Better do something small that nobody will notice than to actually try something big that might fail. Long live the mediocrity!
At first, this thread is obviously about learning things. That doesn't require people to get noticed of your stuff, I think. Also I don't know what this has to do with mediocrity. A completed full game is of much more value than a failed attempt. Why? Because you gain experience in more fields than just programming, like project planning, release cycles, patches, community interaction etc.
The problem with failing in programming is that you mostly stop working on something if you get frustrated because you (again) recognize that you can't do it due to lack of knowledge and/or experience. So you often never get to a completed product, which means you miss a lot of important stuff.
Also doing small things doesn't mean you will never fail. Indeed you will fail so many times, but just in small areas, instead of throwing away a 5-10K+ lines codebase, withering in the darkest areas of your HDD.
This is the worst approach to do something new, and even worse than worst (yeah, whatever ) for learning anything.
So you argue if someone wants to learn digital electronics, he should build a x86-compatible computer at day 1, instead of learning your stuff in small experiments? In my opinion doing big projects without the proper knowledge is a waste of time and may also lead to completely leaving the area of interest, which is a sad thing.
You can't make any progress if all you ever do is stay on the same level and do the same stuff over and over again, that others have done before you.
May I remind you of my own text:
and the will to do something bigger
Of course you don't stay on the same level. When you've completed some small games, you use the experience and knowledge to continue on bigger things, and all the puzzle pieces will greatly fit together.
The bigger your steps are, the more you will learn. All you need to do is _stick_ to it and accept that failure is a crucial part of learning.
Personally I think that way is difficult and dangerous. Most people need the feeling of success to continue on something. But if you're a beginner and start with an MMORPG without proper knowledge in several areas, you will fail a lot of times. You'll probably need 10 or more iterations until your code is sane, maintainable, flexible and whatnot.
Do you really think that people who experience so many negative things will still be happy when they think of programming, knowing that they have to re-implement all their stuff again?
I think I just raged a little inside. No offense though, it's just - like everything else - a mere opinion based on personal experience.
It's okay, as long as you don't start insulting I'm perfectly fine with every type of discussion, if it's rude or not. Just be prepared that I can get rude, too. ;-)
