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How proficient do you rate yourself in your most coded language? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/programming

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Hi,

My question certainly stems from the imposter syndrome that I am living right now for no good reason, but when looking to resolve some issues for embedded C problems, I come across a lot of post from people that have a deep understanding of the language and how a mcu works at machine code level.

When I read these posts, I do understand what the author is saying, but it really makes me feel like I should know more about what's happening under the hood.

So my question is this : how do you rate yourself in your most used language? Do you understand the subtilities and the nuance of your language?

I know this doesn't necessarily makes me a bad firmware dev, but damn does it makes me feel like it when I read these posts.

I get that this is a subjective question without any good responses, but I'd be interested in hearing about different experiences in the hope of reducing my imposter syndrome.

Thanks

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Knowing the footguns in your language is always useful. The more you know, the less you’ll shoot your foot.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I think that one of my issue is that I'd like to be more knowledgeable to the smaller bits and bytes of C, but I don't have the time at work to go deeper and I don't have any free time because I have young kids.

[–] arendjr 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don’t know about your workplace, but if at all possible I would try to find time between tasks to spend on learning. If your company doesn’t have a policy where it is clear that employees have the freedom to learn during company time, try to underestimate your own velocity even more and use the time it leaves for learning.

About 10 years ago I worked for a company where I was performing quite well. Since that meant I finished my tasks early, I could have taken on even more tasks. But I didn’t really tell our scrum master when I finished early. Instead I spent the time learning, and also refactoring code to help me become more productive. This added up, and my efficiency only increased more, until at some point I only needed one or two days to complete a week’s sprint. I didn’t waste my time, but I used it to pick up more architectural stuff on the side, while always learning on the job.

I’ll admit that when I started this route, I already had a bunch of experience under my belt, and this may not be feasible if you have managers breathing down your neck all the time. But the point is, if you play it smart you can use company time to improve yourself and they may even appreciate you for it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I work in a startup, so I'd say that almost every day, I learn something new. So I don't really need to look in-between tasks because a lot of tasks bring new challenges.

When I worked in corpos, my job was restricted to the same tasks and specific knowledge. Now it's the opposite where I need to learn what I need to create a feature or fix an issue.

I guess that lately, a lot of new things have popped up and I need to absorb a lot of information to implement the features I need. And that is probably what is triggering the imposter syndrome.

Thanks for the insight, it is appreciated.

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