http://programmingzen.com/2010/07/04/the-pursuit-of-excellence-in-programming/#comment-10571
Antonio Cangiano
Excellence is only achieved through a combination of talent and effort.
Working with books alone is not enough though. Programming requires writing and reading programs every day for years. That’s why I have a rule: I refuse to go to sleep if I haven’t read and written some code on a given day (this doesn’t include the code I write for work, of course). So far, this rule has had a positive impact on my ability to code.