Full time? The amount of hours? I've been writing code for almost 10 years now, but I don't code full time. It also depends what your definition of 'proficient' is. I can build anything I can think of, but compared to most professional programmers here I feel like I barely scratched the surface of software development.<p>In his book 'Outliers' Malcolm Gladwell states that it takes roughly 10,000 hours to get really good at anything. Be it programming, playing the piano or speaking Chinese, it doesn't matter.<p>For web development, you can learn enough to build a simple yet decent app/website in a matter of weeks. To get proficient, it takes a lot more.<p>For me, it seems that the more I learn about programming, the more I realize what I don't yet know. Which is a valuable lesson in itself, I guess.
7 years. Grade 12, 4 yrs university and a couple of years as a working programmer. In that 3rd year I was promoted to lead programmer, we introduced an new computer system with a new language and started going after bigger customers. Something like that would have been stressful just a year earlier but I was on a roll, having mastered the art. P.S. If you try to do this with only one programming language, you will fail.
You can learn to make a "Hello World" program in almost any language within hours, but it will probably take a few months before you can write something useful without any outside help.<p>I started with C# and it took me about 5 months to feel like I could do anything worth while. I've picked up JavaScript and Python since. For me, working 40 - 50 hours per week on the language I was learning, it took about 2 years to feel like I could make something someone else would use.<p>My learning has slowed with time, as I imagine there's less to learn, but I never feel perfect. I hope I never do, because learning to program has been incredibly rewarding and fun. Once I get tired of a language or my learning slows too much, I find another to play with.
Proficient vs. perfect? One summer. Then another one to round it all out. Which sucked, because I spent the next few years having the life beaten out of me by others that were jealous or thought what I did was impossible. The backward point of view of most people and their attitude of negativity and jealousy toward anyone that's good at what they do is maddening. I'm sick of being around idiots.<p>Now, it's likely I'm behind and forgetting. Any potential, or world-changing talent is now wasted away and I'm closer to being decidedly average. I can't believe it.<p>Whatever.