[1986] Interview with Bill Gates(programmersatwork.wordpress.com) |
[1986] Interview with Bill Gates(programmersatwork.wordpress.com) |
"INTERVIEWER: Does accumulating experience through the years necessarily make programming easier? GATES: No. I think after the first three or four years, it’s pretty cast in concrete whether you’re a good programmer or not. ... There’s no one at Microsoft who was just kind of mediocre for a couple of years, and then just out of the blue started optimizing everything in sight. I can talk to somebody about a program that he’s written and know right away whether he’s really a good programmer. If he’s really good, he’ll have everything at the tip of his tongue. ... To this day, I can go to the blackboard and write out huge slabs of source code from the Microsoft BASIC that I wrote ten years ago."
Think he still holds this sentiment today about what makes a good programmer?