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Ask HN: How do you know if you're any good?

2 points by markk ↗ HN
I started building a web app a few months ago with zero prior experience in software development. It started as weekend hobby, and now I'm trying to make it into a business. It works, and potential customers like it.

But, I have no reference point for what good code should look like, or how long it should take etc etc. My questions for the group:

In general, how do you know how good you are? Could you come up with say 10 questions that sort the wheat from the chaff? How long does it take to get 'good'? Do people think about it?

4 comments

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jacobbijani
Whenever I find an open source project thats written in a language I understand, I usually take awhile to explore the web code repository and see what kind of structure they have setup and how their code is interacting.

I don't know of any qualifiers that separate good from bad, but if you follow basic coding conventions and the thing works (and is secure) you are probably good enough. Either way, its a good way to learn.

amarcus
Does the code do what it's suppose to? Is it maintainable? Is it scalable?

If you answered Yes to all the above...then you are doing fine.

antiform
You know you're good when somebody who actually uses what you wrote tells you that they love what you've done. It could be somebody in your target audience, the person who takes over your project, or even yourself for a personal project, but for me, that's the moment when you've arrived.

You can obsess about development process all you want, have fun trying to push bits until they sweat, and create code that is like executable art, but I still believe that even computer programming is ultimately centered around people.

saurabh
You know you're good when you realize what you have built is crap and start improving it.