When did you become an expert in your field ?  When did I become an expert in my field ?

I have been a coder since the very late nineteen nineties.  I consider myself an export at coding now, but, I have to be honest, I am never sure at what point I became an ‘export’ coder.

There was a time, I guess, when I would have to spend hours (or even days) researching the best code to do a particular job.  Those days have long gone.  The challenge of researching good code and the thrill of it actually working, for me at least, are now replaced by the ability to look at a task and just know what to type and how to code the project up.  I guess that makes me an expert in my field and while this is probably good for business, it takes away that desire to learn and improve.  To strive to know how to do a job better.  It takes the challenge out of the job.

So what next ?  Well, that’s easy and it’s not all downhill from here…  develop new, bigger, better, more complex apps.  Implement the coding skills to make life easier for users by getting the code to do the day to day boring chores – automate – and I see the new challenges and excitement returning.