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I had a similar experience recently. I read a lot of HN and other programming tech sites. It's easy to think you know a lot. I sat down for an informal interview with a founder, much older me and much more experienced than me and we bounced ideas back and forth. I got torn a new one. Destroyed my ideas and really offered a new outlook on things. That's the moment I knew I didn't know shit.

I am a Junior Developer.

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Come to think about this, I have had to deal with that almost every week with our V.P. of Engineering for the past couple of months. It has been really interesting for me to see how little I know versus how much the little arrogant guy inside of me tries to make me think I know. In my opinion, it can be tough at first learning to deal with and learn from the experienced folks, and if you let the ego get the most of you, you may end up a quitter. However, if you just stick to it, understand your capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and make it all a learning experience, you will later find yourself in a better shape than before. I find the number one problem to be the part about understand your weaknesses. I have had to deal with that myself. Honestly, until someone more experienced than me, unintentionally, got me to realize this, I thought that I was good at everything. This is also why I recommend young folks who are freelancers to attempt at getting a job where they can work in a team with smarter folks than themselves. That experience in itself is just a life changer. Freelancing will always be there, but working in a team of software developers building an actual product from start to finish is quite rewarding.

Thanks for sharing this. [:)].

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