Nice article...

Today, I was really happy to come across this essay "Teach yourself programming in ten years" by Peter Norvig. He makes very good points, the gist being it takes atleast 10 years and not X days to become an expert in programming in a language - Expert meaning not just understanding how to program but understanding the design aspects and the consequences of writing programs in different ways. I, myself, have been programming in an OO environment for a long time and am still learning.

I have to admit that I have browsed books like "Teach yourself X in Y days" but it is not with the intent of becoming an expert in X. Sometimes one needs to interface with languages and tools in which one lack's expertise especially when one has to customize some small piece of the one's product with customer's code. In such cases, such books help provide relief as they provide just the essentials. With deadlines looming and customers waiting, there is sometimes a rush! But even in the rush, if one has been programming for sometime, hopefully depending on the environment, one is able to make wise choices wrt design and performance.

Anyways the fact remains that, to become an expert in a programming language one has to have the passion, work hard and ofcourse, enjoy. Take it easy!