language that way.

From Jacob Cook's interview with Doug Crockford.
Source: Smashing Magazine

You gotta know what that feels like in your stomach...

"You gotta know what it feels like to be up at night, worried about a problem. You gotta know what that feels like in your stomach," Carter says. "Getting terrible sound at clubs, playing to audiences that heckle, to venues that are half empty, so you know how to adjust to it. "Resilience, he says, isn't something he can teach them. Everyone has to experience their own Eve, their own Gaga. Only then you do know how to get back up.

By Danielle Sack, from interview with Troy Carter.
Fast Company, February 2014