Pretty interesting read over at devthought. The four stages of programming competence attempts to classify the four levels of confidence a developer (programmer can achieve).

After reading it, I found Stage 3: Conscious Competence describes me to a “T”:

It’s been two years since Adrian picked up his first HTML book. It clearly has been a one-way ride, for all Adrian thinks about every day is how to improve at what he loves. A few months ago he picked up his first freelance jobs in a website, which he executes passionately despite how low the pay and how basic the task is, even to him.

Of one thing he’s convinced: the best way to learn is to persevere, try and fail, and try again. He always researches how to best execute a task, since it doesn’t come naturally to him. He has to try hard to produce secure code, so he audits it time after time. He fixes it time after time.

The other day he wrote 30 or 40 lines of code for a personal project of his. He can’t help but feel a little disappointed when, browsing the net a few days later, he sees an effortless and much more elegant execution in half as many lines. He wonders when he’ll be able to write solutions of that quality on his own, straightforwardly. However, after a bit of thought, he’s searching his files. He knows he has to rewrite that piece or he won’t sleep well that night. He won’t be copypasting it.

Adrian’s on his way to become an excellent professional, but he’s not giving himself titles, he can wait.

Adrian is consciously competent.