How would you define talent?

[mgyth]

How would you define talent?
How would you define not having any talent at all?
What makes a talented php programmer for instance?

I'm asking this, not because I think I'm very talented, I know I'm not a rocket scientist. But I'm trying to learn php and find it very hard to measure my progress, since I have nobody to compare myself with.

How long did it take you to learn php?
In my case i haven't programmed anything before, and have to learn everything from scratch.
If anyone of you have been in my situation, how long time did it take you to 'learn' php.

Also when writing this i realized another question, when have you learned php? Is it enough to have a basic knowledge and a general understanding, so you can just look it up if there is anythig you are unsure of?
Or do you have to know it all by hart?

Anyways, alot of abstract questions here. Appreciate you thoughts

[lilleman]

Hi,

In my case i haven't programmed anything before, and have to learn everything from scratch.
If anyone of you have been in my situation, how long time did it take you to 'learn' php.

I started out to learn PHP in october 2002, and had never worked with any dynamic scripting language before. I would say that it took me about six months before I felt that I really knew what I was doing, and that I could write scripts without any help at all.

Yours, Erik.

[Japan]

I would define talent exactly as in the dictionary. To me a talented person is someone who can create stunning accomplishments independently (without the help of others).

When I started with computers I managed to learn C++, so originally I'm coming from that branch. When I discovered PHP (1999?) it might have just been an add-on. I understood everything at once because of the background knowledge I had. Sometimes, however, it was tricky in combination with HTML or databases. Like lilleman, it was about the same time frame that took me to feel comfortable enough.

I still look things up when I don't remember them, and I'm very curious about developments and new releases of PHP. In fact, it's generally a good habit to keep yourself posted in any field you are interested in. Otherwise the talent will vanish slowly

Japan

[mgyth]

Nice to get some replys. I been trying to learn PHP for a couple of months, and i still feel a bit unsecure, theres so many ways and methods to do the same thing. I guess your good when you know what method to use for the different tasks.

[lilleman]

Hi,

Yes, there are many ways to accomplish the same task. However, when you get more secure, you find new (and better) ways to perform specific tasks. For example, take a look at the snippet below:

function is_one($foo)
{
  if( $foo == 1 )
  {
    return true;
  }
  else
  {
    return false;
  }
} 

That is how I would have done it a couple of months ago, before I came to think of this method:

function is_one($foo)
{
  return ( $foo == 1 );
} 

There are more things that I am doing different now, this is just one of them.

Yours, Erik.