The exact decision I made last year. Still finding it hard to develop a habit to not suppress myself.

@Christopher

A CS degree is nothing and this, in fact, is proved by Ayende.

Since the beginning, I always valued "fail fast" approach. I started blog even if I have nothing something new (look at my blog, I talk about events which everybody knows). I represent my idea in the blog and some of them turn out to be wrong. This is the purpose of making mistakes. Mistakes are here to correct!

More often than not, I say something stupid, sometimes people correct me, and sometimes I am quick able to fix myself, and the feedback further improves the correct one.

This is important, and this is my main motivation in things I do.

To most people, saying "I was wrong" is the hardest thing.

Oddly, once you get used to it, it can actually be very refreshing to put your hand up when you screwed up, consider it a bit like a Catholic confessional.

Then when that weight has lifted from your shoulders, it's much easier to find a solution to the problem.

For OSS there is even something else to add:

I prefer to try something good and fail, than to try something wrong and achieve it.

The easy way to not fail is don't do nothing.

Hi,

I know what you feel like. I think many developers do but being the least good amongst developers earns you the right to make mistakes.

I am even going to start contributing on some OSS projects even though I know better programmers will look at my code and laugh.

You know the best thing about having you as a friend Christopher? You expose things about yourself that happen to be things I dislike about myself.

More than a few times you have made me realize I'm not as much of a freak as I think I am. Or maybe we both are a couple of wackos?

Regardless, it's good to know I'm not alone!

Some of the better developers I know don't have IT related degrees. Heck I consider my own Computer Science degree as just a piece of paper that allowed me to not be weeded out as easily. Now it is purely on me to keep improving.

With that said, I also feel this way. It gets rough to commit code. I mean what if my boss sees it or even worse a potential employer! :) I still have not overcome this problem but I admit I have it.

Thanks for putting this out there. I know many developers feel this way. I think we need a support group or something.  

Don't mean to double post but I saw this go by on my google home page and thought it was fitting.

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

 - Jack London

Thanx for being so open and honest! It's one of the best characteristics a person can have. There's more in life than an IT degree.

Well said - related to this is a quote that just appeared today by Jeff Atwood's site @ CodingHorror.com "As a software developer, you are your own worst enemy. The sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be. In fact, that's the tipping point between amateurs and professionals in our industry: the professionals realize everything they write sucks. "

I like that

I can really relate to your comments about lacking confidence. This is only the second time I've ever commented on a blog because so often I read through the comments and they seem to get personal and unpleasant rather than just discussing the issue.

We're all at different stages and it's OK to make  a mistake - it's often the best way to learn.

Great post! Thanks. A lot of us have the same problem. But one of the best things that can happen is recognize our own ignorance. That will push us to learn more and improve. Being wrong is part of the learning process.

I enjoyed this post too 'cause I can relate.  Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with the software industry because there's always something to learn.

Well, that's really the greatest thing about being a programmer IMO.  It's such a fluid technology that combines science and art.  Neither of those have right answers.  Science can only fail to reject the null hypothesis and art is interpretive anyhow.

I do blog a lot when time permits, but I never really can tell if its something new or helpful to my peers (unless I see trends in google analytics like people searching for hex to dec conversions for t-sql or sorting by multiple iComparers or what-have-you).  Most of the time I blog, I just do it 'cause I don't want to forget something I just learned.

In any event, thanks for the post.  I have a particularly relevant quote by Thomas Watson:

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.

Sincerely,

D. Patrick Caldwell

Very refreshing post! Much appreciated and much true! I am the same. Pride pride. Doesn't get you anywhere good. I also have no degree or official training. Been coding for 11 years now. Mostly when I look at code I wrote more than 6 months ago, I think it completely sux! But I figure that's a good thing rather than a bad one. It means I have learnt something since then. :)

Of the very few things I regret in my career, they are all because of hesitation to act. It's a sad reality. Hopefully we can all get over this ego mess.