I’ve been studying c++ in UE4 for over a year now as I make move from blueprints so I can compliment both.
I find myself reusing code I’ve learned in tutorials and dissecting it to make it work for me. I feel though I should be able to sit down and write the code out without needing to go back and look at old projects etc.
Am I over thinking this? I understand what the code does when I place it in but I feel I shouldn’t be “copying, pasting and changing”
Should I not consider myself compitent enough until I can sit and type it out without checking old projects etc
Thanks for any help with this. If I don’t respond for a few hours it’s because it’s 2am here and I’m writing this as I log out after doing the above!
Programming is hard and takes a long time to learn, especially something like C++ combined with Unreal’s extra stuff. You have to do it a lot before you start doing things without thinking about it and even then you’ll still be looking things up all the time when it comes to more niche tasks that you don’t do all the time.
Even starting with an easier language like C#.NET, it took me years to get really comfortable with it. I’d say the main thing is not to expect to ever know everything off by heart. You just want to be able to look something up and understand it and implement it relatively easily reading the documentation or seeing examples etc. I’ve made a living off software development for several years and I still have to google things all the time. There’s plenty of memes about how much professional developers use google and stackoverflow etc.
Having said that, some things that helped me learn:
Make it a habit to type things out yourself instead of just copying and pasting from tutorials etc. Even if you think you’re reading through it and understanding it, its surprising how little you take in when you just copy/paste. Then when you hit a problem and google it, make sure you’re understanding WHY the solution works and yours didn’t. That will require more googling and maybe even asking on here, but its much better than just copying/pasting and not really learning anything.
The best quote regarding programming I’ve heard with a bit of wisdom in it that’s actually directly applicable without learning too much about the nuances behind it has been:
“Bad programmers worry about code, good programmers worry about data structures”.
If your “bad, haphazard and embarassing pile of junk that somehow works” is an isolated piece of code that doesn’t propagate its functionality into other classes in an uncontrollable way, you should be golden, since you can clean it up later with hopefully minimal cascading side-effects. And chances are, if you are thinking about data and encapsulation, your code will be better off too even if it is not your focus.
If you know your OOP, vector math, pointers and references, how casting affects memory, how interfaces work etc. you should be golden.
Should I not consider myself compitent enough until I can sit and type it out without checking old projects etc
I definitely do check the syntax from some other project from time to time when it comes down to functionality I don’t use often.
Funny thing - I am now 30 years old, and I never knew what the imposter syndrome is. I mean I have heard the term many times in my life, but never actually looked up what it means, because I never heard it in a context that was important enough for me to look it up.
When I read the post here, it was finally the time to do that chore of a google search to learn the new term. I usually want a TL;DR version of what I am searching for, so I always click on image search instead, because the “one picture worth a thousand words” stereotype is generally true.
Sure enough, the very second picture I found did a good job explaining it:
So now, from the perspective of someone not knowing what the imposter syndrome is for the first 30 years of their life, and therefore not pathologizing it, despite matching most of its criteria, I can tell you, that to me, it doesn’t look any kind of “syndrome”. To me, it looks like a typical set of good traits predicting success.
Descriptions of the traits shown on the picture just bend them to sound negative, but just translating them into something with less negative connotation exposes the traits for what they really are.
Afraid of being outed as a fraud → Afraid of your skills not being as good as others perceive them
Feeling unworthy of success → Striving to do the highest quality work to actually deserve the success
Dismissing positive feedback → Not dwelling/getting drunk on the praise, and instead focusing on what can be improved
Distrusting of others → Relying on your own competence to get things done
Blaming accomplishments on luck → Same as #2 - It just feels odd to get your ego massaged when you know how much to learn and to do is in front of you.
Overpreparing → Wanting to be as prepared as possible when you are going to take a risk, big decision or do something important.
Once translated, not a single one of these traits is bad. In fact, this is really a set of traits that predict highly successful people.
The only reason traits such as these are viewed negative and pathologized as some sort of “syndrome” is the twisted modern society which celebrates and encourages mediocrity.
