In my years of experience as a lead programmer and a teacher of programming, I’ve learned that when a programmer is really struggling—when his or her productivity has really sunk to the bottom, and days go by without much getting done—dread is usually involved. That programmer is stuck. And when a programmer gets stuck frequently, or stays stuck for long, unemployment can’t be far behind.
Jeff in his latest blog post talks about greatest enemy of a programmer. Also, excellent advice for programmers on self-assessment.