Learning Programming in Ten Years

Today I read an essay in which the author harshly criticised the trend of learning programming in a few hours or a few days. The author provided adequate evidence to challenge the view and concluded that it at least takes ten years or 10,000 hours to learn programming. As a matter of fact, a person who learns programming in a few days can only learn the basic syntax of a programming language and eventually write code which is full of bugs.

Why are so many people in such a rush? Even the talented musicians, writers and architects have to take ten years to do a good job, not to mention ordinary people. True expertise may take a lifetime. “Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labour of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price”, said Samuel Johnson.

Whereas, doing a particular job for ten years doesn’t mean you can be an expert naturally. The key is deliberate practice, which means you should challenge yourself with tasks that are beyond your current ability, trying it and analysing it, correcting any mistakes you make. Then repeat and repeat.