[originally published as part of my ODTUG Confessions of a Quick and Dirty Programmer column] Surely the best way to write a ton of quick and dirty code, and never, ever stop writing such code, is to be firmly convinced that you know all there is to know about something/anything, and stop learning from others. Consider me - and PL/SQL. There seems to be an impression among PL/SQL developers "out there" that I know everything there is to know about the PL/SQL language and (even more amazing) Oracle technology more generally. Ha, I say, ha! Certainly, I know more about this language than almost every other human being on the planet. Yet I am reminded, in just about every training and presentation I do, of how much I don't know and how much I can learn from others. For, when it comes to programming, the gap between "book knowledge" and "experience knowledge" is vast. It's one thing to know about syntax and features; it is quite another thin...
For the last twenty years, I have managed to transform an obsession with PL/SQL into a paying job. How cool is that?