> I learned by copy and pasting novels of code, and did not read a single book, or take a single class<p>This is the problem. His story sounds familiar to mine at first, but a generation apart. I was taught to self-learn, read books, and first figure out the right question to ask. Then, and only then, ask the questions. Copy and pasting doesn't have to be terrible. Copy, paste, and then figure out what the heck it's doing, and then modify it to your own purposes. Iterate. Read books. Google stuff. I only mention the generational thing because the lack of opening a book seems to be just that. My generation did that, his does not. I can easily see how he probably gets shut down a lot without understanding why.<p>So, advice from someone who started by copying and pasting... Read the book. RTFM. Use google, and only ask questions when you're confident what the question is. If someone makes fun of your classes, don't whine, just go read about OO design and patterns and make them better. Above all, this is not acceptable:<p>> which has the code almost unchanged since then at gamebrave.com<p>You should always be improving. This is the statement that clued me in to wannabe syndrome. It's ok to want to be something. It's not ok to expect that something to get handed to you. Read the books, take the classes (these days with MOOCs there is no excuse). Put in the work, and soon you'll be the one ignoring the noobs.