@Anthony Ferrara "I think you miss a very key point, that sucking matters for shit when you're able to get stuff done with it." Well said and to be honest the only people who should give a shit are the people writing software, there is no perfect language that everyone loves and at the end of the day it's our customers and users that should be the focus. Programming language debates are about as relevant and useful as games console wars, use what you know and what you like, and deliver what the users want, because pretty much anything can be achieved in any language. I dislike PHP, but do I care? Does it affect me? No, not at all, and that's the way it should be IMO.

"How does one know if they've succeeded, without experiencing failure?"

I think maybe you are taking this a little personally, many, many people learn a small piece of other peoples trade. I fitted my own kitchen, does not make me a kitchen fitter. I fitted a new bathroom, did the plumbing and all, doesn't make me a plumber. I wired up my oven from the junction box, doesn't make me an electrician. I did all those things for 2 reasons, to save money and to achieve something, the other reason which I didn't find out until the end was to appreciate how hard those trades are, it's the same for programming. Everyone will give programming a go, they'll do their own website and maybe write a little desktop app, doesn't mean they will, or intend to, become full-time programmers, or certainly to enhance their existing careers. It's cool to code these days, just like it's cool for husbands to take on DIY :-)

The source may well be the most up to date and the 'truth', but it is by no means correct. Although not a big fan of documenting the obvious I think that specifications should be mandatory, this way you know what the expectations were of the application, and the source code can not, and should not be the definitive source of such information. However I do agree that, particularly when bug fixing, you should be drilling down straight into the source and not much else if you want a speedy resolution, and all developers should be capable of doing this. I think documentation pays off when you are providing reusable frameworks and other software, and even then it should be basic guidelines etc.

Victorvogelpoel, You've totally distracted me from this blog post now lol

Jeff, you have totally blown the programming world away with the Stack Q&A sites, I could not imagine life without it now, to achieve that in 4 years is simply incredible, some would say impossible. Yet having the realisation that your children need you now is all the more bigger achievement, it takes a bigger man to put their family first. I'm sure there is a life/work balance there for you somewhere, and I expect you will find it in time, but for now enjoy the most important years of your families lives, you can't get that time back, business will take care of itself, but family won't. As if your respect in the community wasn't already enough I think you just achieved god-like status amongst us all - well done and enjoy your life.

@Stacy Conaway lol that list had me in hysterics, did you just reel them off? Very funny :-)

Excellent article, and even with such a well thought out explanation it still only touches on around 10% of the emotions you go through with children. No-one ever feels ready for parenthood, but when it happens you realise that only practical preparation is key, and the emotional-side will take care of itself. Congratulations on the twins, we thought our second may have been twins due to the size of the bump :-)