That was tested tonight as I ran the first rendezvous for The Coding Project, an initiative I originally got fired up about and created in a weekend after thinking about ways to give back and share what I've been blessed with as a professional software engineer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a halfway decent programmer and a pretty good developer/engineer. My skills lie in data-driven applications and big-picture thinking. But when I compare myself against an expert in gaming or JavaScript frameworks, I might as well be a Hello World expert. I admit, there's a lot that I don't know.
But what I do know is that one person being better than you does not nullify what you bring to the table. And that's not just about programming and impostor syndrome.
So, I think I'll continue the initiative. But readjust it a lot. I think I bit off more than I could chew, and I need to start smaller. No need to scale globally when it's just a few dudes in your living room, right? And maybe I need to honestly reevaluate what it's all about, anyway.
Anyone can teach themselves to code from StackOverflow or Google searches. But maybe what I can offer is teaching them how to get from the beginning to the finished product, and in the way it's done in the industry, so that even the more experienced programmers can benefit. I'd take a class like that if I were just starting out again.
