The quest

When I started learning how to write code, I always wondered why there are thousands of books on how to get started or being a master, but nothing in between. It's a bit like those two-step How to draw… jokes, which start with a circle and end with an entire hand in step two.

It seems that overcoming the intermediate state is some strange initiation ritual. It's the unwritten law of programming that every novice has to fight their own way through the toughest riddles without any help. To further punish the beginners, the road is plastered with trolls trying to tell them with every step they take that they are doing it wrong and to insist to switch to tabs, another programming language, framework or editor.

After more than ten years on this quest I'm going to reveal a deadly secret. There's no end, no inner circle to reach, no elite to be a part of.

Being able to become a master is an illusion. It's a trick to keep you going. The books on how to be a master are just snapshots of the authors' current positions on the same quest.

In fact those who really think they've reached the end are doomed to become trolls and hunt down novices until the end of days.