Indie game developer Erik Rydeman has identified a list of typical stages of programmer development.
Copy-pastor/completely green newbie: Trying to put together code examples he found online. Has the vaguest idea of what and how it works.
Independent Newbie: Seeing the Matrix! In fact, he saw it out of the corner of one eye, but is not yet aware of it and is in sincere delusion, thinking that he has learned the power and now it’s a small matter (hehe). Can write simple and intricate code without looking at examples. He is very happy when the results of his work work exactly as expected.
Taking a closer look at design patterns. He has already mastered the syntax of his first language, and is now looking at best practices. He begins to study design patterns, and the omnipotence that descended on him at the previous stage dissolves like autumn fog. Before us again is a hopelessly green and eternally doubting newcomer...
Design pattern enthusiast. His consciousness lives with the idea of the “ideal code”. An enthusiast tries to structure his own code so that it is close to an unattainable ideal and fits into existing patterns as much as possible. Now it’s much more pleasant to work with the code he wrote.
Architectural Overfanatic: It happens to everyone. But some programmers delve into best practices so zealously that they are ready to defend them with a zeal that even experienced religious fanatics would envy. And, like the latter, they do not calm down until everyone around them accepts their point of view or leaves their field of vision. Sometimes at this stage productivity decreases, and all because wrong decisions are made (too much trust in theory, not confirmed by practice).
Experienced architect. The accumulated experience is beginning to bear fruit. The “architect” knows instinctively what is really happening and what to do about it all. At this stage, the programmer begins to move away from strict dogmas, and his main phrase becomes “it depends” (“anything can happen”). Difficult decisions are no longer his fetish.
Ascetic minimalist. Question: What is the best way to structure code? The ascetic's answer: the simplest of all possible. Now he is interested in theoretical engineering developments much less than practical results, and finding a solution that turns out to be good, and doing it on the first try, is quite possible: the experience of an ascetic helps.
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