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Comment on Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in the lumbering industryparent

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I have to agree with Hexstream here (2 downvotes really?). A pithy overgeneralized saying proves nothing. Nearly every occupation benefits from a worker who can learn fast: lawyer, doctor, architect, CEO, salesmen, stock trader etc...

This is not specific to programmers and it is imaginable that a slow learning programmer with domain specific knowledge has value.

The most important aspects of a great programmer are:

  The ability to learn what users need. 
  The ability to learn how a how a system works. 
  The ability to learn the cause of a bug.  
  The ability to learn from mistakes.
  And the ability to solve complex problems.
Domain specific knowledge has some limited value but flexibility of thinking is far more important.
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