10 years of software development

June 2020 marks my 10-year anniversary of becoming a software developer. When I first started out I just turned 18 years old, and yet somehow thought I knew everything better than everybody else. Of course this wasn't true, quite the opposite in fact.

Fast forward 10 years, and I have learned quite a bit. I have learned new tools, gained new skills, learned how to sit properly behind a desk, the list goes on. But as I have gained more knowledge and experience, for some reason I have also become increasingly more critical of myself.

Take for example Inko. Developing a programming language is hard work, and requires a certain amount of knowledge. While I don't consider myself an expert by any means, what I have achieved with Inko thus far shows I have a certain amount of knowledge and experience. And yet with every step I question myself. "Why would anybody use this?", "This isn't fast enough", "That other language does it much better", "You are unlikely to succeed", the list of questions and comments in my head goes on. Worse, the more progress I make, the more critical I seem to become.

I don't know how to solve this, nor do I have any good advice for others dealing with the same problem. All I can say is this: know that you are not alone. In fact, it's probably safe to assume everybody you know suffers from the same problem to a certain degree.

Maybe in another 10 years I'll have a solution. Or perhaps by then I have learned to just live with it.