When I look at code I wrote in the past I frequently think "what utter horse shit." I'm a better coder than I was 4 years a go and I will be a better coder in 4 years time. The extension of that means that, yes, the code I write today will be terrible by the standards of my future self. So yes, I am right now writing terrible code and it's fine. If someone takes the time to critique my code maybe it will be less terrible and in 4 years time I will be proud of it.
This doesn't mean you can't take pride in what you do.
> I think its safe to assume that they're not doing it out of the kindness of their heart.
Valuable criticism is not determined if it was done by the kindness of someone's heart. Your most valuable critique can often come from your worst enemy. You might have to read between the lines/vitriol but there is gold in there somewhere.
When I look at code I wrote in the past I frequently think "what utter horse shit." I'm a better coder than I was 4 years a go and I will be a better coder in 4 years time. The extension of that means that, yes, the code I write today will be terrible by the standards of my future self. So yes, I am right now writing terrible code and it's fine. If someone takes the time to critique my code maybe it will be less terrible and in 4 years time I will be proud of it.
This doesn't mean you can't take pride in what you do.
> I think its safe to assume that they're not doing it out of the kindness of their heart.
Valuable criticism is not determined if it was done by the kindness of someone's heart. Your most valuable critique can often come from your worst enemy. You might have to read between the lines/vitriol but there is gold in there somewhere.
[1]: http://sstephenson.us/posts/you-are-not-your-code - http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YouAreNotYourCode.aspx - http://blog.codinghorror.com/egoless-programming-you-are-not...