This article about being able to be graduated by university applies to developers, too: begin by substituting "your first few projects" for "high school" and "the development community at large" for "college".

You may think you are smart because you got high grades in high school, but the reality is that you’re not really as smart as you think you are; you just went to a high school where everyone was stupid so you just seem smart in comparison.

Compared to the much smarter students who normally attend our college, you’re going to find yourself at the bottom of the class. While the smarter students find passing their classes to be relatively easy, and even fun, that’s not going to be the case for you. For you, college will be hard work, difficult and unpleasant, if you want to graduate.

You have the ability to graduate if you put in the effort, and take advantage of the extra tutoring services we have available for you, but college will not be a fun experience for you. I still recommend that you attend our college, but if you think that you’re not willing to work very hard, to study while the smarter kids are having fun at beer parties, then you would be better off not attending our college.

via Who gets to graduate? | Lion of the Blogosphere.

(Title quote from Moses Ngone.)

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